Shipping is a billion-dollar industry. In fact, the market exceeded $500 billion in 2020, with this figure only set to increase in the coming years. This is unsurprising given that one in five (20.3%) global retail sales come from online purchases.
And with e-commerce businesses so reliant on courier and shipping services to keep their customers happy, any brand worth its salt needs an effective supply chain. A huge part of this is the ability to easily manage and track orders.
This is why shipping tracking solutions have become such a pivotal tool for e-commerce business owners. In this guide, we’re going to look at what tracking solutions offer, the key benefits and most importantly, the best e-commerce shipping tracking solutions available right now.
What is shipping tracking software?
An e-commerce shipping tracking solution is a platform, either online or a cloud-based server, which allows businesses to manage their shipments better. Through these tools, they are able to process orders faster, but they are also able to monitor shipments, understand the cause of delays and offer more transparency to customers.
Essentially, these platforms are used to improve the supply chain and offer more visibility. Some of the other key benefits of shipping tracking solutions include:
- Being able to offer a better customer experience
- Reducing the number of customer support tickets or queries your business receives
- Giving you peace of mind about the status and location of your shipments once they are on the way to customers
- Allowing you to address customer concerns with more confidence and information
- Finding more ways to optimise delivery routes, save money or mitigate the risks of delays
- Providing proof of delivery
Now that we understand why these tracking solutions are so important let’s look at the best ones out there right now. This will help you to choose a tracking system that works for your business.
1. ClickPost
ClickPost is one of the world’s fastest-growing platforms, largely thanks to its multi-carrier integration system. As well as being able to track shipments, businesses can communicate with customers and easily handle returns. Some of the best features include:
- Integration with over 150 leading shipping carriers and sales channels, including Magento, WooCommerce and Shopify
- All orders can be tracked through a single-page view
- Offers an automated courier recommendation engine
- Through APIs, the platform can provide real-time data (up to the minute) from courier partners
- It also provides customers with access to branded tracking portals so they can track their parcels at home
- Automated NDR management reaches out to customers after failed delivery attempts
- It has the ability to track and reverse journeys when dealing with returns
This software also offers businesses more flexibility and efficiency, allowing the business to grow without having to worry about juggling multiple carriers, route optimisation and more. This makes ClickPost ideal for growing businesses that might wish to scale up quite quickly.
2. Aftership
Aftership is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) company that operates globally. Currently, over 10,000 retailers rely on their services, and it is often regarded as one of the best solutions for e-commerce shipping and tracking. Some of Aftership’s top features include:
- Sending regular updates to customers on different stages of the delivery journey
- Providing automated shipment tracking to retailers through tracking APIs
- Real-time tracking services
- Offering long-term data on shipping partner performances to help make the process more efficient
- Aftership is partnered with over 600 shipping companies and e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, eBay and Magento.
This solution is also easy enough to implement, offering quick integration with some of the most popular partnered shipping companies, selling channels and marketplaces.
3. ShipStation
Another global shipping and logistics software, ShipStation, can be integrated with lots of popular selling channels, including Squarespace, Shopify and Etsy. The platform offers businesses multiple payment plans depending on the services they need and the volume of shipments they need to handle each month. This is fairly reasonably priced for a global provider.
ShipStation is also one of the more user-friendly platforms and one that can be easily implemented and integrated with other sites. Some of the other key features include:
- Offering branded or customised packaging labels for shipping
- Providing regular stock reports for better inventory management
- The platform is also partnered with companies like QuickBooks, making accounting and tax much easier for users
4. MetaPack
MetaPack provides technology-enabled shipping software services on a global scale. The platform can be integrated with over 400 shipping partners and offers a huge variety of delivery and tracking services to its customers. The main function of MetaPack is delivery tracking updates and dispatch management, but some of the other top features include:
- Providing freight shipping, international delivery and supply chain management
- Customers will also get access to 350,000 storage facilities for pick-up and drop-off all around the world
- The platform assists with order management, offering shipping label creation, and helping with customs documentation
5. Narvar
The Narvar headquarters is based in San Mateo, California, but the company serves businesses in Europe, North America and Asia. They currently serve over 800 brands around the globe in 38 different countries.
The platform’s tracking system is incredibly accurate at estimating delivery dates to offer customers the best possible post-shipping experience. Other key features include:
- Offering real-time order updates
- The platform also helps with printing shipping labels and packaging products
- Narvar offers a Concierge service allowing customers to select a Concierge centre near them if they want to pick up orders or drop off returns
6. ShippyPro
Lastly, we have ShippyPro. A relatively new company, ShippyPro has already made a name for itself in the shipping and logistics industry. The focus of the platform is to save businesses as much time and effort as possible by removing manual tasks. For example, order creation, data entry, tracking orders and customer notifications. Some of the great features include:
- Offering automated shipping solutions like label printing, tracking updates and dealing with return requests
- They are integrated with over 20 e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, WooCommerce and Shopify
- They are also partnered up with over 130 carriers
ShippyPro is easy to use, making it popular amongst e-commerce business owners. The platform also offers streamlined, systematic solutions that make order tracking much easier.
