Real-Time Delivery Dashboard for Small Parcel Shippers

LogisticsBI is proud to announce the formal launch of its new Delivery Dashboard platform for small parcel shippers.

The LogisticsBI Delivery Dashboard provides online retailers, or any business shipping high volumes of small package shipments with a concise view of the delivery status of all their shipments. The tool enables the business to proactively identify and resolve issues with problem deliveries before the customer is aware a problem exists.

Tracking numbers for the shipments are fed into the LogisticsBI dashboard by way of pre-built integrations with the business' order management or ecommerce shopping cart program (such as Amazon, Shopify, or Magento). The delivery status of each shipment is then updated and available for viewing through API links to UPS, FedEx, and USPS, displaying the statuses real-time.

LogisticsBI also provides a suite of search query and reporting tools, making small package delivery management easier than ever before. Early in 2013, the service will be expanded to include small parcel delivery companies operating in the European market as well.

"Businesses are at the mercy of the small parcel carriers for the most important phase of their customer's experience - final delivery. These companies do a decent job most of the time, but historically the exception process was managed in a reactionary way by frantically dealing with lost packages or late deliveries as they are identified by the customer. LogisticsBI gives online retailers an easy, integrated tool for seeing deliveries issues before they become customer problems." says Ken Lyons, Managing Director at LogisticsBI.

Additional information is available at www.logisticsbi.com.

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LogisticsBI Delivery Dashboard is part of a suite of logistics technology solutions developed by ecommerce order fulfillment leader ShipStarter.com. 

Contact Information:

Ken Lyons

Managing Director

info@logisticsbi.com

The Ultimate Guide to Getting the Best Shipping Rates (Part ? of ?)

One shipping related choice you may face is deciding when an order or maybe some of your product inventory should be shipped with UPS/FedEx Ground or with an LTL (less-than-truckload) freight carrier. 

The issue is that at some point, usually as shipment weights increase to around 200 lbs. or so, the cost of shipping Ground becomes more expensive than LTL. Most online retailers who ship b2c are used to always shipping Ground (small package) and do not realize that LTL is a viable (and often cheaper) option for them too.

The point is to make sure you compare rates for Ground and LTL as the weight of a particular shipment increases to around 200 lbs.

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For ecommerce order fulfillment quotes visit www.shipstarter.com.

For a single dashboard view of all your customer deliveries - visit www.logsiticsbi.com.

How important is shipping to an online retailer?

Getting orders delivered is the last, but perhaps most important step in the online retail process. As an online seller, a whole lot has to go right just to get to the point of shipping the product. So there is a lot riding on the performance of your shipping company – whether you choose USPS, FedEx, UPS, or DHL.

The customer has to find your site – think of all the effort of building a site that converts, and not to mention a lot of SEO and PPC costs.

You have to have a product the customer wants to buy – and it has to be in inventory.

The right products need to be put in the right box by your fulfillment operation – and we all know that doesn’t always happen

…and the shipping company needs to get it delivered on-time.

The first three steps are easiest to manage, because they are most under your control. But once the package is handed off to the carrier all control is lost. If you are shipping dozens, hundreds, or thousands of shipments then it can be impossible to know about problems until the customer tells you about them. To really control the customer experience and be proactive managing problems that can come up during step 4 – you need a tool to give you real time delivery visibility into what is going on with your deliveries. 

How to find the best order fulfillment vendor for your online store

Perhaps the most important thing to look at when evaluating ecommerce order fulfillment centers is to find one that has experience working with online retailers that sell products like yours.

Here are some reasons why:

- the fulfillment center will know how to package the products for shipping in a way to minimize damages and minimize the amount of packing materials needed

- they'll already have boxes in that size which will help keep costs down because they can buy them in greater volumes

- their shelving and racks will be set up to accommodate the size and shapes of your products which makes their operation more efficient and lowers their cost to store your products

Must Follow Twitter Accounts for Logistics and Supply Chain Professionals

Here is a list of @Twitter handles with information regarding logistics:

@kennethkowal to be added to the list!

Individuals/ Information:

@3plnews

@womenintrucking

@truckerdesiree

@peterpetch

@kennethkowal

@eroutingguide

@innovativelog

@shipstarter

@logisticsmgmt

@logisticsviewpt

@logisticsmanagr

@3plnews

@logisticslist

@logisticsmatter

@scdigest

@supplychainmgt

@logitweets

@aboutlogistics

@transportopics

@ilmagazine

@supplychaind

@cscmp

@supplychainblog

@scm_enterprise2

@logisticsforums

@sclblog

@glm_group

@scmr

@logisticsonline

@knichellogistic

@smc3_inc

@transporttopics

@kinaxis

@beckyjboyd

@uship

Jobs:

@logjobs

@getlogisticjobs

@transjobsnet

@jobsdirectusa

@ryderjobs

@logisticsjobs

Selecting Shopping Cart Software

Shopping Cart Software

The shopping cart software, or ecommerce platform you select for your online store is a lot more than just a way to enable customers to pay for orders on your website.  The right software will provide tools and support to not only sell more products but operate many other parts of your online retail business more efficiently.

If you are looking evaluate options for selecting a shopping cart program click here.

The following is a list of ways a comprehensive shopping cart software/ ecommerce platform helps an online retail store.

• Payment Processing – payment support for credit card processing, PayPal or other methods of processing payments
• Webpage Design – including step by step wizards and store front design templates to get your store setup plus most will also integrate into the backend of your existing website
• Inventory Control – processes to keep track of your inventory, set up low inventory alerts and generate reports
• Shipping – tools that calculates shipping costs for orders with integration to small package carriers like FedEx, UPS, and the USPS
• Tax Calculation – help to calculate sales taxes, which is complicated to handle on your own
• Customer Management – reporting and purchase history for customers
• Marketing – integrated information on affiliate programs, search engine optimization, social network marketing, site analytics, and conversion optimization
• Security – protection of confidential information for your customers
• System Integration – connection to the software with your ecommerce order fulfillment provider

Plus a few more ideas....

• Administration and Inventory Control – Functionality to support business needs from Account and Inventory to Mobile Applications
• Marketing – Support with social media connectivity, cross-selling and up-selling at checkout
• Support – Features like SSL secure checkouts, fraud protection, backup, restoration, and cookies
•  SEO – Control over title tags and descriptions to help maximize the store for search engine optimization
• PCI Compliant Hosting – A Payment Card Industry compliant hosting environment
•  Up-Selling and Cross-Selling Features – Offering customers products of a greater value that what they are considering plus offering complimentary products
• Product Reviews – Enabling customers to post reviews of products on the site
• Price Management – Flexible options for pricing enabling promotional or other pricing options
• Catalog Management – Simple, set up and addition of products on store including images
• Site Analytics – Monitoring of site activity and user tracking for optimization
• Product Feed Support – Able to create a feed of your products to shopping comparison sites

We need more supply chain experts on executive boards

Tim Cook, Apple’s new CEO, was originally hired by Steve Jobs back in in 1998 as the Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations before he was promoted to COO in 2007. His experience in manufacturing, logistics and the supply chain prior and during his tenure at Apple has helped make Apple’s supply chain one of the industry’s best and a large part in the technology company’s meteoric rise.

Should more technology companies follow suit and place supply chain expertise on the executive board? Michael Koploy, ERP Analyst at SCM Software Advice argues that the current state of the global economy and the importance of supply chains to successful tech companies means more executive positions should be filled with supply chain graduates.

Unfortunately, a supply chain talent crisis is holding back the industry from being able to place more graduates on the executive board. Ken Cottrill discusses the lack of high-level supply chain talent in his whitepaper Are You Prepared for the Supply Chain Talent Crisis? If and when talent catches up, Koploy believes that individuals with the following characteristics will be the most capable of C-level ascension:

• Global supply chain management experience
  
• Experience managing a team that adheres to just-in-time, lean and Kanban fundamentals
  
• Supply chain management (SCM) software experience using solutions equipped with business intelligence (BI) and forecasting/planning functionality
  
• Ability to organize and execute both operational and strategic supply chain initiatives and improvements.
  

More more on the topic, check out Koploy’s blog post on the topic at: Consumer-Driven Technology Creates the Need for a C-Level Supply Chain Focus.