Tips for Cutting Parcel Shipping Costs during this Peak Season

Tips for Cutting Your Parcel Shipping Costs this Peak Season

You know the numbers - ecommerce is a $5.38 billion dollar industry. With the global pandemic pushing 10 years of US e-commerce growth into just 3 short months, ripples were sure to be felt throughout the supply chain landscape. Businesses were forced to adapt with contactless shopping and online shopping initiatives just to survive.

ProShip Tips for Managing Transportation Spend

So now that businesses have survived the 2020 peak season and saw the strain on their shipping budget, how can they better prepare for the upcoming peak shipping season?

ProShip shipping experts have 3 hot tips for managing your transportation spend:

Expand Fulfillment Locations

According to Pitney Bowes, Amazon is now one of the top deliverers of parcel shipments, ahead of FedEx for the first time, delivering nearly 16% of the total volume of shipments. With the online giant pushing customer expectations for faster and cheaper deliveries, those who want to compete will need to be able to keep pace with other distribution tactics.

Some shippers were prepared when the pandemic hit and had alternative origin points for their shipments, but many were caught off guard. Faster shipments are made possible by decreasing the distance to the customer, which means less time in transit, and hopefully less cost per parcel shipped. Utilize all internal and external inventory sources, like distribution centers, stores, 3PLs, and manufacturers to improve the Customer Experience (CX) and keep shipping costs down. Retailers who place a strong focus on their fulfillment centers to ensure they continue to meet customer expectations when it comes to delivery will continue to flourish. [Learn More: 3 Fulfillment Centers Every Retailer Should Consider for Parcel Shipping]

Enhance Technical Functionality of your Enterprise Software Stack (ESS)

Employing business rules to automate your shipping process is an important tactic to utilize all the time but especially during peak season. [Explore more on Complex Business Rules] Once you have these kinds of shipping decisions automated, you can allow technology features like Advanced Date Shopping to take over to minimize costs. Shippers can input scheduling information, rates, special conditions, and other relevant data in real-time – without affecting or disrupting the productivity of your logistics workflow.

In addition, save money on labor costs because all these inputs can happen without bringing in a team of IT programmers to make adjustments. Customers get their shipments on time and shippers have an accurate, streamlined, and simple process, helping them avoid expensive last-minute next-day or overnight shipments. [Keep Reading: Advanced Date Shopping]

Uncertainty, like that from the pandemic, is best prepared for with flexible, automated, and advanced shipping capabilities. With a centralized solution, like a multi-carrier shipping software that manages all of your business rules from simple to complex, you can facilitate easy and quick changes that allow for cost savings throughout your supply chain.

Enrich your Shipping Data

One of the keys to success for companies like Amazon is utilizing their internal technology to gain access to the Business Intelligence (BI) living in their data. With retailers looking to compete on every level with Amazon, it’s all about optimizing BI with real-time insights and end-to-end visibility on all shipments from execution to post-carrier billing. When looking at your supply chain processes, a top-notch BI system can look at your service levels and mode used to make adjustments that will save you money, whether that is by reducing surcharges and accessorial fees or with the proper box sizes and packing fill.

Because this tool is fully integrated with ProShip’s multi-carrier shipping software, specifically the advanced business rule functionality, deep customizations are readily available to analyze the available data and even optimize processes throughout the rest of your ESS. Your TMS/parcel shipment execution gets an upgrade with proven market intelligence, empowering supply chain stakeholders at all levels of the enterprise – all the way to the C-level. [Transportation Business Intelligence Optimization: A Welcome Sight]

Tipping the Scales with ProShip

All 3 of our hot tips are proven strategies for dismantling the strain that peak shipping season (and the pandemic) has put on your supply chain budget. While retailers feel the added pressure on their budget, heightened customer expectations can only amplify that stress. If enterprise shippers don’t have the right shipping technology and tools in place to handle the volume and capacity of a peak, it can make or break your holiday season.

ProShip has the #1 trusted shipping software solution that can facilitate an omnichannel fulfillment strategy, offer advanced technological capabilities, and provide you with actionable insights from data-rich resources to optimize your time in transit and transportation spend. Schedule a call with our shipping experts to see how ProShip can accelerate your shipping strategy now and in the future.

ProShip Resources

Parcel Playbook 2021 for Retail
In this eBook, you’ll learn the lessons 2020 has taught us about parcel logistics and understand how you can translate them into winning shipping strategies in 2021 and beyond. Download Now!

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Choosing a Multi-Carrier Shipping Software
In this white paper, we explore the differences between the top enterprise shipping software vendors to quickly identify which platform will best suit your business goals. Download Now!

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Time to Break Up With Your Current Shipping Software
In the ebook, we look at why It might be time to match your needs to the offerings of various multi-carrier shipping platforms and break up with your current shipping software. Download Now!

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The Complete Guide to Ship-From-Store
In this guide, we detail how a ship-from-store strategy leverages store inventory to fulfill orders, which impacts your entire retail network - from supply chain to store operations and customer service. Download Now!

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More Resources from ProShip