Despite its long-standing presence and functionality, traditional parcel transportation has been impacted by numerous challenges, including cost concerns, environmental impact, limited delivery slots, delayed deliveries, poor customer services, and manual processes.
Every minute passed, the urgency for innovative yet user-friendly solutions for parcel transportation management became more apparent. The need for a game-changer was undeniable.
Introducing multi-carrier shipping software development solutions offers hope and promises to alleviate these challenges and revolutionize the industry.
Many SMEs are adopting multi-carrier shipping software solutions for real-time asset monitoring and shipping tracking software requirements.
By 2033, the multi-carrier parcel management solutions software market is projected to experience a significant boost, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 9.7%.
This robust growth underscores these solutions’ growing recognition and adoption, instilling confidence in their effectiveness and future prospects.
Whether you are a business owner running your eCommerce firm or a user, a multi-carrier shipping software development solution for parcel transportation management can be a win-win situation for both. Besides, you must know every relevant detail to integrate or develop such a software solution into your business. And this blog will help you with every essential aspect.
Let’s get the ball rolling!
What Is Multi-Carrier Parcel Management?
Multi-carrier parcel management (MCPM) is a software solution, or you can call it a solution, that facilitates businesses in streamlining their shipping process. It includes working with various parcel carriers instead of only one.
The process of building software that can back businesses with proper shipping process management with multiple carriers option is a multi-carrier parcel shipping software development.
Why Build A Custom Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Solution?
Arriving with many benefits for businesses, multi-carrier shipping carriers streamline shipping operations and enhance efficiency. By harnessing the power of such an app or web-based shipping software, companies can improve their logistic processes, diminish costs, and hand over the best customer experience.
More aspects are there that can state why one should develop a multi-carrier shipping parcel shipping software:
1. Specific Needs
You can opt for an off-the-shelf multi-carrier software solution. Still, chances are high that it may not cater to specific workflows or seamlessly integrate with the companies’ existing systems. You hold the caliber to tailor custom software solutions to meet your unique shipping requirements.
2. Scaling Factor
With your growing business, shipping integration software should scale. A pre-built software may fail here because of its limitations and inability to handle the widening customer base.
3. Advanced Features
An off-the-shelf parcel shipping software, like custom reporting, can incorporate essential shipping management. Still, you must make a custom multi-carrier shipping software solution for advanced ones.
4. Security & Compliance
A custom solution ensures compliance with varied industry-specific regulations that provide you with complete control over data security.
5. Long-Term Cost Savings
An initial investment in custom software development may seem higher but will be more cost-effective than recurring subscription charges for a pre-built solution.
6. Improved User Experience
A custom solution crafted aligning with your existing workflows and systems improves user experience and your shipping teams’ efficiency.
7. Process Automation
Custom shipping software development facilitates the automation of repetitive, mundane tasks that minimize manual jobs and human error.
These parameters are enough to assert that a custom multi-carrier shipping software solution is better than an off-the-shelf solution.
Steps To Develop Custom Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Solutions For Parcel Transportation Management
Before you build a custom multi-carrier shipping software, you must plan carefully, hold technical expertise, and deeply understand your business needs.
Let’s start with the steps to follow:
1. Analysis and Planning
You should perform market research to understand the industry standards, opportunities, and potential gaps.
After that, define your project objectives, identify the target audience, and prioritize features per their complexity and importance.
Now, you have every essential aspect to plan your app development.
2. System Design & Architecture
Time to design a data model that can store and manage carrier details, shipment information, and user accounts. Go for API integrations of the carriers you want to integrate and plan the complete software architecture.
3. Development Phase
Now, develop the core functionalities, craft a user-friendly interface, integrate robust security measures, and perform rigorous testing of all functionalities.
4. Deployment & Launch
Pick a deployment strategy, provide the required user training manuals and resource support, and build a marketing plan to boost awareness of your new multi-carrier shipping software solution in your organization.
5. Ongoing Maintenance & Updates
Constantly identify bugs and release security patches to maintain software functionality and user trust. Continuously monitor industry trends and user feedback to grab new opportunities, stay updated with emerging carrier APIs, and implement essential modifications to maintain seamless integration.
Following the above-discussed steps and considering your project needs, you can build a custom multi-carrier shipping software solution to ease parcel transportation management, diminish costs, and improve customer satisfaction.
Must-Have Features In Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Solutions
Now, let’s decide which features and functionalities you can include in your multi-carrier shipping manager software. Here, you can find the basic and advanced features to make your app useful and meet users’ expectations.
| Features | Description |
|---|---|
| Carrier Integrations | Connect to different carrier APIs (e.g., UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL) |
| Shipment Management | Create and handle shipment profiles, including destination, weight, dimensions, and preferred delivery timeframe. |
| Rate Comparison Engine | Compare costs and service options from various carriers based on predefined rules (speed, cost, reliability). |
| Label Generation | Create shipping labels for the picked carrier with an automatic population of freight details. |
| Real-Time Tracking | Track shipments across every integrated carrier, offering visibility into estimated delivery date and package location. |
| Predictive Analytics | Analyze recorded data and anticipate potential delays, anomalies, or cost fluctuations. |
| Smart Rate Optimization | Leverage the power of algorithms to analyze real-time market data and propose the most cost-effective carrier and service option for every shipment. |
| Intelligent Address Recognition | Automatically validate and formalize locations during shipment creation. |
| Dynamic Route Optimization | Plan and optimize varied delivery routes depending on real-time traffic conditions, shipment priorities, and driver availability. |
| Customer Feedback Analysis | Gather and analyze customer feedback on their delivery experiences. |
Are Popular Multi-Carrier Shipping Solutions Available For Your Ecommerce Businesses?
This table lists essential features that a shipping solution should include. You can incorporate more per your target audience and their requirements to make your app thrive in the market.
In the market, you can find many leading multi-carrier shipping solutions for your e-commerce business, and you can meet customer satisfaction with seamless and on-time delivery.
Let’s put forth some popular ones below:
1. ShipStation
Available on the Shopify App Store, ShipStation is counted among the top multi-carrier international shipping software solutions that offer complete control over the shipping and delivery experience to the users.
As recorded in 2023, ShipStation’s revenue was caught on the peak with $7.0 million.
Top Features
- Allow printing of domestic and international shipping labels at the best price.
- Shop more in less time.
- Syncs orders from every eCommerce store, selling channels, and tools.
- Speeds up fulfillment.
2. Shippo ‑ Simplified Shipping
One more end-to-end multi-carrier shipping software, Shippo syncs Shopify orders and allows access to the best rates from about 40+ carriers globally, including USPS, UPS, and DHL.
One more end-to-end multi-carrier shipping software, Shippo syncs Shopify orders and allows access to the best rates from about 40+ carriers globally, including USPS, UPS, and DHL.
Per the latest report of 2023 of Shippo, the multi-carrier shipping software solution hit the average order value of around $120.09 across every product segment, a boost of about 46% year-over-year!
Top Features
- Connect to Shopify
- Automate workflows across the complete fulfillment journey
- Ship fast
- Branded shipping
- Generate return label
To build a Shopify shipping software solution, connect with a reliable Shopify app development company and watch your venture grow seamlessly.
3. AfterShip Package Tracker – Tr
With 5M+ downloads, AfterShip Package Tracker is known as one of the widely-picked software for shipping companies that track every online order and shipment.
Currently, AfterShip’s annual revenue has reached $58.1 million per year.
Top Features
- Used for all deliveries with local and international carrier
- Supports 700+ carriers
- Autodetect feature to find the needed carrier
- No ads app
Best at protecting your revenue by converting refunds into exchanges, Narvar Return and Exchange, a Shopify app, is purpose-built for Shopify merchants seeking to reduce costs and save sales.
Narvar, one of the top multi-carrier parcel shipping software, reported around $40 million in annual revenue in 2023, which was $22.8 million in 2020.
Top Features
- Offer adaptable exchange options.
- Convenient return options
- Make smarter decisions
5. eShipz – Shipping Automation
Specifically designed for enterprises, eShipz, an automated shipping software, helps process manual shipment from varied sales channels efficiently and faster.
According to the records, eShipz’s anticipated annual revenue has hit $2.6 m yearly.
Top Features
- Saves time, resources, and effort through automated processing
- Automatically integrates API with every famous carrier brand
- Generate packing slips and shipping labels in bulk.
You can find more multi-carrier software solutions that suit your business requirements and customers’ expectations.
Things To Consider Before Developing A Custom Multi-Carrier Shipping Software
You should consider some core parameters to build a custom multi-carrier shipping software to boost user experience, meet their expectations, and satisfy their shipping objectives.
Let’s talk about them below:
1. Business Requirements Analysis
Before kickstarting, you should understand your company’s unique shipping requirements, pain points, and workflows. Aim at the issues you are attempting to defeat using this software. So forth, you can learn how to prioritize features and ensure the software solution catches up with the business objectives.
2. Carrier Integration
Look for the carriers you want to integrate with and move ahead to access their API power. Keep track of varied aspects, like data security standards, cost of integration, and the wide range of services each carrier offers.
3. Scalability and Future Growth
Craft software with the caliber to manage current shipping volume and expected growth. Opt for scalable architecture that can bear boosting shipment numbers and user base with no performance glitch.
4. User Experience (UX) Design
Ensure you build a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and intuitive for every user, regardless of technical proficiency.
5. Cost Analysis
Evaluate the multi-carrier shipping software development pricing, potential ROI, and ongoing maintenance fees linked with a custom multi-carrier shipping software solution.
6. Compliance and Regulations
You must ensure your software solution follows every relevant shipping compliance and regulations for international and domestic shipments. This embraces security standards and data privacy laws based on your target markets and location.
7. Data Security and Privacy
Implement robust security measures to safeguard sensitive data, such as financial details, customer information, and shipment tracking data.
8. Testing and Quality Assurance
Perform rigorous testing of every functionality of the software for security vulnerabilities, bugs, and performance across varied operating systems and devices.
These aspects are crucial to consider in order to emerge with a valuable multi-carrier parcel shipping software.
Cost of Developing Multi-Carrier Shipping Software
The exact cost to develop a multi-carrier shipping software would require every project detail. On average, the cost of building a parcel shipping software starts at $15,000 and goes up. Well, the figure may vary depending on varied factors affecting the price.
Factors Affecting the Cost of Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Development
- Apps’ Complexity: The development cost increases with the product’s complexity. Simple software may cost less compared to complex software.
- Number of Features: Starting with basic features may cost you less, but the advanced ones can affect your budget.
- Developer’s Location: The per-hour cost of the developers you hire varies with the region. Every region offers distinctive costs, so you should choose according to your budget and needs.
- Development Platform: The cost to build an Android app varies from an iOS app development cost. So, decide accordingly.
How Can We Help You with Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Solution?
Hiring a team of software developers to build multi-carrier shipping software solutions can help you in several ways:
- Meet your business objectives by analyzing your requirements deeply
- Streamline carrier integrations and software implementation
- Improve functionality and expertise by incorporating advanced features
- Provide ongoing maintenance and support
While hunting for a leading software development company, you should go for EmizenTech, one of the widely chosen firms for multi-carrier shipping software apps or web development solutions. Why?
- Free Consultation
- Clutch Awarded (Clutch Champion for Spring 2024, Clutch Global Leader for Spring 2024)
- Competitive Pricing
- Team of Experienced Developers
- Agile Development Approach
- On-time Project Delivery
- Within budget services
- No Hidden Cost, etc.
Above all, if you want to integrate a multi-carrier shipping software solution into your existing system, this company will do it for you seamlessly and quickly, building a new custom software per your requirements with no data loss.
Conclusion
So, after taking a walk-through of this blog post, you have understood the fact that developing a multi-carrier shipping software solution for your business can help you with:
- Diminished shipping costs
- Improved visibility
- Improved efficiency
- Increased flexibility
- Enhanced customer satisfaction
- Competitive advantage, etc.
- Data-driven decision making
So, what’s the reason for the delay? Just tie your shoelaces, kickstart your journey to building a custom multi-carrier shipping software, and catch up with every relevant benefit.
Connect with a software development company now and advance your business!
Frequently Asked Questions
The former connects you with a single carrier, while the latter provides a one-stop solution to manage shipments and compare rates across multiple carriers.
No single “best” multi-carrier shipping software exists for every eCommerce platform, as the perfect choice relies on your specific business requirements and platform.
Some popular options you can consider are below that are categorized by platform:
Shopify – Shopify Shipping, ShipStation
BigCommerce – ShipStation, ShipperHQ
WooCommerce – ShipEngine, WooCommerce Shipping
Typically, it takes six months to 2 or even more years to develop custom multi-carrier shipping software depending on the project’s scope and complexity, team size and proficiency, development approach, etc.
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