Real-time shipment tracking for ecommerce: how to improve your logistics management
Real-time order tracking has become a fundamental part of online businesses that want to control their shipments.
Being able to track the location and status of the packages they send at all times to optimise their logistics operations, especially in the international shipments of your e-commerce.
In this article we explain the importance of having up-to-date tracking of shipments and their advantages. In addition, we will explain how to integrate it into your platform and how your online shop can benefit from this functionality.
The importance of real-time order tracking for e-commerce
Being able to track shipments in real-time from your e-commerce platform directly affects several areas of your business.
It improves the efficiency of internal processes and facilitates the logistics of your online store, making order management more straightforward and fewer errors throughout the shipping process.
Optimise your internal operations
It is important when choosing a logistics provider for your business that they also offer shipment tracking.
Having real-time control of the orders you have shipped will allow you to make better decisions in terms of inventory management, avoiding shortages or excess stocks.
Having this data will also help you adjust delivery times and better coordinate different departments of your business, such as reverse logistics.
With a detailed view of where your products are in the logistics process, you can always anticipate delays or delivery problems.
This will allow you to react in time, solving any error or unforeseen event that may have occurred and giving an accurate response to your customers' incidents.
For example, you can detect customs delays due to incorrect documentation and quickly fix them so that it doesn't happen again with the help of a logistics provider that offers customs services.
How to integrate real-time tracking into your e-commerce
The ideal way to track orders internally is to choose a logistics provider that offers this functionality in its services and integrates it into its software, such as in Spring GDS.
When it comes to incorporating a customer tracking tool into your e-commerce, there are several options. If you use a platform like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento for your online store, you will have access to multiple tracking plugins to add and connect to your logistics provider easily.
Another option is to install an API directly on your system. Just as you integrate your shipping provider's logistics APIs, you can also incorporate those of real-time customer tracking providers. For example, 17TRACK Order Tracking offers both plugins for CMS platforms and APIs to integrate into your e-commerce.
Choose a provider that ensures accurate and reliable tracking information
Choosing the right order tracking software will ensure accurate and reliable tracking data, provide valuable information, and show your business a quality customer-facing service.
For this, it is important that the chosen supplier offers regular and real updates and alerts you to any tracking error in your e-commerce's international deliveries to solve it.
A vendor with a good technical support team will enable you to fix any issues with the tool as soon as possible.
In addition, obtaining accurate and verified information will allow you to meet your customers' expectations while being totally transparent.
Benefits of real-time order tracking for your business
Having full control over the timing and movements of packages sent from your online store offers significant advantages for managing your business:
Optimise logistics and shipment management: it will allow you to always know the locations and status of the packages sent, obtaining time and route data that will help you make adjustments in your internal management to make them more efficient.
Problem monitoring and detection: this data will make it easier for you to identify potential problems in the distribution chain and help you fix them faster and avoid them in the future.
Assess the efficiency of your logistics provider: by always following the shipping process, you will be able to assess the quality and efficiency of your supplier, checking if they meet the established deadlines or if deliveries suffer more delays than expected.
Respond better to incidents: your customer service will be better prepared to provide accurate updates and quality support.
Integrating real-time order tracking into your e-commerce business is easy and does not involve a significant investment, bringing great benefits.
Optimise your processes and resources today with valuable information about your shipments to help you make informed decisions.