If you're evaluating shipping solutions for NetSuite, it is important to assess features comprehensively, so you ensure it meets needs specific to your business. The right shipping platform can speed up operations, boost efficiencies, and remove excessive steps - ultimately decreasing costs and improving your customers’ satisfaction.
| In this blog post, we'll highlight three key points to help you choose a shipping solution that will show you the best rates, combat delays, cut expenses, and eliminate inefficient processes. Focus your efforts on identifying these three impactful factors in your next shipping solution: |
An efficient shipping solution will favor speed at the forefront of each of its functions – but the key is to ensure an increase in speed also increases accuracy.
Barcode scanning can replace or reduce the need for clicking a mouse or manually typing data entries on a keyboard or temperamental touchscreen. Not only does this accelerate your operations, but it also reduces errors, meaning you save time and money. The goal is to eliminate excess manual processes so you can scan and ship within seconds.
Customer example:
“With RF-SMART Shipping, it is a fast three-step process: Step one, scan the tote or sales order, and put the order on the scale. Step two, scan a barcode to get the weight. Step three, scan to ship it, pull the label off, and put it on the package,” said Feetures IT Manager Daniel Roath.
The ability to set automated parameters within a shipping solution allows your shippers to focus on getting items out the door, not making shipping decisions on the fly. Look for an advanced rules engine that can be configured by nearly anything in the data model – station, user, customer name, order value, carrier, etc – to ensure your fulfilment process is error-proof.
Another consideration is to look for a solution that offers automated rate shopping. This will eliminate tedious, manual rate shopping by enabling automated selection of the cheapest option to deliver within the Service Level Agreement days. This is also another way to take decision-making out of your shippers’ hands.
Customer example:
“We are saving around $4,000 a week just by rate shopping through RF-SMART Shipping. That does big things for my warehouse. I can give raises, I can give bonuses, just by not having to hire a ton of people. I can add a second job function to my shippers’ day now, allowing me to get more done. I'm able to do so much more in other places in my warehouse because I know shipping is taken care of and I don't have to worry about it, “ said Slate Rock Safety Warehouse Manager Kayla Hill.
Implementing a new shipping solution and training staff should be intuitive and painless. Look for an easy-to-use shipping platform that can eliminate costly hours spent training your warehouse staff. The solution should be easy enough that shippers can learn the new process in just a few minutes – at most.
However, it’s not just the shippers that need ease of use. Ensure your solution gives managers easily accessible, real-time visibility into the entire warehouse shipping process, from the initial sales order to putting the label on the box. The solution should also provide ongoing and historical data, including shipment by carrier, user, expenditures, and destination. Ideally, this data would be displayed on a dashboard so you can quickly assess shipment history and status, as well as identify any adjustments needed.
Customer example:
“If you were to come in and just step into the shipper shoes without knowing anything, it's easily done. We decreased our training time to a matter of seconds,” said Feetures IT Manager Daniel Roath.
Why did Feetures and Slate Rock Safety select RF-SMART for the shipping solution? RF-SMART Shipping is an intuitive, Built-for-NetSuite solution with automated features and advanced shipment visibility. Customers have reported streamlined processes and decreased ship time by more than 50%
They saw first-hand that out No-Code Rules Engine & Editor and Automated Rate Shipping functions eliminate manual processes and human error. You can set up a configurable fulfillment process that suits the needs of your business so your shippers only have to ‘scan, scan, and ship’ – with, at most, 30 seconds of training. To increase accuracy even more, you have full visibility with an advanced dashboard, giving you unsurpassed access to detailed past, current, and future shipment data.
Additional unique features through RF-SMART Shipping include:
To find out if RF-SMART Shipping is a good fit for your business operations, contact us today for a 1:1 consultation.