Shipping Software

What is shipping software?

Shipping software helps eCommerce businesses coordinate the shipment of goods and packages to customers or other business locations. The tool is capable of calculating shipping rates, printing shipping labels, providing real-time tracking information, and also tracking inventory. Automation of these tasks helps businesses reduce shipping costs and improve customer satisfaction.

What is the best shipping software?

There are multiple shipping software solutions for small businesses available on the market. Knowing which one will be the best shipping software for your small business is a difficult task. Understanding what exactly you need this tool for should be your first step toward finding the right shipping solution. You can refer to GetApp’s shipping software Category Leaders report to find the best tools on the market. This report highlights top-ranking shipping software based on ease of use, functionality, value for money, likelihood of recommendation, and customer support ratings.

How much is shipping solutions software?

Shipping software costs in the following price ranges*:

• $10 - $14

• $15 - $34

• $35+

Most products in the market are priced on a per-month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.

What does shipping software do?

• Order management: Organize, track, and monitor customer orders and ensure all orders are being fulfilled.

• Shipment price calculation: Calculate shipping rates on the basis of size, weight, route, time frame, and carrier of the order.

• Shipment tracking: Track the physical location of multiple carriers in real time via a tracking number that the tool assigns to each order.

Why use shipping software?

• Optimize delivery route: Shipping software helps identify the best route for order delivery. The tool analyzes route options based on factors such as traffic and distance and recommends the quickest route. If you often struggle while planning routes that involve multiple deliveries, using shipping software can ease your job.

• Generate labels and invoices: The shipping tool automatically generates shipping labels, invoices, and other documents related to transit based on the received order details. You also get the option to customize these shipping labels and add your logo and other branding elements. If you are tired of manually creating labels and invoices, investing in shipping management software will be a wise decision for you.

• Create shipping reports: When you use shipping software to manage your orders from the point of receiving an order to its delivery, you end up collecting tons of data. This data includes customer information, issues during the shipment fulfillment process, and delivery route details. Shipping software is capable of analyzing this data and generating reports such as the average delivery time, shipped orders, and shipping costs that help you understand your shipping process.

How does shipping software help SMBs?

• Keeps customers informed: The shipping solution sends regular updates via emails or text messages informing customers about order confirmation and order fulfillment status. The tool also generates a tracking number for the shipping carrier, which is shared with the customers, along with the details of the fulfillment partner. Customers can use that number to track their shipments manually. For a small business, this means that its customers are well-informed at every stage, which, in turn, also helps increase customer satisfaction.

• Reduces human error: Manual work is always prone to errors. Copying one digit of a customer's address wrong can become the reason for a failed delivery. Shipping management software takes away this risk as the tool automatically generates bills and invoices by using data provided by the customers. Other automation features, such as finding the best route, calculating shipping costs, and sending out order fulfillment messages and priority emails, also help SMBs avoid human errors.

• Helps with inventory management: Shipping software allows SMBs to perform periodic cycle counts, monitor inventory levels, and streamline supply chain efficiency. Some tools also support product identification by linking barcodes or serial numbers with specific items and track inventory based on product attributes such as weight, height, lot, batch, date, and serial number.

Sources

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from GetApp's shipping software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the GetApp's directory that offer them.

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of December 19, 2022. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list includes pricing for the base plans of most eCommerce shipping software. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as multiple shipping options, multi-carrier shipping, detailed sales channel reports, international shipping, print shipping label, air shipping, and eCommerce management.