Shipping Besties: Why 3PLs and DesktopShipper Make the Perfect Pair

Your management or ownership role in a third-party logistics (3PL) business may have left you wondering how to improve warehouse shipping. A lot needs to be considered and planned before warehouse shipments leave the door. 3PLs need to manage warehouse order information in order to receive customer orders and create shipments. Features like validating customer addresses and verifying inventory availability are equally essential. It is also important that they are able to efficiently prepare shipments for delivery. This involves picking and packing the shipment order, researching the best carrier rates, and printing shipping labels. Furthermore, 3PL warehouses need to allow their e-commerce sellers the ability to monitor their shipments throughout delivery, including tracking from pickup to in transit to proof of delivery. There are several issues that can interfere with warehouse shipping processes, including high shipping costs or inventory shortages that may indicate that your warehouse lacks real-time data visibility, for example. Fulfillment excellence requires warehouse and shipping operations to work in unison. 

It’s time to meet your new best friend: DesktopShipper. 

Having spent 18 years perfecting our shipping software, DesktopShipper stands behind the product we offer 3PLs. Our service offerings not only help you and your customers save time and money, but we also stand behind our commitment to creating custom business experiences and providing excellent customer service. This dedication leads to greater success for you. 

Order management can make or break a company, which is why it pays to invest in an automated shipping program to help create a clear picture of your company’s success. The ability to pull orders in real-time in a simple, versatile platform can do much to improve your company’s bottom line. DesktopShipper proudly offers an easy-to-read system to provide you with all the information you need in one simple, centralized view. 

In order to determine if DesktopShipper is the best shipping software solution for your business, it is important to understand your unique requirements and challenges. Here’s a list of features most beneficial for 3PLs:

Rate shop the best rates based on custom shipping rules and customer preferences: Automated shipping can help to reduce waste and boost your bottom line. DesktopShipper’s intuitive carrier routing feature allows you to map specific shipping methods to match every group’s needs. You can map a variety of preferences to create the most efficient shipping routes.

Link multiple workstations and warehouses for better control and visibility: You have the power to create custom profiles to set your unique shipping requirements for each customer. Our shipping software allows you to set your origin and return locations, link carriers to specific accounts, packing slips, marketplaces, and more. This feature is easy to use and lets you create as many profiles as you need.

Streamline printing carrier labels: Printing your labels can be simplified as well to save time. You can install our print app on any computer, providing access to any printers on your network. Our cloud-based shipping software can also link your printer to the cloud to let you create and send labels anywhere at any time.

Automate customized documents including pack slips and customs forms: Our order management system allows you to customize your packing slips in any manner you’d like! You have the power to change the packing slip size, print location, and assign personalized slips for each customer. This process allows you to further automate your shipping, relying on pre-made pack slips to get your products out the door.

Easily integrate with current systems: When trying to switch to a new platform, it is important to understand the stressors that changing from one platform to another could cause, especially when there is a need to integrate multiple existing systems. No fear! DesktopShipper is able to connect with a wide range of data sources through our ODBC integration. In addition, we offer over 100 other marketplaces, carriers, warehouse management systems, and other technology integrations, including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, BigCommerce, 3PL Central, VeraCore, Camelot 3PL, and Netsuite, among many others. Our set-up wizard and implementation team will guide you through set-up and ensure that you get shipping as soon as possible.

Automate adding diverse carrier options with ease: The addition of a new carrier option to your warehouse workflow may seem difficult, but it is not when DesktopShipper automates it. With DesktopShipper, your 3PL warehouse will run practically itself, faster, smarter, and more efficiently - from importing and managing orders to selecting the best shipping methods.

Improve delivery accuracy with address verification: Accuracy is vital when it comes to providing fast, reliable shipping services. DesktopShipper will double-check where all of your orders are going, providing real-time address validations to catch any errors before the product is sent out. If any mistakes are made, our address validation allows easy overrides.

Use versatile filters to organize orders: Fulfillment centers with large amounts of inventory can face challenges when it comes to properly organize and grouping products. Our solution allows you to create custom filters to group orders in order to match your metrics, including the product SKU, item locations, marketplaces, shipping method, and more.

Leverage versatile shipping options with the DesktopShipper API: Using DesktopShipper's shipping API, warehouses can take advantage of a variety of shipping options, working seamlessly with a variety of carriers to provide the best customer experience. By integrating USPS, FedEx, UPS, and a number of other APIs into your strategy, you can improve your shipping process.

As a result of current trends, online shoppers expect speed, convenience, and personalization. 3PL Warehouses need to value every moment between order placement and delivery in order to remain competitive. No matter the size or complexity of your orders, relying on the accuracy and security of our cloud-based order management system can help to increase your revenue. Partnering with the top carriers in the nation also helps to boost sales! With DesktopShipper, you can expect speed, flexibility, unprecedented performance, benefits to cost-management, and world-renowned security with uptime you can rely on.