Since modern consumers prefer to purchase everything off the internet, the eCommerce industry has seen significant growth in the last few years. The shipment management procedure was manual before the advent of shipping APIs. Shipment information was manually processed when an order came in. The process was exceedingly error-prone and needed numerous levels of supervision. Any eCommerce platform’s profitability will be lowered by using a manual approach.
Shipping APIs automate the process by allowing the logistic partner’s capabilities to be directly integrated into the eCommerce business’s operations. Advanced shipping APIs from different shippers may now be used by online businesses to consolidate all shipment and delivery information into a single screen. The cost of shipment management is also reduced with this strategy.
Although UPS, USPS, FedEx, and DHL provide shipping APIs, they are not flexible enough to connect to your shipping operations. When an eCommerce firm has several logistic partners, it can be time-consuming to integrate each of their APIs into their system separately. In this article, we’ll go through the ShipEngine API services and how the ELEX ShipEngine plugin may help you optimize your WooCommerce store’s shipping process.
What is ShipEngine?
ShipEngine is a web-based system that provides a shipping API to assist you in managing all parts of your shipping system. You may use this platform to purchase postage, provide customers with shipment and tracking information, and even manage returns from one or several locations. Small to big shipment management processes and the complete order fulfillment process can be managed with the ShipEngine API.
This API seamlessly integrates multiple shipping carriers into your shipping system, allowing you to quickly validate your customers’ addresses and obtain shipping cost estimates with just a few clicks. The API includes automated integration with leading shippers such as FedEx and UPS. ShipEngine API provides a variety of functions such as shipping cost estimation, label printing, address validation, parcel tracking, cost comparison, and much more. The API assists you in streamlining the complete shipment management system for your eCommerce business.
How is the ELEX ShipEngine plugin going to improve the shipping process of your WooCommerce Store?
The ELEX ShipEngine Multi-Carrier Shipping & Label Printing Plugin for WooCommerce is a multi-carrier shipping plugin that solves all your shipping problems right from your WooCommerce dashboard. Let us look at the issues you might be having right now if you don’t have a multi-carrier plugin like ELEX ShipEngine, and then see how it can help.
Shipping costs
When you work with just one shipping carrier, you do not have any option but to pay the surcharges and peak season charges. More often than not, you might end up paying more than you should be paying for shipping overall.
Limited shipping options
Having a single carrier to pick from, limits your potential to find a better shipping service at a better rate. It also reduces the shipping alternatives available to your customers throughout the checkout process, such as one-day and next-day delivery.
Due to capacity limitations, shipping contracts can be terminated
Shipping companies are imposing capacity limits in place given the historical shipment volumes carriers are facing. This can and will result in extremely high overall shipping expenses, and a carrier’s contract with a customer that consistently surpasses parcel volume capacity constraints may be terminated.
If they collapse, your business will collapse with them
Your operations will collapse if you place all your eggs in one shipping carrier’s basket and that carrier encounters an interruption due to a technical malfunction, adverse weather conditions, or any other factor.
There is no bargaining power
When you negotiate rates with one carrier, you’re not negotiating because they understand you need them more than they do. Only by having a strong presence in financial negotiations can you generate a substantial profit margin. When you have multiple carriers to choose from, you will know very well when one of them is trying to charge you more. You will have more power over your operations and can also hold each shipping carrier accountable.
With the ELEX ShipEngine plugin, you can regain control of your shipping operations
The ELEX ShipEngine (FedEx & UPS) WooCommerce Shipping Method Plugin is a WordPress/WooCommerce plugin that enables you to effectively automate UPS and FedEx shipping by presenting shipping costs on the cart and checkout pages of your eCommerce store. The ShipEngine APIs allow you to pay for postage, generate, and print shipping labels directly from your WooCommerce dashboard.
- Real-time rates from multiple carriers – With the ELEX ShipEngine Plugin, you can easily select from a wide range of services provided by FedEx and UPS.
Select the most suitable shipping carrier – From the list of offered services, you can select the most cost-effective service according to the shipping requirements of the customers. This also gives your customers the freedom to select if they want a quick delivery at a higher cost or standard delivery at a lower cost.- Get the most competitive shipping costs from a variety of shipping carriers – Having many carriers to pick from ensures that none of the carriers overcharge you because they know you don’t have any other options. A multi-carrier shipping strategy assures that you are not being exploited by shipping carriers.
- Strike the best deals – Most shipping carriers offer discounted rates to high-volume shippers and specifically eCommerce businesses. When shipping carriers know that you have multiple options to go ahead with, they will try their best to offer you the best rates.
- Have a backup plan at all times – Sometimes due to unforeseen issues like technical glitches, adverse weather conditions, downtime, etc., one of the shipping carriers might be unable to process and complete deliveries. With the ELEX ShipEngine plugin, you will always have another shipping service to fall back on without having to halt deliveries. There are fallback options to ensure customer promises are fulfilled as soon as there is a hint of carrier service deteriorating, whether it’s a longer-term adjustment or in direct reaction to a major and short-term issue.
- Generate shipments, print shipping labels, and track shipments without leaving your WooCommerce dashboard – The ELEX ShipEngine plugin brings your entire shipping process from order management to shipping to shipment tracking, right to your website’s backend. Gone are the days when you would have to visit individual shipping carriers’ websites to generate and print shipping labels, and track orders.
Show precise estimated delivery date to customers – As soon as a customer adds a product to his/her cart, the plugin will display the estimated delivery dates for each corresponding shipping service during checkout.
Adjust service costs and add handling fees – You also have the option of adding handling fees or adjusting the costs for each shipping service.
Select multiple shipping services for orders that consist of multiple packages – To make sure you are making the most of the available services, the ELEX ShipEngine plugin enables you to select multiple shipping services for each product according to your requirements.
Wrapping Up
Shipping API plugins can do miracles for your eCommerce store. Your business and profit margin will be at the mercy of system failures, unforeseeable circumstances, and the whims of the shipping carriers if you don’t have the flexibility to compare shipping rates and effortlessly switch between services in the case of a delay or failure. As a result, selecting the correct shipping plugin for your store might assist you in streamlining your shipping procedure. The ELEX ShipEngine Multi-Carrier Shipping & Label Printing Plugin has the potential to have a significant and immediate influence on shipping and distribution operations, as well as the business operations. If you have any questions regarding the ELEX ShipEngine plugin, please let us know in the comments section below.
