Here are three strategies to optimize omnichannel fulfillment and overcome complexity.

Adapt to changing consumer shopping habits

3PLs have encountered ongoing challenges, including shifting consumer shipping trends that accelerated during the pandemic and continue to change today. Suddenly, your customers are asking you to handle not only B2B pallet shipments plus thousands of individual eCommerce orders. Continuing to meet your customers’ fulfillment expectations places immense strain on your resources.

To address this challenge, 3PLs should invest in scalable software and automation tools that optimize order processing. Automated systems will also maintain accurate stock levels and efficient inventory allocation between channels.

Meet varied fulfillment requirements

Your customers’ requirements can vary widely. Some may need special packaging, inserts or labeling. Others may work with various retailers, each with their own demands.

Keeping track of the requirements on your own can be daunting. Plus, these requirements frequently change, and non-compliance can result in chargebacks and strained relationships.

To ease this challenge, you can work with a third-party expert that tracks requirements and changes on your behalf. This partnership will boost your agility and responsiveness to your customers’ evolving needs.

Ensure your systems work together

Customizing processes and systems to meet diverse customer demands is part of your daily routine. But making all these customizations work together harmoniously is the real challenge.

For example, some customers may have straightforward Shopify integrations. Others demand point-to-point EDI connections for working with large retailers.

Building one-time connections to all your customers and systems creates a fragmented and unsustainable tech stack. To conquer this issue, it’s imperative to develop a comprehensive technology strategy. This strategy should encompass scalable systems and processes, a cohesive integration approach, and strategic partnerships to provide support in achieving your goals.

Avoid IT overload with SPS Commerce

Instead of taking on cumbersome IT projects to meet these needs, 3PLs can explore solutions that allow them to scale, optimize and connect their systems. This is where the SPS for 3PLs solution can play a vital role.

We understand the complexities logistics providers face daily. Our solution offers a single, standardized data feed into your system of record, whether that’s a custom-built system or an out-of-the-box WMS. This means you can focus your efforts on value-added activities that truly matter to your customers.

Connect with our expert team to explore how our tailored 3PL solution can help you stay in sync with your customers without straining your internal resources.

What is a packing slip?

A packing slip is a document, usually included inside a shipped package, that lists the items included inside that package. They usually contain information like the SKU numbers, dimensions, weights, and quantity of items – all the pertinent information a shipping department uses to determine how to fill an order. Instructions for returning an item are often included as part of the packing slip. The buyer can check the contents against a packing slip to make sure all the items are included in the shipment. 

Invoices may also be included with a shipment and seem similar to packing slips, even in how they’re formatted, but the function of each is quite different. A packing slip shows the physical objects that were included in a shipment, while an invoice details the financial information like totals, payments, payment date, etc. 

Branded packing slips contain the logo, colors, and font of the retailer or brand, and are of particular use in eCommerce shipments. They help tie the digital world where the order took place to the physical delivery of the items – a worthwhile connection to make when the customer is not visiting a brick-and-mortar location.

Why are packing slips important?

There’s more to branded packaging than just a logo on the packing slip. As retailers increase the number of orders they ship directly to consumers, packing slips can help enhance customer loyalty. Branded shipping materials remind consumers who they ordered from, and if they like how the brand or retailer performed, they’re more likely to become repeat customers. 

When online orders are delivered to a customer’s doorstep, they should include information about how to manage returns. While returns are a common occurrence, they’re often one of the last things retailers think about when they start drop shipping. Including return information in deliveries makes it easy for customers to return the items to the correct location, and when the return process is easy it reflects well on the retailer.

Aside from maintaining and building brand integrity, a branded packing slip is a useful paper trail when items are damaged or missing altogether. Sometimes SKUs from the same order are kept in different warehouses, necessitating that the order be split into separate shipments. In this instance, packing slips are a helpful way for the recipient to keep track of their ordered items. 

Providing correctly branded packing slips can also help suppliers and 3PLs avoid chargebacks. Retailers could potentially fine suppliers or 3PLs that aren’t following their packing slip requirements.

Creating packing slips at scale

Since many suppliers use a 3PL to handle their warehousing and shipping, it’s important for 3PLs and other logistics vendors to be able to create branded packing slips on a large scale, for each of their brands or retailers. This can be a huge undertaking for a logistics company.

Regardless of your IT capabilities, SPS Commerce can help you meet these requirements with three different options for creating branded packing slips. Customers who use SPS Fulfillment, our comprehensive order management program, can produce packing slips as part of their user experience. We have pre-built automation solutions for creating packing slips available either via our adapter or native within our system integrations. 

SPS Commerce also offers a service that allows vendors and 3PLs to accommodate the need for customized branded packing slips, inserts and more. Dev Center from SPS provides access to pre-made packing slip templates for any retailer. With these templates at hand, logistics providers can avoid custom builds for individual retailers, saving time and resources best spent elsewhere. 

The templated APIs from Dev Center incorporate the latest trading partner requirements for color, font size, logos and more. This helps ensure that 3PLs and vendors can easily stay in compliance with retailer requirements and avoid chargebacks. 

To connect to our Packing Slip API, check out Dev Center. Or if you aren’t a developer, look at our Fulfillment solution for additional packing slip options.

Need a faster way to create your drop ship labels?

Learn more about our API keys for Packing Slips and Shipping labels by checking out our API Developers Guide.

Check out the API Developers Guide

With each new trading partner and each new EDI solution, the costs can add up – both because of all the different EDI providers and all the time spent training, updating and using each individual EDI system.

It’s all completely unnecessary – you don’t need to sign up with a new EDI provider for every trading partner. By consolidating EDI services, you can subscribe to just one EDI provider to communicate with all of your trading partners.

One EDI solution to rule them all

Due to the nature of EDI, there’s no need to have more than one EDI provider. At it’s core, electronic data interchange (EDI) is simply a method for transferring standardized information, and standardized information is all that the trading partner wants from you. That’s also all you truly need from your trading partner, too.

What’s important is that the information is accurate and it’s provided in the right format so it flows through the systems and supply chain smoothly, accurately, instantly.

And that’s the whole point of EDI in the first place.

It’s also why having too many EDI solutions can be a problem. The phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup” could be easily applied to EDI – “too many EDI solutions spoils the benefits.”

EDI should be easy, not hard

Some of the benefits of EDI solutions are to increase efficiency, boost accuracy, decrease errors, streamline order management processes, reduce data silos, support omnichannel strategy, improve inventory visibility and more.

Most of those benefits are lost when you use many EDI solutions instead of just one. Each EDI solution must be calibrated and tested individually; then each one will require updates that could happen at different times or all at the same time, straining staff and resources, possibly delaying document processing and angering trading partners. Separate EDI portals increase data silos, with the potential to muddy inventory visibility and product performance. Switching between multiple EDI portals can bog down order management processes, slow fulfillment and increase the chance for errors.

When consolidating EDI services to just one provider, you work in one system, make changes in one system, recalibrate and test just one system, maintain and support one system. When you add new trading partners, you don’t have to invest in the new hardware, software, staffing and budget required for another EDI service. You don’t have to worry about learning a new system and all of its quirks. Data silos between EDI systems will be a thing of the past.

EDI services not created equal

Services offered vary from one EDI provider to another. Several EDI solutions can process a wider variety of EDI documents, while some are more limited in their transaction capabilities. One EDI solution might be able to handle larger order volume spikes better than the next. Not all EDI systems are compatible and integrable with other important systems, like certain ERP systems, accounting software and content management solutions.

Support for adding new trading partners to the system and updating their requirements when needed varies as well. For example, a standard service included in the SPS EDI solution is adding and updating all trading partners and their requirements. Our time tested and proven system results in 100% compliance, no matter which EDI system your trading partner ses. After the EDI launch, any time a new trading partner is added or an existing one needs a document template or map updated, SPS takes care of it.

Additional services enhance EDI

Once all of your EDI services are under one roof, and all of your EDI data is being translated through one single source of truth, it makes sense to invest in add on services to enhance your EDI experience. These are like frosting and candies on the EDI cake. Not all EDI providers offer a range of services, though, so it takes some research to find a solution with all the bells and whistles you want, both for what you need now and what you’re planning for future growth.

For example, SPS Commerce offers a suite of supply chain solution options to add layers of opportunity for vendors, suppliers, manufacturers and brands beyond EDI.

• Sourcing – With the SPS Commerce sourcing network, you can showcase all your products, fulfillment and technology capabilities with a rich profile to connect with more buyers.
• Assortment – Get stronger sales with better management of item attributes to give trading partners and consumers the product information they need for addressing important buying decision factors.
• Analytics – Dig deeper into the data with analytics to find hidden patterns, insights and opportunities to optimize your performance across all channels.

The best EDI provider

If you’re going to narrow down all of your EDI services to one provider, you want to make the best choice for your situation. However, the best EDI solution will vary based on your business’s individual requirements and how you’d like EDI to integrate across multiple systems (WMS, CRM, accounting software, et.).

It’s easy if you’re working with an EDI provider that you like, and which fits your needs. But if you’re unhappy with your existing EDI setup, consider consolidating EDI services with a provider and solution that works for your business. Review what systems you have, what capabilities you need, then evaluate the providers that are available. Make sure to choose the one that offers all of the services, support and extra “nice to haves” that fit your existing needs, budget and future plans.

If you’re considering consolidating EDI services, consider SPS Commerce to handle all of your EDI needs. Contact an SPS representative to find out why SPS is trusted by more than 50,000 business in 60 countries around the world.

Despite its phenomenal growth and constant media attention, Amazon is still smaller than Walmart and only controls a small portion of the overall retail market. Yes, it is getting an amazing amount of search volume online and more than 50 percent of product searches start there, but here’s the thing: Retailers can use all of that to their advantage by opening up their own “store” on Amazon. Amazon Marketplace is a collection of third-party retailers and vendors who are selling products through the Amazon platform, taking advantage of the same fulfillment, free delivery and shipping promises that consumers have come to expect.

Marketplaces beyond Amazon

But Amazon Marketplace is not the only marketplace available. There are several other marketplaces dotting the ecommerce landscape, and they’re all having an effect on the retail industry. Many people are already familiar with eBay and Etsy, but there’s also Rakuten.com, NewEgg.com, Bonanza and Overstock.com are just a few of the different retail marketplaces available to consumers. That also means they’re an available sales channel for retailers as well.

Of course, not all marketplaces are created equal, and you don’t have to be on every one. For example, NewEgg is more about tech and electronics (though it does offer clothing along with automotive, sporting, and industrial products), while Overstock.com is geared more toward home goods and some fashions. And Rakuten.com (formerly Buy.com) has a heavy consumer base in Europe and Japan, opening up the possibilities of finding new consumer markets.

Marketplaces: Where consumers shop

Multi-merchant shopping portals are now a bigger part of online retailing in the U.S. than ever before. In fact, 97 percent of U.S. consumers who shop online do so on marketplaces, according to a 5,000 shopper study published in June 2017 by UPS and comScore Inc. That’s up 85 percent from the previous year.

Many marketplaces function like an online mall. Rather than being about just one thing or type of product, such as electronics or home goods, these marketplaces carry many different product lines from many different suppliers, all carried under one roof.

But finding the marketplaces where your customers spend their time can help you 1) reach customers you already have by being where they are, and 2) reach new customers who might not know who you are. This means that not only are you selling your products, but it’s a marketing tool that lets you promote your brand as well.

If you understand the demographic and geographic information about your customers, you can use that information to decide which marketplace is better for your brand. The stores are easy to set up, the products descriptions are easy to upload, and you can fulfill the products from your warehouse or stores, or you can have some of the larger e-retailers handle it for you.

For retail brands that are considering having their stores fulfill ecommerce and drop ship orders, these retail marketplaces can be one more channel to help you move in-store inventory.

Whether you want to sell products on Amazon Marketplace, or any other network of retailers or suppliers, SPS Commerce can help you find a solution. To learn more about our cloud-based software solutions, please contact an SPS representative today.