Basic functionality: no shipping platform available
- User takes pick list printed from selling platform and uses it to pick item(s)
- User packs items into appropriate box using appropriate materials creating a ready-to-ship package
- User manually weighs and measures package
- User copies customer address from selling platform into carrier or PC postage website
- User enters shipping parameters for package into selected carrier’s label-generation webpage, compares available rates/delivery speed and selects best carrier/service level
- User prints and affixes label to package
Advanced functionality: shipping platform available
- Shipping parameters, including order weight, have most likely processed in last step as part of the API download process from the selling platform
- Shipping platform (with some level of input from shipping administrator) performs rules-based assignment of shipping box/envelope/polymailer and adjusts order’s weight based on this assignment
- Picker prints pick list and picks similar items for multiple orders (batch picking) or picks per order and places in a bin
- Shipping platform determines best carrier based on shipping parameters (weight, dimensions, customer-selected shipping option, address type, etc.) then generates shipping label
- Alternatively, shipping platform maps orders/shipments to carrier and service based on shipping rules, or
- Shipping platform may offer predictive analytics to assign carrier and service selections based on historical patterns
- If multiple distribution locations exist, a good shipping platform can organize orders by location so pickers at each location can easily select and print their specific pick lists onsite.
- Shipping platform routes shipping labels (and packing slips) for a batch of orders to the appropriate printer based on the selected carrier, then it prints labels.
- Labels (and packing slips) should print in a predictable order based on:
- Order number
- Sequence that an order was selected in shipping platform, or
- Sequence the order appeared in a batch
- Shipping platform updates selling platform in real time (via API or other data exchange channel) with:
- Carrier tracking information
- Order status update (“shipped”)
- User packs boxes from bins, checks items against packing slip and affixes sequential labels in an assembly line
- Labels (and packing slips) should print in a predictable order based on:
