Introducing a shipment tracking software to your business is a great decision. It will solve many of your problems related to returns, carrier selection, and delivery tracking while also improving and supercharging the process. However, a lot of thought must be put into selecting and integrating with this new technology.
From ensuring the accuracy of data to mitigating lags in service, there’s a lot that companies have to oversee to ensure a seamless integration. If you’re new to the process, we’ll be going over the best practices that eCommerce businesses should follow to smoothly integrate their shipment tracking solution.
What is a Shipment Tracking Software?
A quick recap before we get into the real deal, shipment tracking software allows you to fetch all location-based data for your products. You can set up a solution to provide automatic updates from picking to the final mile delivery or only receive notifications after a product is shipped from the warehouse.
A dedicated shipment tracking solution also helps you keep things transparent with your customers and lets them know the whereabouts of their products. You even have the option to manually track delayed orders and take action before potential NDRs.
8 Best Practices for Integrating with a Shipment Tracking Software
Let’s now explore the best practices eCommerce brands should note to make their integration journey seamless.
1. Set Your Goals Beforehand
The first order of business is to keep clear objectives. What is the main benefit you wish to receive from the process? Is it the solution’s real-time tracking features? Or its ability to provide you with analytical data for all your shipments? In any case, make sure that your team is aware of what you really want to leverage from the platform and the kind of quantified changes you want to see with this integration.
You can set goals related to having lower customer inquiries regarding a parcel’s location or reducing your annual logistics costs due to unwanted returns. These are just a few examples. Depending on your store’s order volume and demand, set realistic goals that you know are achievable via tracking software.
2. Secure All Data
No matter what kind of software integration you go with, ensure that you never compromise on your/your customers’ information. You can accomplish this by checking whether your integration solution is up-to-date and follows all data protection regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Once done, remember to check all your records for any anomalies and your network for any potential breaches. With consistent preventative measures, your IT team will safely integrate the new software within your eCommerce platform.
3. Pick an Integration Solution that Solves your Current Needs
We cannot stress this one enough. Don’t make the mistake of getting a pre-built connector when you’re looking for more customization. Rather use universal connectors that can easily function with your current set of workflows.
There are various ways to integrate an application with your platform so get one that can fulfill your main requirement. Do a little research beforehand and pick an API and connector that can integrate your desired tracking software.
4. Have a Backup Plan
Even if you use custom-built APIs, there’s always a chance for errors. Don’t be underprepared when the time comes to deal with such situations. Rather, have a backup plan and create workflows that instruct your team to find the main source of an issue such as bad data. Upon identification, your team can focus on solving it.
5. Practice Testing
Before you have the chance to encounter an error, ensure that your team performs rigorous testing with several use cases before giving the green light to use it.
An example is checking out whether your integration is providing consistent updates to your eCommerce platform for a package’s location. You can also test if your parcel tracking software is sending out real-time information or lagging to provide such information.
6. Enquire about Onboarding and Customer Support
Once your shipment tracking software is up and running, it’s smooth sailing from then on. Mostly. But even before you set it up, it’s important to enquire about the kind of support you can expect. Both at the time of onboarding and afterward.
Proper support at the time of onboarding can help you get integrated with the right carriers, choose the right services, and get started smoothly. Similarly, great customer support throughout your time using the software can help reduce issues quicker and resolve chronic problems.
7. Check Reputation and User Feedback
Put in a lot of research before choosing a shipment tracking software for different benefits for your eCommerce business. Many SaaS offerings promise a lot of things but don’t deliver. To prevent this before making an investment, read all that you can about the software of your choice.
Also, pay attention to what its former or current users say about it. Look keenly at positive and negative reviews and the year it was posted. If there’s an issue mentioned in a post more than a year old, it’s highly likely that the company has already rectified it. But just to be sure, check in with them about it and also any specific areas you want to improve upon.
8. Opt for Free Trials
A lot of ecommerce shipment tracking software in the market offer free trials for 15 days or even upto a month. We highly recommend opting for free trials if it’s provided by your preferred software. You may have decided upon what you want but how it performs can only be seen in action.
Free trials provide a great opportunity to try out different things before committing to any one. This way you know what you like and sometimes may even be surprised by how useful a service you thought you didn’t need turned out to be.
The Takeaway
Integration isn’t an easy journey for new eCommerce store owners. However, with well-defined goals and preventative measures, you can eliminate the common mistakes many make. Remember that the type of connector you use plays a key role in how any tracking application integrates with your eCommerce platform.