If you're really serious about your eCommerce business, logistics automation should be one of your top priorities.
The good news is that there are many tools available for sellers to help automate and scale operations. Choosing not to learn about these tools will only allow your competition to get ahead.
Still need convincing? Here are 3 important reasons you need to automate your shipping ASAP:
1. Automation allows you to stop wasting time on repetitive tasks.
We get it - if your eCommerce business is still new, it's hard to justify hiring another person to help you with fulfilling orders. Still, it's possible to automate certain aspects of fulfillment to stay productive - and without spending a dime.
Use a free shipping platform like Easyship to take advantage of features such as "shipping rules". Translating your shipment preferences into these rules allow certain things to always happen whenever a shipment meets certain criteria.
For example, you can set a rule that all domestic shipments will use a postal service, or that all shipments with a value over a certain amount ($100USD) should include insurance.
Now, every time you get a shipment that meets your criteria, the shipping label will be automatically generated with these preferences in mind. This drastically cuts down the time needed to create a shipping label and decide on a service, especially if you already know what you want!
Another automation you can take advantage of on Easyship is scheduling a courier pickup for multiple packages.
On the dashboard, you have the option to choose the time and date for your pickup in a click or two before paying for your shipping - allowing you to completely avoid calling the courier directly to schedule.
2. Automation reduces human errors on labels.
When you're growing an eCommerce business, the last thing you want to do is manual data entry - especially when there's a technological solution that can easily be implemented.
First, we highly recommend having an address verification software at your store checkout to avoid collecting inaccurate contact information from customers.
Once this is in place, processing orders is a breeze!
Why? Because Easyship is integrated with many major eCommerce platforms, allowing you to connect your store and sync orders to our shipping platform in a click and a minute.
Since your customer already entered in their address details and it's been verified by the address verification system, Easyship takes this information and automatically generates the shipping labels.
This means zero manual data entry on your part, and reduced chances of incorrect data being printed on the labels.
3. Automation allows you to scale your business.
Our co-founders know first-hand how difficult it is for up-and-coming eCommerce sellers to scale their business. While working at Lazada, they saw how sellers struggled to reach overseas customers because finding affordable shipping solutions was a hassle and took too much time.
They were then inspired to develop Easyship, realizing that shipping was the last barrier to selling worldwide.
In the past, if an international customer was interested in ordering from you, they would have to call or email to get a custom shipping quote. Depending on how busy you are and what solutions you have access to, it may take hours or even days to provide a suitable quote.
Now, it's a lot easier to scale by using Easyship's Rates at Checkout feature. Installing this in your store's checkout will allow you to automatically provide the fastest, cheapest, and best value for money shipping options to all customers, based on their location.
No more having to figure out rates on your own!
Conclusion
Automation allows you to be more productive and accurate, and is the best way to scale your business. And, we have a treat for you! To learn all the tips and tricks to automating your shipping, check out our free whitepaper, How To Automate Your Shipping!