Reducing the Complexity of Logistics with Shipping APIs

As ecommerce has exploded in popularity, managing shipping and fulfillment processes efficiently has become a major challenge. Increasing competition means highly optimizing all facets from checkout flows to get the best conversion, to logistical operations. You may have out grown off-the-shelf software and now are looking for the fastest and cheapest ways to customize your customer or employee experience. Whether you are scaling up a warehouse or setting up a 3PL, the once a simple task of shipping now involves complex logistics of integrating software with returns, warehouse management software, carriers, and internal systems across multiple facilities and regions.

For fast-growing online merchants, D2C brands, and omnichannel retailers, ad hoc shipping solutions strain under this complexity. Determining optimal workflows, carrier relationships, and technology stacks takes extensive planning. Building customized in-house systems requires significant investment in development and maintenance.

The Solution: Automation and Integration with Shipping APIs

Shipping APIs like ShipEngine provide a powerful alternative. They offer pre-built connections to all major carriers through a single integration point. This streamlines incorporating shipping into diverse ecommerce platforms, ERPs, WMSs, and other backend systems.

Carrier integrations can be challenging. Many use outdated protocols like SOAP and complex XML. Building and maintaining connections across multiple carriers is demanding. Shipping APIs handle this heavy lifting for you. You can reply on their teams constantly updating carrier integrations to handle API changes and additions instead of adding stress to your in-house resources.

Outsourcing the API maintenance with to a provider saves considerable engineering resources. Your developers avoid the complicated work of integrating with carrier systems. Instead, they can focus on creating differentiating customer experiences and order management functionality.

The Value of Shipping APIs

With any technology investment, the natural question is “Is it worth it?” For shipping APIs, the answer is a resounding yes. The automation and integration they provide deliver significant ROI through reduced costs, improved efficiency, and superior customer experiences.

Having a quick look at the documentation of an API direct from a carrier like USPS vs a provider like ShipEngine can help you decide rather quickly which provides the better developer experience. Let’s use the example of finding the cheapest shipping option between USPS and FedEx. You’ll have to write two API calls, one that returns XML and another that returns JSON. With something like ShipEngine, you just run a single call with your package and address information and it will return all the rate information you are looking for without having to suffer the context switching of multiple APIs.

Not only is effort saved, shipping APIs provide carrier accounts with significant savings. You will not have to negotiate with your carrier for discounts if you are a low volume shipper as the discounts are already built-in to the shipping API account. In addition to saving on postage, hundreds of thousands in labor cost reductions are common as staff hours previously spent on manual shipping tasks are eliminated. Customers experience faster and more accurate deliveries, driving loyalty. The benefits for enterprise brands often reach seven to eight figures annually - dwarfing the implementation and subscription costs.

Is a Shipping API a Strategic Investment?

In today’s intensely competitive environment, shipping can no longer be an afterthought. For D2C retailers, complex omnichannel networks, and brands expanding globally, delivery is a vital touchpoint impacting customer retention and lifetime value.

This means shipping technology merits evaluation as a strategic investment, not just a cost center. The automation and visibility that shipping APIs provide become competitive differentiators. Streamlined workflows get orders to customers faster and more reliably than competitors. Seamless tracking and returns experiences build loyalty.

Approached strategically, shipping APIs provide significant long-term advantages. The ROI goes beyond cost savings into customer experience, global reach, and brand differentiation. As shipping complexity increases, brands that invest in automation will pull ahead of ad hoc manual processors. The time to implement shipping API capabilities is now.

Key Benefits of Leveraging Shipping APIs

There are three core benefits of using a shipping API:

1. Automated Rate Shopping

   Shopping rates across multiple carriers is complicated. Rates vary based on package characteristics, destination, and service level. Keeping up with carrier discounts and surcharges is difficult.

   Shipping APIs provide a robust rate shopping engine. They quickly gather available rates across carriers and identify the most cost-effective option per parcel. Advanced APIs even allow configuring rules to choose services based on order value, delivery speed, and other factors.

   This automation reduces fulfillment costs substantially for high-volume shippers. No manual rate lookups are needed. Every package is dispatched at the optimal rate.

2. Label Generation and Address Verification

   Generating shipping labels for orders used to be a manual process. Employees had to log into carrier portals, enter addresses, and configure services. This was time-consuming and error-prone.

   With a shipping API, label generation is fully automated. Orders are sent to the API, which validates addresses, checks rates, and returns ready-to-print labels. Many systems even support injecting tracking codes into order statuses and customer notifications.

   Address validation improves deliverability. Shipping APIs check for inaccuracies and suggest corrections before labels are created. This avoids costly address correction charges and shipping to invalid locations.

3. Seamless Platform Integration

   Standalone shipping solutions often operate separately from core order management systems. This leads to disjointed workflows as data jumps between platforms. Shipping APIs eliminate this problem by integrating within existing stacks.

   Orders flow seamlessly from ecommerce engines, ERPs, WMSs, etc. into the shipping system. No manual transfer or rekeying is needed. Carrier confirmations and tracking updates are injected back into the source system automatically. This unified order-to-delivery view reduces latency and errors.

   The platform-agnostic nature of APIs is key. They connect just as readily to custom in-house systems as off-the-shelf SaaS platforms. Existing workflows don’t need major changes. Developers avoid rebuilding integration logic.

Overcoming Concerns About Implementation Time and Cost

Implementing any new technology requires an investment of time, money, and technical resources. This leads some organizations to opt for ad hoc shipping solutions or manual processes even as complexity increases.

While valid, these concerns overlook the long-term costs of cobbled-together systems. Shipping operations become inefficient and expensive to scale. Customer experience suffers from unreliable delivery estimates and tracking visibility.

Shipping APIs greatly mitigate implementation challenges. Connecting to a single API endpoint is far easier than managing connections to multiple carriers. Many platforms offer pre-built plugins and integrations for major ecommerce and ERP systems that reduce dev work.

Overall integration effort is measured in weeks, not months. Some quick wins like address validation can go live in days. Ongoing costs are predictable - tied directly to shipment volume rather than headcount for manual operations.

For lean ecommerce startups, shipping API solutions require minimal development resources, but provides powerful customization options to optimize workflows. Implementation is low-risk with the ability to incrementally add capabilities over time.

Driving Strategic Value Through Shipping Automation

Shipping automation is not just about tactical cost and time savings. It enables major strategic initiatives:

• Optimizing global expansion - Launching in new countries is simplified by rapidly incorporating regional carriers into workflows. Localized rate shopping and documentation requirements are handled automatically.

• Enabling omnichannel fulfillment - Integrated shipping facilitates BOPIS (“Buy Online, Pick-up In Store”), curbside pickup, and cross-channel order sourcing. Orders easily shift between facilities and channels while maintaining visibility.

• Scaling order volumes cost-effectively - Automation allows fulfilling significantly more orders without linearly growing staff. Bottlenecks are eliminated.

• Delivering competitive customer experiences - Accurate delivery estimates and proactive tracking updates delight customers. Shipping confidence drives loyalty and repeat purchases.

For strategically-focused organizations, shipping APIs are a high-ROI investment rather than a cost center. The benefits compound over time as workflows are optimized across regions, channels, and higher order volumes. No generic, off-the-shelf solution can deliver this value.

Conclusion

As fulfillment operations grow in complexity, purpose-built technology becomes essential. Shipping APIs like ShipEngine provide powerful automation and integration to streamline omnichannel order delivery. Seamless connectivity to carriers, rate shopping, and platform integration drive significant cost and time savings while also enabling business strategy. The initial implementation effort pays rapid dividends. For both high-growth and established brands, shipping APIs are a key strategic investment in future success.