In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce and supply chains, it becomes imperative for businesses to adopt smart shipping solutions to delight customers and increase logistics efficiencies. Shipping integration ensures that the business order management system can connect to the carriers seamlessly, reducing manual effort and errors and eliminating delivery delays. That is where MetaShip comes in, offering a fully simplified, cloud-based shipping automation solution built to increase efficiency and accuracy in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
According to Statista, Global logistics costs reached about 11.43 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, nearly 2 trillion U.S. dollars more. 2 trillion U.S. dollars by 2026. If e-commerce continues to grow and the number of items shipped rises, the logistics business will expand.
All You Need to Know About Shipping Integration
Shipping integration software connects an order source (like a shopping cart or order management system [OMS]) and a carrier or shipping platform. It helps move order data and shipping information between both systems, assisting businesses to manage their shipping processes more effectively.
A shipping integration automates the shipping process, including generating shipping labels, tracking packages, updating order status, and managing returns. This includes allowing businesses to track shipping costs and delivery times in real time, which ensures tighter control over shipping strategies to help avoid mistakes or delays.
Learn more about how an order management system works.
Why E-commerce Businesses and Supply Chain Need Shipping Integrations
E-commerce businesses and supply chains must integrate shipping as a basic operational need instead of an optional comfort feature since they process considerable daily shipment quantity. The failure to implement a streamlined shipping process results in multiple business problems for these organizations including:
- Delays in order fulfillment due to manual processes.
- High costs to ship products occur when businesses select carriers inefficiently.
- Managing many active sales channels and warehouses proves difficult because their systems lack proper scalability.
- Absolute tracking absence creates customer experience issues for users.
The combination of shipping integration enables e-commerce businesses and supply chains to optimize their operations and eliminate mistakes while enhancing their customer delivery estimation capabilities.
It would be an underestimation to say that shipping expectations for US businesses are considerable. According to Pitney Bowes found the following data for US shipping in 2021:
- 24 billion packages in total.
- 700 packages per second
- 60 million packages are sent daily, with 60+ parcels per person and 160+ parcels per home.
The Benefits of Shipping Integrations
You can enjoyseveral benefits from Shipping integrations. Also, it offers a wide range of functionality that directly helps your eCommerce and supply chain business. Some of the general advantages of the integrations are:
- Reduce Manual Data Entry
- Batch-Process Ready-To-Ship Orders
- Better Inventory and Supply Chain Management
- Reduce Order Cycle Time
Reduce Manual Data Entry
The main advantage of shipping integration is the elimination of manual entry processes. Automatic shipping operation replaces human data handling and optimize staff time while decreasing business costs.
Online order integration requires no manual order handling which speeds up order delivery and enhances customer satisfaction through faster shipping times.
The removal of manual data entry tasks allows your company to assign human resources to different business sections such as marketing and customer service.
Batch-Process Ready-To-Ship Orders
The integration of shipping creates a feature that facilitates processing multiple ready-to-ship orders as batches. Online businesses and 3PL companies can swiftly handle multiple orders through batch processing thus minimize order delivery times.
Better Inventory and Supply Chain Management
Businesses that integrate shipping data into their ERP systems gain better control over inventory systems and supply chain activities. The system’s integration helps business users maintain inventory levels by enabling them to reduce delays while delivering products on schedule.
Reduce Order Cycle Time
E-commerce shipping integration results in dramatic reductions in order cycle time intervals. E-commerce companies and 3PLs can cut down order shipping times through process automation which leads to quicker deliveries for customers but enables both parties to maintain operational status.
How Does Shipping Integration Work?
Order information from an order source, such as shopping carts or OMS, enters shipping integrations before they are sent to shipping platforms. When packaging is finished and shipping happens the tracking information receives retrieval from the platform and then automatically delivers it to the source.
Post-integration software works to redirect orders to the most suitable shipping carrier and cheapest available delivery option for any target destination while concurrently streaming trackable information to all necessary stakeholders and loading different shipping functions into autopilot mode.
Your business benefits from the integration process because it produces identical work outcomes at a reduced duration.
How MetaShip Enhances Shipping Integration
MetaShip is built to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, providing businesses with real-time shipping capabilities directly within their ERP system. Key benefits include:
Multi-Carrier Integration
MetaShip is a multi-carrier shipping software, that allows businesses to seamlessly integrate with major carriers such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS. This ensures that companies can:
- Compare real-time shipping rates across multiple carriers.
- Select the most cost-effective and reliable shipping option.
- Simplify logistics by managing all carriers from a single platform.
- Automate label generation for different carriers without switching platforms.
Automated Order Processing
With shipping integration, businesses can eliminate redundant tasks by automating order processing. MetaShip automatically retrieves order details from Dynamics 365 Business Central, assigns the best shipping method, and generates shipping labels—all within a few clicks.
Future-Proof Design
Built with extensibility in mind, allowing for easy integration of additional carriers or features in the future.
Carbon-Neutral Shipping Options
Generate Offers eco-friendly shipping solutions with carbon-neutral labels, helping businesses reduce their environmental footprint.
Easily Cancel and Returns
With MetaShip, you can easily void or cancel shipments. The return process is also crucial for businesses looking to build long-term customer trust. MetaShip simplifies returns by generating return labels and tracking return shipments, smoothly reducing the operational burden on businesses.
Streamlined Logistics Workflow
- Reduce manual effort by automating shipping processes, from rate calculation to label generation.
- Improve operational efficiency with a centralized shipping management system.
Learn about the Key Capabilities of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management in our blog.
Why Businesses Should Choose MetaShip
MetaShip is more than just a shipping integration tool—it is a comprehensive packing and shipping automation solution that boosts operational efficiency, reduces costs, and improves customer satisfaction. With features like multi-carrier shipping integration, real-time shipment tracking, shipment notification, international shipment, third-party shipping, and seamless ERP integration, MetaShip empowers businesses to optimize their shipping operations effortlessly.
By utilizing MetaShip’s functionalities, companies can grow their logistics, improve accuracy, and ultimately deliver better experiences to their customers. Ready to transform your shipping process? Discover how MetaShip can revolutionize your logistics today!