Shipping management is a very important part of organizing an efficient e-commerce and is the final step in the sales process. The level of speed and quality in the processing of shipments weighs heavily on customer satisfaction, so much so that it affects their choices and whether or not they will return to purchase from the same site in the future.
The more traditional method of order fulfillment involves the e-commerce manager entering the data for each shipment directly on the courier portal and, once the package has departed, communicating the tracking data to the customer. Such a method may work if there are only a few orders to be handled, but as soon as the workload becomes more substantial this approach begins to be very slow and prone to data entry errors.
How sales managers work
To overcome this problem, there are some applications that specialize in automating shipment management.
This analysis will compare some of the most popular systems: Packlink PRO, Qapla’ and ShippyPro. The concept behind these applications is the same: all three allow the e-commerce site to interface with the courier portal. In addition, each of them offers plugins for popular e-commerce systems and major domestic and international couriers.
✓ E-commerce supported:
Amazon, eBay, Magento, Shopify, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Zen Cart, Aruba, ePRICE, Etsy, AliExpress, Privalia, Wix, Shopware, etc.
✓ S upported carriers:
Bartolini, Poste Italiane, UPS, TNT, SDA, Nexive.
✓ E-commerce supported:
Magento, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify, Storeden, VTEX, WooCommerce, MagicStore, Amazon, eBay, ePRICE, AliExpress, Privalia, Groupon, ibs.co.uk, Spartoo, etc.
✓ S upported carriers:
Bartolini, DHL, FedEx, GLS, Nexive, Poste Italiane, TNT, UPS, SDA, as well as numerous international couriers and foreign postal services (Austria, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, etc.).
✓ E-commerce supported:
Amazon, Magento, Shopify, eBay, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, ePRICE, Privalia, ibs.co.uk, OpenCart, Etsy, Odoo, Spartoo, etc.
✓ S upported carriers:
DHL, UPS, FedEx, GLS, SDA, Bartolini, Nexive, Poste Italiane, TNT, as well as numerous couriers and foreign postal services.
What are the prices of these operators
Packlink Pro: has no fixed costs but payment is made on a per shipment basis. The system compares the rates of supported couriers and allows you to choose which one to use.
ShippyPro: starting at 29 euros per month with the ability to connect 3 couriers and unlimited sales channels.
Qapla’: starting at 39 euros per month the plan that handles only tracking, while the plan that allows you to automate all processes comes 79 euros per month, with 5 sales channels, no limit on couriers and a maximum of 400 orders per month.
…Which manager is best to rely on? The choice depends on multiple factors, including the e-commerce you run, how much you sell, where you need to ship to, and finally, how much budget you have.
