Most businesses could get away with working with just one shipping company to ship their products in the past. With e-commerce sales on the rise, many shippers are discovering that the conventional means of doing business may no longer be sufficient. Previously, if you were running an e-commerce business, you would’ve had one or two selected shipping methods and carriers. You’d be provided pricing from one or two big carriers like FedEx, UPS, DHL, and so on, and you’d ship your packages using predetermined selections. Because it allowed eCommerce organizations to negotiate cheaper shipping costs and expedite the shipment process, this was frequently the preferred method of managing shipping and delivery. This strategy may have worked for a long time, but in today’s environment, there are better alternatives. This is where a multi-carrier shipping plugin comes in.
You get to choose between shipping carriers by comparing their prices, and the offered services for each shipment. Because carrier capabilities and consumer expectations are continuously evolving, utilizing several alternatives as part of a multi-carrier shipping process is vital to preserving a competitive edge and offering high levels of customer satisfaction. We’ve developed a list of benefits of how a multi-carrier shipping strategy might boost your sales using the ELEX ShipEngine Multi-Carrier Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce, a multi-carrier shipping plugin for eCommerce businesses. But first, let’s dig a little more into what multi-carrier shipping entails.
What is multi-carrier shipping?
Multi-carrier shipping, as the name implies, entails employing more than one shipping carrier to ship packages. A shipping plugin that supports multiple carriers enables you to switch between them seamlessly. With the help of a multi-carrier plugin, you can compare shipping costs from all the available carriers, compare routes, and transit times, choose the best carrier and type of service for your business, generate and print shipping labels, the manifest, and all other shipping paperwork, and track shipments from pick-up to delivery all from a single location. Businesses that use multi-carrier shipping software can tap into a vast network of carriers. As a result, when it comes time to ship a product, logistics employees can quickly determine which carrier can fulfill the guaranteed delivery date while still charging the least amount of money.
Benefits of using Multi-Carrier Shipping for Your WooCommerce Store
Find a low-cost shipping option
Since order volumes aren’t normally high enough to justify having multiple carriers in the initial days of a business, tying up with a single shipping company makes complete sense. Inability to broaden your shipping strategies to suit your rising demand, however, puts you in danger of inefficient order fulfillment and skyrocketing shipping expenses as your company grows and sales keep increasing. One of the most effective ways to compare shipping costs from various shipping carriers and employ the most cost-effective shipping method for each shipment is to use a multi-carrier shipping approach. Shipping charges vary depending on delivery zone, volume, and so on, so it makes sense to compare and choose carriers as required to ensure your shipping costs are as low as they could be.
Adaptability
We understand that the most cost-effective delivery option isn’t always the best one. It can sometimes be necessary to consider what is best for both your business and your customer. A multi-carrier shipping plugin will enable you to select the best possible shipping service for each individual shipment. You may choose a shipping solution that works for your consumers even if they live in a more remote part of the country or even outside of the United States. Some shipping carriers function more effectively in particular sections of the country and around the world than some others. Instead of a universal strategy for all shipments, having a robust multi-carrier shipping plugin in place allows you to create a personalized service for your customers. With a selection of shipping companies to pick from, you can give the quickest shipment timeframes and the best customer experience for each purchase while keeping shipping charges affordable.
Time effective
A multi-carrier shipping plugin allows you to manage all of your shipping carrier accounts from one location, rather than logging into many portals to obtain rates and service details about your shipments. It will not only save you time while selecting the appropriate shipping option, but you will also eliminate the need to log into different platforms to access the same data. Shipping labels, business invoices, and other important documentation will also be handled if your multi-carrier plugin is efficient. All of your shipping information will be automatically printed on the label which will end up saving you a lot of time.
Customer expectations are met by the variety of delivery alternatives available
Customers want purchases to be delivered quickly, affordably, and in a manner that is convenient for them, especially with the recent growth of eCommerce. The majority of customers are ready to pay extra for same-day delivery, demonstrating that speedy shipment is critical, even if it comes at a cost. Employing a shipping carrier that can deliver same-day is quickly becoming a requirement, as same-day delivery and one-day delivery have become the norm in our age of amazon prime. Offering a variety of shipping methods provides the level of flexibility that customers have come to expect, as well as putting pricing consideration in their hands.
Allows vendors to handle the shipping
The multi-carrier shipping strategy allows you to have an overview of the progress of the shipment whereas the shipping carriers handle the actual logistics. You do not need to take care of the shipment reaching the customers every step of its way, allowing you to have the time to grow your business while your shipments reach your customers safely.
Offer real-time shipping rates
This is one of the biggest benefits of using a multi-carrier shipping plugin. As soon as you enter the details of your shipment, you will be provided with a list of real-time shipping rates from all of the available shipping carriers to choose from. These shipping costs are obtained directly from the shipping companies’ APIs. It displays shipping rates based on zip code, shipment destination, type of product, package weight, product category, total volume, product value, the number of packages, and other variables.
For each package, choose different appropriate services
With the help of the ELEX ShipEngine Multi-Carrier Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce, if an order comprises many packages, the shop administrator may select multiple services for each of them.
To Conclude
You may be contemplating how to include multi-carrier shipping into your shipping strategy now that you’ve discovered all of the benefits. The ELEX ShipEngine Multi-Carrier Shipping & Label Printing Plugin’s multi-carrier shipping API works with UPS and FedEx to provide you with an easy and flexible shipping strategy. ShipEngine can also assist with label printing, tracking, and other vital documentation. It provides you with the ability to bargain for lower prices. You can compare shipping charges and determine the most suitable deals for each order because you have many carriers at your fingertips. You may hold carriers answerable for failure to satisfy requirements and switch between them as needed if you use multiple shipping carriers. We hope that this article has given you a better knowledge of the benefits of using multi-carrier shipping for your WooCommerce store. If you have any questions regarding multi-carrier shipping, please let us know in the comments section below.
