The right shipping software will save your business time and money and improve the customer experience. Here are a few tips on how you can choose your shipping software.
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What is shipping software?
If you run an e-commerce business, you know that many different factors can influence shipping rates. The weight and dimensions of the package as well as shipping zones affect the price.
If you’re only processing a few orders each week, you may be calculating the shipping information on your own. That’s fine in the beginning, but once you start processing a high volume of transactions, this can get tedious.
And if you get your calculations wrong, your business could end up over-paying for shipping costs. That’s why most e-commerce businesses can benefit from shipping software.
Shipping software is a solution that integrates with your e-commerce platform to provide shipping estimates for your products. The software also allows you to print shipping labels from your computer.
Shipping software is typically available as a subscription, so you’ll pay either a monthly or an annual fee. The exact cost and functionality will vary depending on the service you choose.
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Why do you need shipping software?
When it comes to customer expectations, Amazon changed the game for businesses with its free one- and two-day shipping. Customers now have high expectations regarding shipping, and BigCommerce wrote that 54% of customers will cancel an order if the shipping costs are too high.
Shipping software doesn’t just benefit you — it also helps your customers. Here are five reasons you should consider investing in shipping software:
- See up-to-date information. When you use shipping software, you’ll have access to up-to-date shipping information from the most popular carriers. This eliminates the guesswork on your end and ensures your pricing information is accurate.
- Explore your options. Your software will present you with shipping options from a variety of carriers. This allows you to compare your options and choose the one that’s the best fit for your customer.
- Save money on shipping. You may be hesitant to invest in shipping software because of the added cost to your business. But, if you ship more than a few packages a week, you may actually end up saving money on postage.
- Save yourself time. Shipping software will not only save you money, but it will also save you valuable time. Since you can print labels and packing slips from your computer, you can skip the weekly trip to the post office.
- Manage your inventory. Your shipping software will ensure that you have adequate inventory to fulfill your shipping orders. It also offers inventory forecasting, so you don’t unexpectedly run out of product.
- Benefit your customers. Once your customers place an order, they’ll receive an email providing up-to-date information on the shipping status. This can decrease the volume of customer emails asking about the shipping status of their purchase.
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Once your customers place an order, they’ll receive an email providing up-to-date information on the shipping status. This can decrease the volume of customer emails asking about the shipping status of their purchase.
5 shipping software options to consider
Now that you understand why shipping software is helpful, which solution should you go with? Here are five options you can consider:
- ShippingEasy: ShippingEasy is an option for e-commerce businesses of all sizes. And, customers can receive discounted shipping rates with UPS and USPS.
- ShipStation: ShipStation is an affordable option for small and medium-sized businesses. It integrates with some of the most popular carriers, like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx.
- Ordoro: If you run a sizable dropshipping business, Ordoro may be a good fit for you. Ordoro offers barcode scanning for accurate order fulfillment and real-time inventory tracking.
- Shopify: When you sign up for Shopify, you can manage your entire business in one place. In addition to managing your e-commerce website, you can save money by using Shopify shipping.
- ShipBob: ShipBob helps you deliver packages quickly and accurately. It’s a global solution that provides packages anywhere in the world.
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