How Shipping APIs Can Improve Your Delivery Speed and Accuracy

Every year the eCommerce sector undergoes some transformation with emerging innovation and increasing customer expectations for better features. But one thing that has remained forever constant is customers’ expectations for on-time and in-full deliveries. There is no room for errors when it comes to ensuring speed and accuracy of every delivery to your customers.

The best way you can monitor and direct your carriers to complete successful deliveries, or resolve shipping issues is through shipping APIs. Shipping API is a medium for information exchange between eCommerce websites and carriers for fulfilling important functions like order tracking.

Shipping APIs also play a critical role in crafting a delightful post-purchase experience for your shoppers. If you send order notifications, branded tracking, and easy return label generation, you’ll increase your NPS (Net Promoter Score) and get word-of-mouth referrals. Again, the easiest way to do this is through shipping APIs.

With so much said, are you interested to know what else shipping APIs can do for your eCommerce business? That’s exactly what we’ll be discussing in this article.

What are Shipping APIs?

Shipping APIs can be understood as a connecting link between carriers and your native e-commerce platform. It is a program that enables you (the client) to access the required shipping capabilities of your carriers (the server). For example, you can request tracking data from your carriers, or get digital  proof-of-delivery.

Since most businesses partner with more than one shipping carrier, it’s useful to integrate with a multi-carrier shipping software instead. These software have an umbrella network of APIs connected natively with hundreds of shipping carriers. This way, you can integrate with one software to create, manage, track, and cancel orders with all your partner carriers. 

It is fair to say that APIs allow you to get all the benefits of a multi carrier shipping software right from your tech stack. There are many ways these APIs can help you increase delivery accuracy and maintain the speed as established in your SLA with carriers. Let’s take a look at the most commonly used shipping APIs by eCommerce companies.

Top 4 Popular Shipping APIs for eCommerce

1. EDD API

No checkout is complete without an estimated delivery date when 80% of customers want brands to showcase EDDs accurately. This is why the EDD API comes in handy. It can pinpoint the approximate date of delivery when customers can expect to receive their orders. 

EDD APIs perform a complex amount of calculations, considering the bandwidth of different carriers, the customer locations, etc. This way, it can predict near accurate delivery times for consumers. 

2. Shipping Label Generation API

The process of order manifestation is incomplete without generating shipping and in case of reverse logistics, return labels. APIs are digital tools that automate manual processes. 

Without an API, you’d have to go to every single carrier’s website, create shipments, find the right shipping template, download them, and print them. So, if you ship high volumes of order every day, you’d most probably have to arrange an extra staff just to take care of order manifestations manually. 

On the contrary, an API will automate the shipping label generation process. It’ll swiftly connect with carriers and carry out the time-consuming processes in a matter of minutes. In addition, it’ll reduce the possibility of errors, duplicate or missing labels hindering your order fulfillment cycle.  

3. Address Validation API

One of the foremost tasks of shipping APIs is to validate customer addresses which is usually the pincode of their location. All shipping APIs have access to carriers’ serviceability data. Hence, it can validate if the customer’s area is correct and within reach of carriers. 

Address validation helps tremendously in removing shipping exceptions, especially failed deliveries owing to wrong customer addresses. Therefore, embed this API into your checkout page to ensure that you deliver to the right address every time. 

4. Tracking API

Order tracking is the foremost criteria determining the quality of post-purchase experience that customers get. Studies have shown that at least 4 out of 10 customers check their order status daily, so they expect to have tracking details every single day. And what better way to give them this essential service than an order tracking API.

It’s best to integrate with a shipping API service that uses both push and pull API that work in tandem to extract order status from carrier’s at regular intervals. Tracking APIs automatically push this information to a tracking page (ideally a branded one) from where customers can monitor their shipment’s arrival. 

4 Ways Shipping APIs can Improve your Delivery Speed and Accuracy

We’ll cover four of the benefits of using the above-mentioned shipping APIs in enhancing your existing delivery speed and accuracy.

1. Keep customers in the loop 

The best advantage of shipping APIs is their ability to retrieve information in real time. An API can fetch a package’s location as it crosses every milestone en route towards its final destination. It then helps you provide this detail to customers on time. This way, you not only reduce their anxiety but also lower WISMO (where is my order) inquiries. With consistent updates, first-time consumers convert into repeat buyers.

2. Get the latest carrier information  

You can leverage the automation feature of a multi-carrier shipping API to get shipping rates from all your courier partners on a single dashboard. Further, you can save up on logistics expenses by choosing the most cost-effective option at hand. 

3. Get Customers Excited for Delivery 

Keep your customers in the mood for unboxing their packages with real-time tracking updates. Not providing this small piece of information can be a major turn-off for many customers and a real deal-breaker for future purchases.  

4. Generate shipping labels in Seconds

A great feat that shipping APIs are capable of is generating shipping labels to complete the order manifestation process at one go. When shipments are created on-time, they can leave the warehouse on-time and reach customers on the promised delivery date. Shipping APIs save time and costs for businesses. You can even generate shipping labels in bulk. 

When Should E-Commerce Businesses Consider Using a Shipping API? 

Higher order volumes can be very difficult to handle unless you automate tasks like getting tracking information and printing labels. While, there’s no “best time” for any eCommerce to start using a shipping label, if you’re a growing store, there’s no better time to use it than now.

However, if you’ve just launched your store then it’s advisable you find free APIs to avoid having extra logistics costs. You can expand to specialized ones as you grow your business.

Final Thoughts

There are multiple benefits of using a shipping API, especially since it can transform your business from a beginner to a pro. From order creation to tracking at the time of final delivery, shipping APIs handle the bulk of the steps involved in achieving a satisfying customer experience. We hope this article has helped you understand how shipping API can improve your delivery accuracy and speed.