5 Benefits of Shipment Tracking

What are the benefits of shipment tracking?

1. Lowers costs
2. Improved customer experience
3. On-time deliveries
4. Higher efficiency
5. Better communication

Ecommerce in the Philippines has been valued at USD $3 billion in the year 2019 alone. This figure will no doubt continue to rise, especially as the pandemic continues to transform the changing landscape of exchanging goods and services. More Filipinos are continuing to take advantage of online shopping platforms, not only for non-essential goods and miscellaneous items but for grocery products as well. If you’re part of the industry, improving your eCommerce services for your customers can be done by understanding the benefits of shipment tracking.

Implementing a reliable shipment tracking service for your operations can lower your costs, reduce delays, and meet customer demands more consistently. Continue reading to learn more.

Lowers Costs

One of the main advantages of investing in a shipment tracking system is that you can greatly lower your logistics costs. In the supply chain command, you can find costs almost everywhere — from the order ticketing phase, packaging, warehousing, transportation, and many more. Shipment tracking can help you reduce your expenses, as it allows both you and your customers to gain better insights regarding the status or a package.

On the end of the business owner, shipment tracking systems can provide you with details on the location of the parcel, its specifications, and even the SKUs contained in it.

This allows you to reduce instances of wrong product deliveries that will cause you to spend on repackaging, re-warehousing, inventory storage, and fuel costs due to transportation. A tracking system aids in better management of all your shipping-related activities, allowing you to handle customer complaints more efficiently and even reduce such instances.

Improved Customer Experience

Put yourself in the shoes of your customer. You’d want to be given a chance to find out the status of your package at all times — yes, even after just mere seconds of ordering a product, or a set of products from an online store.

With this in mind, shipment tracking greatly improves the customer experience. They will be provided with a real-time view of where their packages are in the distribution chain. For example, if they’re ordering products internationally, the tracking system can give them information on customs clearance, departure from country of origin, estimated date of arrival, and status of the package at any given time.

When your customers can rely on your platform to give them this type of shipment information, you can create a sense of customer loyalty among them. They will continue to trust your services. You may even be able to potentially improve your ROI (return of investment) even with just a simple, but dedicated shipment tracking implementation.

On-Time Deliveries

Delayed shipments are one of the most common causes of customer complaints in the logistics industry. Sure, they did receive the right package without any damages — but if the shipment time does not meet their expectations, then you can expect to receive a slew of complaints on your shipping services.

When used efficiently, shipment tracking can better increase your chances of delivering all parcels to their final points of distribution on-time. This is due to the high transparency of the system. You’re able to communicate closely and collaborate with other key players in the supply chain, such as your distributors, warehouse managers, or even the delivery men. Any sudden changes will be communicated to the customer

Your shipment tracking technology allows you to streamline and optimize your supply chain operations for the benefit of both your business and your customers.

Higher Efficiency

The supply chain command involves a number of major steps. If just one of these phases isn’t working in the most efficient way possible, then the rest of the succeeding operations may be affected.

Without delving too deep into raw material procurement, your logistics operations can be sub-categorized into the following: order fulfillment, warehousing, packaging, inventory management, and shipping/transport. Combined with an automated supply chain system, any shipment tracking technology that you will use for your operations can significantly boost your efficiency as it improves the visibility for you and your customers.

Let’s say for example that someone has placed an order on your platform. The presence of a shipment tracking feature can help your customers be notified about where their packages are, in the distribution phase — i.e. if it’s still being packed, transported to another logistics hub or sorting center, or if it has been shipped out.

Likewise, when a customer may want a more detailed piece of information about their package, you, the business owner, can simply consult the same tracking feature and provide the details that your customer wants.

Better Communication

Finally, shipment tracking opens up various lines of communication in your business, unlike before. If in the past, you’re unable to coordinate with other key players such as the inventory managers, warehouse managers, or freight carriers, a tracking technology can finally give you this chance.

Better communication leads to more efficient processes, which leads to better services, and more satisfied customers. You’re also able to retain your most valuable assets and likewise form better partnerships to improve your overall logistics processes.

Key Takeaway

In this guide, you’ve learned about some of the many benefits of shipment tracking. Although this tool is fairly simple in concept, it actually does wonders for your business. These innovative tracking solutions lower your costs, meet customer expectations better, boost efficiency, and fulfill on-time delivery promises.

Shipment tracking benefits your supply chain practices in many ways. If you haven’t yet invested in this type of technology, maybe it’s time to reconsider your options — it may just be the key to help you serve your customers better.