Watch out Amazon – we’re starting an ecommerce shipping revolution! Shipping Insights is the newest addition to our arsenal of leading ecommerce shipping optimization tools. This new feature is the ultimate bridge between checkout experience and post-order fulfillment. Now, any merchant can achieve optimal operational efficiency.

Right now, the checkout, shipping, and fulfillment processes are pieces of the ecommerce puzzle that cause merchants the most headaches. In fact, shipping at checkout is the moment of truth before purchase – 48% of potential customers abandon their online carts due to extra costs related to shipping!  Fortunately, when ShipperHQ was founded in 2015, we made it our mission to develop power shipping and checkout experience optimization tools to make the lives of ecommerce merchants easier. Our software already optimizes the shipping experience at checkout for both merchant and customer by helping to solve logistical shipping and conversion issues before they start. Now, we’ve decided to take our technology past the checkout with Shipping Insights and help online sellers master their post-purchase fulfillment strategy as well.

Say Hello to Shipping Insights 

Goodbye, wasted time and money due to disconnected shipping and fulfillment strategies! We’ve solved the age-old and massive operational pain point of not having easy access to essential shipment information after a customer places their order. Our new Advanced Feature Shipping Insights creates synergy between the customer’s checkout experience and the merchant’s fulfillment processes. With increased visibility into shipment details, merchants can fully understand rate calculations and how the quote is generated. Now, merchants are armed with the right tools to fine-tune their shipping strategy and enabled to meet the time and cost promises made to the customer at checkout.

Let’s Break It Down

Shipping Insights connects the front-end checkout experience to your back-end processes with a viewable client app (on Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Magento 2) and customizable API (available for Shopify, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and Magento 2) where merchants can easily access costs, methods, packing info, origins, and dates:

Preview of Shipping Insights' organized shipping details
  1. Shipping carrier, method chosen by the customer, and destination type
  2. LTL information like Freight Class, Liftgate, Accessorials 
  3. Original shipping costs before discounts/surcharges applied
  4. Breakdown of any additional surcharges/discounts/handling fees
  5. Shipping origins and what items were included in each shipment for multi-origin orders
  6. Delivery date shown to the customer at checkout and the dispatch date required to meet the delivery date
  7. Which boxes & box sizes that ShipperHQ packed the order into, the product SKUs in each box, and package weight
  8. Location data for pickup from store and ship to store orders
  9. When split shipments are used or an order, a breakdown per shipment of costs, origins, etc will be included

So, Why Did We Build It?

We’re constantly iterating on our product to solve the most prevalent issues merchants are facing, and right now those issues are fulfillment related. Delivery delays and fulfillment inefficiencies are often due to lack of visibility into order and shipment details after a customer has completed their order. With this feature, ShipperHQ’s platform does the hard part by calculating, passing on, and storing the right rates, for the right boxes, with the right delivery dates inside the supported ecommerce platforms. Through the viewable client app and API, we bridge the information gap between the checkout experience and the post-purchase fulfillment. Plus, with our Shipping Insights API, any merchant can increase automation by using our stored order data to build an integration to their post-purchase solution.

What Does Shipping Insights Mean For Merchants?

With Shipping Insights, we’ve created an end-to-end solution by supplying the merchant’s fulfillment process with the data specific to the checkout options selected for each order. Merchants who utilize this powerful feature will have: 

  1. Happier Customers: Meet customer expectations with dispatch dates necessary to meet the delivery dates displayed for the shipping method chosen by customers at checkout. 
  2. Reduced Shipping Costs: Finetune strategy to save on shipping margins with a newfound understanding of shipping rates calculated at checkout with breakdown of carrier, method, and all shipping costs including handling and accessorial fees. 
  3. Better Quality Control: Improve fulfillment processes with our detailed overview of multi-warehouse order fulfillment, packing, and shipping origins for each order.
  4. Improved Support and Process: Answer customer queries intelligently while implementing operational changes where necessary with our easily accessible shipping details.
  5. Optimized Operational Efficiency: Achieve complete efficiency with essential information around how the shipping rate calculation was made.

How It Works

Before Shipping Insights: 

Workflow for order conversion before Shipping Insights
Before Shipping Insights

With Shipping Insights:

Workflow for order conversion after Shipping Insights
After Shipping Insights

To start using Shipping Insights, simply turn on the new Advanced Feature. ShipperHQ will begin storing the detailed shipment information that is used to calculate the rate provided by us at checkout.

Shipping Insights in Action

Shipping Insights will be a groundbreaking technology for all ecommerce merchants. Here are some ways in which this data will be crucial for doing business in a post-pandemic world:

Time-Sensitive Delivery: During the holidays or special occasions, most customers’ online orders are time-sensitive. According to Convey, 98% of consumers confirm that on-time shipping impacts brand loyalty, and 84% report they are unlikely to return after just 1 negative experience. When used with our Delivery Date and Time feature, Shipping Insights will provide merchants with the dispatch date needed to meet the delivery date shown to the customer at checkout, enabling them to meet high customer expectations for on-time delivery. 

Tecovas, a ShipperHQ customer, shows delivery dates at checkout. Shipping Insights lets them know exactly what dispatch date is needed to meet the delivery date shown to customer at checkout.
Tecovas, a.k.a the Warby Parker of Boots, Shows Delivery Dates Through ShipperHQ

Cost-Effective Packing: When Dimensional Packing and Shipping Insights are enabled, merchants can easily access packing details used to calculate the shipping rate shown to the customer at checkout. This allows merchants to actually pack products in the right boxes most efficiently, saving thousands of dollars a year. 

Cost effective packing example using ShipperHQ's best fit algorithm
Cost-Effective Rating with ShipperHQ’s Dimensional Packing

Multi-Origin Fulfillment: For merchants using multiple shipping origins, ShipperHQ’s multi-origin shipping logic automatically pulls in the rates for the most efficient fulfillment center. With Shipping Insights, merchants can see which items should be packed and shipped from each origin to streamline and speed up their fulfillment.

Moxi Roller Skates, a ShipperHQ customer, uses multi origin shipping to fulfill their order. Shipping Insights shows them which items, which boxes, will ship from which origin.
Moxi Roller Skates, Ships From the Most Efficient Warehouse with Our Multi-Origin Logic

Pickup Orders: Self-pickup options for online orders like In-Store and Curbside Pickup are becoming increasingly popular with customers. Business Insider projects that by 2024, in-store and curbside pickup sales will reach $140.96 billion in the U.S. To further enable merchants who provide these convenient options, Shipping Insights automatically displays the pickup location chosen at checkout.

Huggle, a ShipperHQ customer, offers their customers the gift of choice with In-Store Pickup. Shipping Insights allows them to see which pick up location is chosen at checkout.
Huggle, Giving the Gift of Choice with ShipperHQ’s In-Store Pickup

Join Our Shipping Revolution 

Strategic shipping and optimized operational efficiency is within reach now! Shipping Insights and API is now available to BigCommerce (API only), Shopify, Shopify Plus, and Magento 2 merchants on Standard, Pro/Advanced, or Enterprise plans. Check out our guide to Shipping Insights and API to see how you can start using our revolutionary technology today! 

New to ShipperHQ? Our team is here to help you master your ecommerce shipping strategy so you can gain a competitive edge. Reach out to sales@shipperhq.com or sign up for your Free Trial to transform your checkout and shipping experience!