Who’s involved in the shipping process?
For shipping orders to consumers, the shipping process is fairly simple. It involves the shipper (in most cases, the brand) who processes and prepares the order to ship, and the carrier who takes care of the last-mile delivery process. Sometimes, a 3PL is involved, which acts as a middleman between the ecommerce business and the carrier(s).
The shipper
The shipper is the company or individual who processes the order and prepares it for shipping. This could either the be the brand itself or a third-party that takes care of fulfillment and shipping for the business.
The carrier
Once the order is shipped, it’s up to the carrier to get it safely delivered to the customer. Major shipping carriers include UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL. Once orders are in the carrier’s hands, you can still use order tracking to share updates with your customers, so they can be notified on estimated delivery dates on their orders.
3PLs
A 3PL offers inbound and outbound logistics services. When an ecommerce business partners with a 3PL, the 3PL company takes of shipping orders directly from the fulfillment center where ecommerce inventory is stored.
3PLs also have close relationships with shipping carriers and are able to negotiate rates, which helps merchants reduce shipping costs, as well as offer a variety of shipping options for their customers.
Once the order ships, merchants can view and manage all orders from one single dashboard and keep customers in the loop on their orders.
“I love that you can view orders based on when they are processing, completed, on hold, and in other stages. It is super helpful for us to have that and track the order every step of the way.”
Ines Guien, Vice President of Operations at Dossier
The warehouses
The warehouse shipping process first and foremost involves physical warehouses or fulfillment centers that store inventory until it needs to be sent to the next point — whether that’s directly to the end consumer, to another distribution point or hub, or even a retail store.
These warehouses can be operated by an ecommerce brand, a retailer, a 3PL, or other parties. The warehouse shipping process entails receiving inventory, storing it, picking and packing orders as they are placed, and then having carriers pick up packages from the facility to complete the warehouse shipping process.
