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Encouraging Success: Integrating Order Fulfilment with Ecommerce

10 Jan, 2024 9 minutes min read

In the ever-changing world of online shopping, eCommerce businesses often struggle to keep u...

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In the ever-changing world of online shopping, eCommerce businesses often struggle to keep up with the high demand for their products on multiple platforms. Selling out quickly and unexpectedly is common, and managing this demand becomes a real challenge due to logistic errors in inventory and shipping. Dealing with this requires various costly and time-consuming resources, including staff, storage space, and technological infrastructure that is not easily available in-house.

But here's the good news: integrating order fulfilment into your eCommerce setup can make things much smoother. Using 3PL integration solutions, you can automate behind-the-scenes logistics, improve your handling of orders from different channels, and make managing your inventory a breeze.

In this guide, we will delve into the transformative benefits of integrating parcel fulfilment with eCommerce, highlighting how this strategic move can reduce the pressures on your business and streamline overall business activities.

Why Should You Integrate?

The world of eCommerce is changing. In a recent survey targeted at growing eCommerce businesses, 45.9% named changing customer experience as their top priority over the next five years. What is essential to your customers must be your top priority to ensure success. But what does this mean today with growing demand for faster delivery, product development and overall efficiency?

Approximately 92% of customers would completely abandon a company after two or three negative interactions. This level of customer expectation can be challenging to manage, especially when you are focused on building and developing your eCommerce business activities. Continued logistical errors within all stages of the order fulfilment process can severely limit customer retention, with customers opting for multi-national organisations like Amazon that can meet customer demand.

Integrating order fulfilment management with your eCommerce business can give you a streamlined method of meeting customer demand. 3PL integration solutions can automate your logistics, develop your multi-channel order fulfilment process, and simplify your inventory management systems. The integration process can encompass marketplaces, shopping carts, inventory systems, warehouse management systems, and courier services, helping you grow and develop your business without the stress.

For more information on how perfecting the order fulfilment processcan assist the development of your business, read our insightful guide on how order fulfilment can enhance customer experience. The next section of our guide highlights available integration methods, helping you to decide what integrations are right to streamline your business activity.

Marketplace Integration (Multi-Channel Fulfilment)

If you are an eCommerce business, you can market and sell your products on multiple channels to expand your reach. If your eCommerce business is not currently at this stage of development, incorporating multi-channel order fulfilment will be the next crucial step towards business growth.

It's also essential to offer multi-channel fulfilment to give consumers a broader array of choices on different platforms. Retailers selling through multiple channels generate 190% more revenue than those focused on a single channel.

Though increasing orders from multiple platforms is an exciting step for your eCommerce business, monitoring this can be challenging, especially across diverse platforms like eBay and Amazon, each with unique ways of checking stock and monitoring orders. If orders are not managed correctly across multiple platforms, your order fulfilment process could be disrupted, leading to potential errors, delays, and customer dissatisfaction.

To address this, integrating your e-commerce platform becomes crucial.

Integrating with marketplaces involves overseeing product listings, inventory, and orders across different platforms or vendors. 3PL integration software supports your multi-platform selling strategy by incorporating shopping cart integration and managing marketplaces. It helps streamline inventory management and facilitates a more efficient order fulfilment process, allowing you to see all orders, stock and other data in one place.

What are the Benefits of Marketplace Integration?

Marketplace integration effectively monitors your orders, transactions and returns across various platforms in one place. Integrating in this way with an experienced 3PL service can also bring a variety of other benefits for both you and your customer base. Below, we will explore these benefits in more detail.

Operational Efficiency and Cost Management

Running a successful business using different eCommerce platforms can become overwhelming, especially during a growth or transitional phase. Operating successfully, managing costs, and perfecting inventory management systems are essential in ensuring prosperous order fulfilment.

Investing in marketplace integration can bring this stability by providing the following:

Efficient order fulfilment: Integrating marketplace sales with a 3PL streamlines the order fulfilment process, ensuring timely and accurate processing of orders.
Managing inventory across various channels: Implementing centralised inventory management for marketplaces and third-party logistics (3PL) systems helps prevent overselling, minimising the chances of discrepancies and improving overall inventory accuracy.
Cost Savings Advantages: When businesses team up with a 3PL provider for logistics, they often find ways to save money on storage, shipping, and fulfilment services, making their overall operations more efficient.

Flexibility and Business Growth

When your eCommerce business is growing or your order levels are changing based on seasonal factors, the process of monitoring orders, scaling and tracking can be stressful. Marketplace integration can provide you with the opportunity to:

Scale flexibility: The combined integration of marketplaces and 3PL enables businesses to scale their operations efficiently, adapting to changes in demand without requiring investing in different resources.
Track and view in real-time: Integration with a 3PL provides real-time tracking of the status of orders, shipments, and inventory levels, enhancing transparency for businesses and customers.
Reach more customers: Marketplace integration with a 3PL facilitates global expansion by providing access to an established logistics network, enabling businesses to reach customers in different regions more efficiently.
Adapt to market changes: With marketplace and 3PL integration, your business can quickly adapt to market changes, adjusting your logistics strategies to respond to shifts in demand. This can based on seasonal sales or other factors.

Customer Satisfaction and Risk Prevention

As your business’s main goal is to please your customers, choosing marketplace integration allows you to achieve this without interruption by:

Improving Customer Satisfaction: Getting orders right on time and efficiently managing logistics makes customers happy, builds loyalty, and gives your brand a positive reputation.
Preventing risks: Utilising a 3PL's expertise in logistics helps prevent the risks associated with shipping, warehousing, and fulfilment, reducing the likelihood of errors and delays.

Shopping Cart Integration (Multi-channel fulfilment)

Your shopping cart is essential to your business activity. This software enables your customers to manage their items before they head to checkout, so this feature must be easy to use and efficient. Typically, most eCommerce businesses use Shopify, Magento, or Woocommerce to create this positive experience for their customers, but how can you make this process even more efficient for you and your customer base?

Shopping cart integration ensures a smooth shopping experience for your customers within one single online store. It optimises the buying process, combining automated analytics with a specific off-the-shelf eCommerce shopping cart to provide real-time order importing and stock integration. Using 3PL fulfilment apps brings all your orders together, smoothing the buying process and freeing up your time to focus on growing your business and improving order fulfilment.

After shopping cart integration with a 3PL, you can level up your inventory management systems and improve customer experience by offering automatically fulfilled orders and late order cut-offs. You will also have access to real-time reporting. This data can provide insights into customer spending habits and the success of your products, helping you to know your customer’s needs better.

What are the Advantages of Shopping Cart Integration?

This form of integration, partnered with the exemplary fulfilment service, can provide a number of benefits for your eCommerce business. If your business is growing, shopping cart integration can prevent the inefficiencies and errors that often arise with in-house or manual order processing.

As your business expands, the efficiency brought about by shopping cart integration becomes essential, allowing you to focus on scaling your operations while maintaining a high standard of service for your customers.

In the section below, we have highlighted the main benefits of shopping cart integration for you and your customers regarding successful order fulfilment.

Seamless Shopping Experience

Shopping cart integration has the potential to provide your customers with a simple and efficient online purchasing experience, allowing them to easily add, review, and change items in their cart and complete their transactions with confidence and convenience. But how else can integration improve your customers' experience overall? Through:

Convenient Navigation: Integration ensures a cohesive and intuitive interface, enabling customers to navigate the shopping cart, review their selected items, and make modifications effortlessly.
Personalisation: Connected shopping carts use customer information to provide customised suggestions, promotions, and a personalised user experience, making customer interaction more engaging.

Making your business' check-out process easy to use and tailored to their needs will enhance their overall experience. This has the potential to lead to an increase in sales and leave your customers.

Operational Efficiency and Accuracy

To successfully develop a business, your operational activity and logistics must be as strong as possible. Shopping cart integration ensures this stability by:

Providing automated order processing: Integration automates the order processing system, reducing manual efforts and minimising the likelihood of errors.
Streamlining inventory management: Shopping cart integration enables real-time synchronisation of inventory levels, preventing overselling and ensuring accurate product availability information for customers.
Giving customers access to order tracking and communication: Integrated systems provide customers with real-time order tracking information and automated communication, informing them about their purchase status and delivery updates.

Growth and Data Management

Correctly understanding your customers can level up your business. While a strong order fulfilment process ensures customers successfully receive their products, becoming familiar with buying activity can help you to create and develop your business to meet their buying goals. Shopping cart integration can:

Expanded sales channels: Integration allows businesses to expand their sales channels by seamlessly connecting with various online platforms and marketplaces, reaching a broader audience.
Report and analyse data: Integrated shopping carts provide valuable data and analytics, offering insights into customer behaviour, purchase patterns, and other vital metrics. This information can inform strategic decision-making and marketing efforts.

Multi-Carrier System Integration

Delayed delivery times and certain postage providers can be a deal breaker for customers. Approximately 75% of consumers have encountered a delivery failure, and nearly 25% of them expressed that this has stopped them from making another purchase from the same retailer. This means that faults in this area can potentially harm your reputation. So, it is important to ensure all activity related to delivery is as perfected as possible.

Integrating multi-carrier shipping 3PL involves connecting various carriers within a united logistics system. This integration is vital for businesses utilising multiple carriers to optimise shipping processes, enhance efficiency, and improve overall supply chain management.

What are the benefits of integrating multi-carrier shipping with a 3PL?

Multi-carrier system integration with a 3PL helps you ensure your customer base has an excellent experience, no matter what eCommerce platform they are shopping on. Customers will benefit from various shipping options, real-time tracking, and a seamless checkout experience, enhancing overall satisfaction and loyalty.

In terms of your eCommerce business, integration with an eCommerce fulfilment service streamlines the shipping process by allowing you to select cost-effective postage carriers based on specific criteria, leading to reduced shipping expenses. Below, we have highlighted how multi-carrier system integration can benefit businesses and maximise order fulfilment.

Keeping Happy Customers

As previously discussed, your customers can make or break your business. Ensuring they receive their orders and are happy with their delivery providers is a strong way of ensuring retention. Partnering with a 3PL and integrating also gives you access to more shipping providers that deliver to different locations, preventing potential customers from being isolated by the inability to send orders to their region.

Working with a 3PL that offers multi-carrier integration also allows you to:

Offer customised choices: Customers can pick the shipping options that suit them best, like choosing their preferred delivery speed or carrier.
Stay in the loop: Real-time updates on order status and tracking info keep customers informed and satisfied.
Get it right: Automated processes ensure customers receive the correct items on time, building trust and loyalty.

Monitor Costs

While your overall concern might be to keep your customers satisfied with your services, the associated costs of correcting errors to maintain this level of satisfaction can be large. To prevent this, this form of integration ensures:

Smart spending: Using integrated systems lets your eCommerce business choose the most affordable shipping options, helping them save money on delivery services.
Clear costs: Real-time pricing information ensures businesses know exactly what they're paying for, preventing unexpected expenses and maintaining your reputation.
Cutting costs: Automating your shipping and inventory management processes reduces the need for manual work, lowering overall shipping costs.

Creating an Adaptable Business

Trends and spending habits can change quickly based on multiple factors. Being prepared for this is essential, especially related to quick growth. Integrating your eCommerce business with a 3PL that offers a multi-carrier system will prepare you for:

Quick Adjustments: Integrated systems help businesses swiftly adapt to changes in how deliveries work or respond to shifts in the market.
Growing Painlessly: The integrated solution increases with the business, efficiently handling more orders, new carriers, and changing delivery needs.
Going Global: For businesses expanding globally, integration supports smooth shipping processes and follows the rules for international deliveries.

Final Thoughts on Integrating Order Fulfilment with Ecommerce

Streamlining order fulfilment through integration with e-commerce platforms is crucial for meeting the changing demands of the digital marketplace. In the ever-developing world of e-commerce, which emphasises customer experience, quicker delivery, and overall efficiency, eCommerce businesses need to adjust and enhance their order fulfilment procedures.

Whether you're dealing with online shopping platforms, marketplaces, shipping systems, or different management tools, connecting these elements becomes a crucial approach for businesses looking to simplify operations, improve customer satisfaction, and foster overall growth in the competitive e-commerce landscape. The integration services provided by a third-party logistics (3PL) provider can open avenues for increased business engagement, excel in organised order fulfilment, and contribute to efficiently managing orders from start to finish.

Ready to Integrate and Level up your Order fulfilment process?

We are experts in all aspects of order fulfilment. We are committed to your growth as a reputable 3PL service that has worked with various eCommerce businesses and tailored the interaction process to their needs. As a reputable eCommerce fulfilment service, by helping you manage your business activity, we aim to ensure you meet customer demand and increase satisfaction.

From simplifying inventory management systems to helping you choose your delivery provider, we can assist you.