Table of Contents
- What are the best shipping services for ecommerce?
- What are automation rules in shipping software?
- Which criteria can I use to automate shipping service selection?
- How do shipping automation rules save time and money?
- What else can automation rules do for ecommerce shipping?
- How hard is it to set up business automation rules?
- Key Takeaways
- How does Descartes ShipRush help with shipping service selection?
As a busy seller, tedious, repetitive tasks like ecommerce shipping service selection can seriously slow you down. Even with clear prioritization and delegation, keeping up with order volume can be a struggle.
Did you know automation rules handle many repetitive tasks? Automating shipping service selection can save your business time and money by leveraging technology to choose the best service for each shipment.
What are the best shipping services for ecommerce?
The best shipping services help you keep your delivery promise to your customer while protecting your profit margin. Your shipping strategy should include a variety of shipping services from multiple carriers, such as USPS, UPS, FedEx, and Sendle. Using various carriers allows you to find the greatest efficiency and cost savings.
The best shipping services for ecommerce orders depend on customer expectations and your business needs. For example, suppose low-cost shipping is the most critical factor for your customers and business. In that case, you should rate shop multiple carriers and always choose the cheapest shipping service regardless of shipping destination or how many days it will take to deliver. Here’s a short list of reputable shipping services for different use cases:
- USPS Ground Advantage – Low delivery costs for US domestic shipping
- UPS – Has dominated on-time delivery for the past five years
- FedEx and UPS – Thousands of drop-off locations for convenient returns
- Sendle – 100% carbon-neutral shipping service
Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to shipping services, customize service selection to save time and money. You can automatically apply the best shipping service to each order using automation rules in shipping software.
What are automation rules in shipping software?
Business automation rules are a feature of shipping software that uses if-then logic to perform specific technology-based tasks. The software acknowledges pre-set conditions and applies the correct shipping processes to orders that meet the criteria. For example, if an order weighs over 50 pounds, then the software automatically selects a less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping service.
Some may worry that automating service selection might leave too much up to an algorithm, but the user sets the rules. Customizable if-then logic gives you complete control over programming the process according to your business needs and goals. For instance, if you want every lightweight t-shirt order to ship USPS first class, you can build a rule like this:
Which criteria can I use to automate shipping service selection?
Any fields related to order information can be criteria for building a shipping service selection rule. Some popular criteria include:
- Package dimensions or weight
- Order item SKU
- Package type
- Amazon Prime
- Destination address (residential or commercial, state, country, etc.)
- Shipping service requested (specific carrier, zero-carbon, fastest, etc.)
These are only a few of the many options available. Filters are highly customizable, so you can apply multiple criteria to get as granular as needed with many types of shipping automation rules.
How do shipping automation rules save time and money?
Automating service selection can save your business time and money in five main ways:
- Finding the cheapest shipping service
- Reducing manual labor costs
- Preventing late deliveries
- Eliminating human errors
- Scaling operations without hiring
Finding the cheapest shipping service
By automating rate shopping and service selection, you can easily find and apply the cheapest shipping service to each order. The shipping software reviews all available shipping services and identifies the most cost-effective service option for each order.
Reducing manual labor costs
Automation rules eliminate the time a person would spend reviewing order information, rate shopping, deciding which service to use, selecting the best service, and printing shipping labels. Automating the process increases efficiency by freeing up workers to perform other tasks.
Preventing late deliveries
As a business grows, increased order volumes can result in bottlenecks at the ship station and late deliveries unless you pay for a faster (more expensive) shipping service. Shipping automation prevents bottlenecks and late deliveries by increasing processing speed.
Eliminating human errors
Automation significantly reduces the risk of errors by replacing manual labor. It eliminates the cost of fixing mistakes like mis-ships or selecting the wrong service and prevents customers from having a bad experience. Eliminating errors also helps to safeguard revenue from repeat business.
Scaling operations without hiring
Shipping software allows you to easily deal with peak seasons and spikes in order volume without hiring more ship station workers. Lights-out automation can keep selecting the best service and printing shipping labels around the clock—no need to hire more workers.
What else can automation rules do for ecommerce shipping?
Beyond shipping service selection, automation rules perform many valuable tasks for shipping operations. Here are some of the most popular shipping automation rules that Descartes ShipRush customers frequently use.
| Automation Rule | How It Helps |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Rate & Set to Cheapest | Rate shops multiple carriers, identifies the cheapest shipping service, and selects it. |
| ✔️ Label Printing | Automatically prints shipping labels when the order is ready to ship. |
| ✔️ Rate & Set to Fastest, Cheapest | Compares cost and transit time for multiple services; identifies and selects the cheapest expedited option. |
| ✔️ Add a Tag to an Order | Applies tags by setting filter criteria for different order types; separates orders by tag to process in batches. |
| ✔️ Send Tracking Email | Sends each customer a branded notification email with shipped status and a tracking link. |
| ✔️ Mark as Shipped | Marks orders for specific SKUs as “shipped” for items you don’t usually ship with Descartes ShipRush. |
| ✔️ Apply Shipping Insurance | Applies shipping insurance for certain types of orders to ensure proper coverage. |
| ✔️ Set Service Level | Sets the service level(s) you typically use for certain order types (i.e., t-shirts always ship first class). |
| ✔️ Set Package Dimensions | Applies preset package dimensions to specific SKUs. |
| ✔️ Set Carrier/Shipping Account | Chooses the correct carrier/account for each order. (i.e., international = USPS Priority Mail International service.) |
How hard is it to set up business automation rules?
Setting up business automation rules in shipping software isn’t difficult but requires precision. First, you need a clear idea of how you want the process to work. Then, you must apply the right filters and actions in the correct order to make it happen.
Automation rules vary in complexity. While simple ones are quick and easy to build, multi-layered workflows may require more time and support to execute correctly. The good news is some software companies offer free live support via chat, phone, and email to help with setup.
Key Takeaways
- To win at ecommerce shipping, diversify your ecommerce shipping services according to customer and business needs. Then, create automation rules to apply the best shipping service to each order based on your shipping strategy.
- Decrease costs and increase efficiency in your shipping process by automating tedious, repetitive tasks. Automation will save you time and money by reducing manual labor and errors while handling rate shopping, shipping service selection, and other tasks.
- Automation rules vary in complexity and, while relatively easy to set up, do require precision. Take advantage of free live support, tutorial videos, blogs, and other helpful resources to build the most valuable rules for your business.
How does Descartes ShipRush help with shipping service selection?
Descartes ShipRush helps businesses like yours make the shipping service selection process seamless and effortless. We offer discounted shipping rates and 90+ integration partners, including USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL ecommerce, and Amazon Shipping. You can add as many carrier accounts as you want, then use our rate shopping tool to compare rates and delivery speed.
Our multi-carrier, multi-channel shipping software can help you automatically select the most appropriate shipping services for ecommerce orders via business automation rules. We also offer free live support to help you build custom rules!
Start your 15-day free trial today and see how easy it is to ship with Descartes ShipRush! With reliable and affordable shipping software, you can improve efficiency and control shipping costs.
About the Author
Alex Sampera is a VP of Product Management at Descartes, the global leader in SaaS solutions focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. As a leader in the ecommerce division, Alex leverages his technical expertise to champion products that help ecommerce brands grow wherever they are in their journey, whether shipping their first order or scaling internationally.
