Shopify may not be the world’s most flexible eCommerce platform, but when it comes to ease of use it is the best-in-class. Developing a website and selling products has never been so accessible. But what about order fulfillment? Well, good news there too. Shopify pairs perfectly and works seamlessly with one of the most popular and powerful order fulfillment warehouse facility software known as 3PL Central.
3PL Central is a platform that is used to track inventory and orders in real-time for eCommerce fulfillment companies. The reason this is the go-to software choice for so many cutting-edge 3PL operations is due to how well it works with the most popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify.
Essentially when you have a Shopify business and are looking for order fulfillment services, you should be looking for one that uses 3PL Central software. It will make your life and your customer experience so much simpler.
Once you sign on for 3PL order fulfillment services that use 3PL Central warehouse management software, you can affordably and quickly establish a connection between your Shopify website and the warehouse. In the case of InterFulfillment, there is no monthly charge for this connection. This keeps costs way down, and 3PL Central keeps functionality way up.
Real-Time Order Import
Your customer has placed an order. That is awesome, but your work is not done yet. You need to pick, pack, and ship the order, then go into Shopify and add the order’s tracking number and update the order’s status. Actually, no you don’t. When you have your Shopify website connected to a fulfillment company that uses 3PL Central software, your order automatically gets transmitted to your 3PL fulfillment partner within minutes. All the information they need to ship your order your way in their hands within minutes. Then, once your order is shipped, as you will see in our next point, you don’t need to manually update the order at all. It is all done for you automatically. The beauty of eCommerce order fulfillment automation is very real with the right software solutions.
Seamless Order Status and Tracking
It’s not just a one-way street. Yes, your Shopify website will be sending orders to 3PL Central in real-time, but what happens after your order is shipped? Where is the tracking number and what happens to your order status on your Shopify dashboard? Well, the fact is, you don’t need to worry about any of that, because 3PL Central and your Shopify handle all of that for you. The beauty of eCommerce platform integration automation. As soon as one of your orders is picked, packed, and shipped, and a carrier tracking number is available, all that information is transmitted back to your Shopify dashboard instantly. You will see a tracking number added, and the order status changed to shipped, and so will your customers. No manual data entry whatsoever. No customers following up and asking for status or tracking numbers. This is especially the case with order fulfillment centers like InterFulfillment that offer same-day shipping worldwide from facilities across Canada.
Full Carrier Shipping Service Control
This is not where the 3PL Central and Shopify advantage ends. There is more. And this is a feature that is not only easy to set up and maintain, but it is crucial to saving money and keeping customers happy. If you are a Shopify user you know you can set up as many shipping method options as you want. But the question is if you want an order shipped using your checkout terms such as “Express Shipping” or “Standard Shipping” how will your 3PL order fulfillment partner know what carrier and what service you want to be used for the order? Once again, 3PL Central has a clean and viable solution. When you set up a shipping method, such as “Express Shipping” for example, all you need to do is contact your fulfillment provider and let them know you want order with that shipping method selected sent Canada Post Xpresspost. That means whenever an order enters 3PL Central with “Express Shipping” as the method, the system will, once again, automatically change it to Canada Post Xpresspost. This ensures that your orders will be shipped your way every time without fail. With InterFulfillment, you can also opt to translate a shipping method such as “Standard Shipping” to rate shop for the cheapest available tracked rate across all major carriers. This includes UPS, Canada Post, FedEx, DHL, and other major carriers. Rate shopping saves you money.
Syncing Your Inventory
Yes, fully accurate inventory syncing. Updated in real-time. What does this mean exactly? When one of your SKUs is shipped from the 3PL warehouse it will deplete from your 3PL Central inventory numbers, and will automatically deplete from your Shopify inventory numbers as well. You will be able to see exactly how much inventory you have on-hand at your fulfillment partner’s facilities right there on your Shopify dashboard. This will let you know exactly when you need to replenish your inventory to ensure you have the stock to serve your customers. You can even request inventory alerts on each of your SKUs so that 3PL Central will message you when your stock reaches a certain level, allowing you to get ahead and ship inventory to the facility on time and never miss a beat.
Conclusion
So to put it simply, as a Shopify company you want a warehouse with 3PL Central software because they work perfectly together. They offer you and your customers a virtually seamless, real-time selling and shopping experience. The connection costs very little to establish and in some cases, as with InterFulfillment, has no monthly charge whatsoever. This is why it is important when shopping for your order fulfillment solution you ask the company, what brand warehouse management software is used. When you hear 3PL Central, you know they know what they’re doing and you know you should consider them.
