How Warehouse Management Software Improves Shipping Accuracy

Shipping accuracy is one of the largest factors online shoppers consider when deciding whether or not to continue purchasing from a particular brand or online store. In fact, 81% of consumers will stop purchasing from a business altogether if they receive an inaccurate order more than once.

To avoid losing customers and prevent inaccuracies, fulfillment operations must adopt a strong shipping strategy and the right tools to execute it, including a warehouse management system (WMS). Because in today’s competitive direct-to-consumer (DTC) world, inaccuracy simply is not an option.

What Does Shipping Accuracy Mean?

In the simplest terms, shipping accuracy refers to the number of orders that are sent correctly and received successfully within their expected delivery window. Typically, shipping accuracy is expressed as a percentage, by dividing the number of successful deliveries by the total deliveries shipped.

For example, if you have 100 deliveries scheduled on a Monday and only 94 of those deliveries are completed correctly, then your shipping accuracy is 94%.

Shipping Accuracy Challenges in Logistics

While achieving 100% shipping accuracy isn’t always realistic, it’s a great goal to strive for. But achieving accuracy is easier said than done for warehouse operations. There are some real challenges when it comes to the shipping process, including:

• • Consumer demands: Consumers want deliveries as soon as possible without having to pay for expedited shipping.
  • Lack of visibility: Lack of real-time inventory data can lead to order fulfillment and shipping issues.
  • Poor route planning: Managing carriers and delivery schedules can lead to missed shipping times or even lost packages.

#1. Consumer Demands

One challenge that must be tackled to improve shipping accuracy is understanding, managing and mitigating consumer demands. Consumers are becoming more accustomed to near-instantaneous deliveries and expect free shipping more often, as well. These standards, reasonable or not, must be understood in order to meet them accurately.

One way to manage consumer expectations is to ensure your ecommerce channels are clear on their delivery options, fees, and estimated time frames. While consumers may not be thrilled about an upcharge for expedited shipping, they’re more likely to understand when they can see it’s a natural result of their desire to receive faster shipments.

#2. Lack of Visibility

Another obstacle to shipping accuracy is a lack of visibility and insight into your existing inventory. When inventory can’t be seen in real-time, it’s only too easy to pre-maturely accept orders you do not necessarily have enough inventory to fill. This not only creates awkward situations that affect shipping accuracy and leave customers frustrated, but it can lead to lost profits (canceled orders) and a tarnished reputation for your business.

Using a cloud WMS capable of showing you the real-time inventory data present throughout your fulfillment network can help alleviate inaccuracies that lead to incidents like missed/inaccurate deliveries.

#3. Poor Route Planning

Trying to find the right carrier with the most efficient delivery routes can be difficult and significantly affect the accuracy of your last-mile operations. Finding carriers that will quickly and easily pick up orders at your distribution centers, get them loaded onto the right trucks, and delivered to the correct locations can be a logistical nightmare without robust integrations and optimizing technology.

A WMS software can assist with selecting the most efficient carriers and picking the best choice for certain order types using features like rate shopping and smart shipping rules. Moreover, it can match orders with delivery trucks already en route to shipping addresses to keep your supply chain flowing smoothly. While it isn’t possible for all solutions, fulfillment platforms like Logiwa WMS can automate the carrier-selection process based on customizable criteria like cost or route efficiency to improve shipping route planning and delivery results.

How WMS Software Improves Shipping Accuracy

We’ve briefly discussed how WMS software can help address the challenges that result in poor shipping accuracy. Now let’s dive into how a WMS actively improves it. WMS software helps to :

1. Reduce human error through automation: From pick and pack operations to parcel labeling, there are a lot of opportunities for costly human error to slip in derail shipping accuracy. A WMS software can automate those manual processes and flag mistakes as they occur.
2. Provide simplified reporting: Using WMS data, you can make more informed decisions that improve how your warehouse operates, thus improving fulfillment accuracy.
3. Enable real-time visibility: Real-time data ensures you prevent inventory shortages and order fulfillment issues like double-filling an order or shipping from the wrong warehouse from affecting your shipping accuracy.

#1. Reduces Human Error Through Automation

Human error is unavoidable in any business. It’s only natural for the timing of a shipment to get too close to the driver’s end-of-shift time, forcing deliveries to be postponed. Or for a shipment to be packed with the wrong products and need to be re-packed before departure.

Even so, human error must be recognized and managed in order to improve shipping accuracy. If you use WMS software that streamlines and automates the processes where manual errors slip in, you can rest assured the technology is ever-improving your shipping accuracy.

Logiwa WMS focuses on cloud-based, real-time data retrieval so you always have access to the most up-to-date data and simple, built-in automation tools to reduce human error. By coupling your live operational data with unique automation rules, Logiwa WMS can help optimize your fulfillment best practices for ecommerce warehouses and drastically reduce shipping errors.

#2. Provides Simplified Reporting

Much of the miscommunication leading to shipping inaccuracy stems from a lack of accurate reporting. If different parts of your fulfillment network are working with different data, it’s only natural for mistakes to be made.

A WMS software solution allows for simplified reporting that can be pulled by the appropriate staff to ensure all departments and clients are on the same page when it comes to inventory, warehouse KPIs, packaging, shipping, and deliveries.

Logiwa WMS relies on accurate and real-time analytics across your entire ecommerce operation so every logistics partner and warehouse is fully prepared to work towards tackling shipping accuracy as one.

#3. Enables Real-Time Visibility Into Inventory

Accessibility to the correct operational reports and data is vital to increasing and improving shipping accuracy. This is especially true when it comes to managing inventory.

For example, reporting the most up-to-date information is critical for pickers and packers to confidently fulfill and ship every order that comes in. Having access to a full inventory report on products, packing material, orders, and delivery schedules goes a long way to improving shipping accuracy and fulfillment success.

Logiwa WMS excels in warehouse management with real-time visibility of all inventory across multiple warehouses and departments. You can be sure that every inventory detail can be covered and included in our industry-leading cloud WMS.

Reduce Errors With the Logiwa WMS Cloud Fulfillment Platform

Logiwa WMS offers a Cloud Fulfillment Platform that addresses every challenge and every best practice we’ve mentioned in this article. Our Cloud Fulfillment Platform is a fully integrated WMS, enabling businesses to grow their digital warehouse network without adding headcount or sacrificing results.

Logiwa provides various automation tools to reduce manual tasks and eliminate human error. Logiwa WMS also provides simple reporting features that make harnessing your data simple. And through real-time analytics, Logiwa provides actionable insights into your inventory and warehouse performance.

Whether you’re a DTC, B2C, or hybrid operation, Logiwa WMS can meet and exceed all of your requirements for improving shipping accuracy within your enterprise.

Learn More About Logiwa WMS Today

Shipping accuracy is critical and shouldn’t be ignored. Logiwa WMS can help you improve the accuracy of your shipments quickly and simply. To learn more about how Logiwa might work for you, book a demo today.