Aug 27, 2021 | Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
As much as you might wish to hold off discussing the holiday shopping season until the Halloween candy bowl is empty, as eCommerce retailers, you just don’t have that luxury. As evidenced by the sometimes crazy, always unpredictable season of holiday 2020, 2021 doesn’t appear to be any less wacky than its older sibling.
As an eCommerce retailer, you’ve probably struggled with this new post-pandemic norm, especially as it has seesawed between optimism (economically and otherwise) and despair. With the Delta variant inspiring statewide lockdowns once more, entering this high-volume season has come with additional questions, many that appear to already be answered.
Anxiety is only diminished by being prepared, so, let’s get prepared. Below are some of the key lessons eCommerce retailers, warehouse managers and fulfillment teams learned during 2020 and how ShipHero imagines they’ll be applied in 2021.
Start Shopping Early
The proliferation of online shopping 2020 made the novelty of historical mainstays, like Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday promotions, less enticing. Last year, many shoppers couldn’t even go to a store if they wanted to; in 2021, while that option may exist, all evidence suggests that online eCommerce, across categories and industries will remain strong.
In 2020, eCommerce grew by over 32% year over year, and was up by 31% in Q1 2021, according to reporting by Digital Commerce 360. There is no evidence these numbers will be on the downswing anytime soon.
However, there is an indication that a trend that gained steam in 2020 will continue to expand in 2021, click and collect, otherwise known as buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS). The prevailing wisdom is that this allows shoppers to enjoy the instant gratification of shopping in-store without incurring the risk of contracting COVID (or standing in line, or fighting traffic or juggling a toddler, a stroller and a handful of shopping bags).
Supply Chain Disruptions are Year-Round
While it was hoped that the delivery delays and empty shelves that were seen in 2020 (and 2021 if we’re being honest), would be a thing of the past, facts are that these types of disruptions will continue to affect the supply chain from manufacturing to distribution to retail for quite a while. Manufacturers have been unable to increase their output back to pre-pandemic levels and even if materials are ready to ship, there have been issues finding truck drivers (a chronic issue to be sure, but put into starker relief by the rise in demand for shipped goods).
What does this really mean for eCommerce? It means that consumers will continue to push buy online pickup in store options to ensure that they can physically get the product they want in time for gift-giving or holiday entertaining.
Settle In – eCommerce is Here to Stay
There is no doubt that the one key takeaway from Holiday Season 2020 is that consumers will continue to consume, even if they can’t leave their homes. While the rise of eCommerce isn’t new, recent behavior indicates that a variety of shoppers, even those not typically known to shop online (i.e. older adults), have adopted the switch to eCommerce. While the most recent information shows growth for in-store sales, there is uncertainty regarding the Delta variant and how that might impact in-person sales going forward.
The moral of this story is retailers shouldn’t scrap their direct-to-consumer (DTC) fulfillment or eCommerce operations that were brought online throughout 2020. The EY Future Consumer Index released in May 2021, showed that 80% of consumers are changing the way they shop – including 43% who stated they now shop online more frequently for items they had previously purchased in-store.
More Lessons to Learn
As Holiday season 2021 truly takes shape we will no doubt see even more changes to how consumers shop, how eCommerce retailers meet their needs and how businesses are staying agile in order to better understand and satisfy their consumer base.
ShipHero is excited to see what this holiday season brings and how we can better help our clients weather these sometimes disruptive, oftentimes invigorating situations. We look forward to working with our current partners and clients to help make Holiday 2021 better than ever, whether through solutions, support or superpowers. We will be posting helpful tips throughout peak season HERE, so be sure to check back frequently!
Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Aug 19, 2021 | 3PL Warehouse Management, Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
The changes to the world economy have been many and varied since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. However, perhaps the largest change has been seen in eCommerce, where 2020 projections were blown away by a population of shoppers trapped in their homes, with little else to do except shop online.
While this surge in eCommerce has been a good thing for most businesses, perhaps the largest concern moving through the 4th quarter of 2021 is how to maintain the increase in eCommerce sales without overreacting – growth is wonderful, but with the resurgence of the Delta variant, things are a bit more uncertain than they were two months ago, and it appears that eCommerce may be due for another uptick in revenue. Which means a downturn could be on the horizon.
Meet the Ebbs and Flows on Even Footing
But how can you meet the challenge of ongoing revenue growth without expanding your business to the point that you cannot sustain it when the eventual lull comes? While this has always been a concern for retailers, virtual or not, maybe there’s a better way to manage these ebbs and flows. Let’s examine five ways you can grow your online business and revenue through efficiency and optimization, instead of expansion that often hits your bottom line.
5 Ways to Grow Your Online Business
- Optimize, optimize, optimize. According to a recent report by EuroMonitor, eCommerce businesses have managed to handle the influx of orders by optimizing their current tools or investing in new ones.
With a warehouse management system like ShipHero, these online businesses were able to more accurately track their inventory, nullify pick and pack errors, and more quickly move product out the door and into customer’s hands.
By using already installed systems, these companies have discovered that they can do more with the same, and by not increasing overhead, they will be able to better sustain any ebbs or flows brought about by another round of COVID-related lockdowns.
- Keep your focus. While it is easy to get wrapped up in the allure of attracting brand-new customers to your virtual storefront, it can also lead to additional spending and time away from your core customer. In the midst of uncertainty, it might be better to focus more squarely on your base, using channels and media you know will work. You always want to strive for growth, but take the time to really dive into your current outreach channels and see what else you can mine from them. You may find it easier and more profitable to secure sales from your core customer base, as opposed to a brand-new customer demographic.
- Leverage current partners. Whether it’s the company that supplies your shipping materials, or the one that runs your software, chances are these companies have additional tools and insights they can provide. Leverage these already established relationships to get more value. While this will more than likely require an additional spend, you will save time and headache by having integrations in place that will make implementation much easier.
- Rely on your retailer network. This is the time to really emphasize the partnerships you have with other retailers. Whether it’s Amazon, Walmart or Shopify, the wide reach of these brands will help your business grow further and faster. Take advantage of any programs or promotions they may offer, especially as 4th quarter approaches and the holiday season ramps up.
Also, make sure that all of your store integrations are working with your inventory and warehouse management systems. You don’t want to sell products you don’t have, or not sell products you do have, and the only way to keep it straight is to ensure those connections are in line. Also, investigate the ability to add a return management process to your existing system, so that you can more easily track and resell returned products.
- Remarketing wins retail. You have probably heard the old adage that someone needs to see or hear something three times before they act. This is still true, and that means, you need to reach your customers or potential customers three times before you can even hope to convert the sale. Fortunately, remarketing has become one of the easiest and most effective ways to bring those “window shoppers” back into the fold.
More than likely, your current advertising platforms allow you to remarket without too much additional effort. Google and Facebook make it surprisingly easy to use these features and it can greatly impact your revenue stream. Also, never underestimate the allure of an abandoned cart. Remarketing to folks who have taken the extra step to “add to cart” is an easy way to make some sales.
Planning for the Future
By implementing some or all of the steps above, you’ll have a better chance of maintaining balance throughout this unprecedented time. And you’ll be poised for future success. It is predicted that eCommerce sales will account for 1 out of every 4 retails sales by 2025. At the height of the pandemic, it was estimated that 3 out of every 10 sales were transacted online.
While experts are not predicting that we will return to such a high number in the next year or so, it is important to realize that higher eCommerce volumes are here to stay and learning how to manage the highs and lows now will better prepare you for success in the future.
How ShipHero Helps you Grow
ShipHero’s Warehouse Management Software is a complete system that allows you to manage inventory, connect directly to all of your third-party selling channels and provides you with better pick and pack capabilities to reduce errors. ShipHero also has:
- Order tracking
- Label printing
- Automation rules (AR)
- Automation rules and Smart warehouse routing
- Cycle counting
- Kitting
- Logs and reports
- Guided pick routes
- Automatic batch creation
- BulkShip
- And so much more!
Stay in Front with Backend Support
If you’re looking for the easiest and most efficient way to grow your eCommerce business, even in uncertain times, we invite you to take advantage of all ShipHero has to offer. You can find a way to stay steady even as the business landscape changes, and often the easiest way to do that is to lean on your partners with superpowers.
Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Aug 13, 2021 | Blog, Warehouse Operations
What is a perpetual inventory system?
By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
Physical inventory counts are an extreme time sink. Employees have to walk around and manually count inventory levels to double-check inventory records. Not only are these physical counts a time-consuming way to track inventory, but they can also be inaccurate due to human error.
Periodic inventory systems that use this manual inventory management system are slowly phasing out to be replaced by more up-to-date processes that are less prone to error. Modern inventory systems save time for employees, so they don’t have to count items in storage bins when they have more vital work to do.
A system that has gained popularity as technology has advanced is called perpetual inventory accounting. Perpetual systems are technology-driven solutions that allow for your different software platforms to share information with each other. Companies that take advantage of this new, interconnected system can benefit from things like real-time data, point of sale (POS) integration, more accurate inventory balances, and significant amounts of saved time for employees.
Perpetual inventory systems work by tracking inventory directly through your point of sale software and inventory management software. By leveraging things such as barcode scanners and transaction data, the system automatically tracks stock and inventory items as they are acquired in the warehouse or sold. You can still hold inventory counts, but only to account for potential damages to inventory or theft, not to track your entire inventory system.
Advantages of a perpetual inventory system
There are a handful of excellent advantages to a perpetual system. Due to its automatic nature, as soon as the merchandise is sold or acquired, your COGS account (Cost of Goods Sold) is immediately updated. Through real-time database updates, accounts payable and accounts receivable can instantly and accurately report and analyze inventory and sale data. Perpetual systems also leave a paper trail for all received shipments and purchases, helping with audits and fraud prevention.
Manual counting of inventory numbers isn’t used in perpetual systems to the same extent as other systems. Implementing a perpetual sale system that automatically sends inventory data to a central database saves your employees time and your company money. Automatic systems also cut out human error, saving you money on poorly managed and miscounted inventory.
Disadvantages of a perpetual inventory system
The barrier to entry for perpetual inventory systems is their initial cost. Purchasing all the needed items such as the perpetual inventory software, RFID or barcode scanners, and other additional hardware has a high average cost for companies.
Costs for training are also a consideration when considering the initial investment into a new perpetual system. While you can recoup initial costs in the form of wage savings and inventory management savings, the initial investment may still be too much to justify depending on your stock turnover and inventory.
What is the FIFO perpetual inventory method?
First-in, first-out (FIFO) processes act as if the first item you received will be the first item sold. In FIFO perpetual methods, the FIFO standards are assumed within the software, indicating that the most recent costs of purchased merchandise are the first to be charged against revenue. Perpetual FIFO is extremely common and often reflects the proper flow of goods through a company.
What is the LIFO perpetual inventory method?
Last-in, first-out (LIFO) processes assume that the last unit you receive will be the first unit that you sell. Opposite the FIFO method, the last cost of merchandise is what you charge against your company’s revenue. Often this method is used for specific accounting purposes, such as tax breaks.
How does a perpetual inventory system differ from a periodic system?
Unlike the automatically driven perpetual systems, periodic systems rely on occasional physical inventory counts to keep track of stock and COGS. Periodic systems require significantly more manual involvement in inventory tracking and data updates. There are a few key advantages to consider for automatic perpetual systems:
Keep up with data in real-time
Perpetual systems use technology to update inventory data immediately as items are sold and transferred. Instant inventory updates mean that your teams can perform up-to-date analytics at any time while having faith that their inventory numbers are close to accurate. Real-time updates also empower your team to create more consistent, accurate reporting to keep an eye on product and sales performance.
Leave a paper trail
Due to tracking all inventory movements through digital software, you leave a reliable trail of data. Paper trails allow for easier audit compliance, fraud detection, and more accurate insights. Tracking can also help you get an overall view of your supply chain, helping you find areas where you can improve your practices.
Lower inventory management costs
Perpetual systems are a considerable investment upfront; however, they will lead to lower inventory management costs over time. Manual systems such as inventory counting are needed significantly less often or not at all. Real-time analytics means that you can prevent things like holding costs as well, saving you money.
Easily investigate stock level discrepancies
Since perpetual systems are constantly updating, you can more quickly see discrepancies in stock data. You can detect things like theft, damaged goods, and fraud through missing stock and inventory. Finding stock discrepancies faster can help give insight into issues that may become much larger if left unhandled, such as store security issues.
Leverage demand forecasting to grow your business
Keeping accurate and up-to-date stock information helps you forecast demand. Through reliable analytics and historically tracked inventory data, you can detect trends in your demand and make changes to your purchasing practices accordingly. Preventing running out of inventory during high-demand seasons like the holidays can help your company’s profits significantly.
When to use a perpetual inventory system
Not all companies require a fully-fledged perpetual inventory system, especially if they have small amounts of stock with little variety. There are specific places in which perpetual inventory systems do shine, including businesses with high inventory turnover or quickly growing companies.
Your business is growing rapidly
When your business is growing very quickly, implementing a perpetual inventory system can help track your new and growing stock. By implementing a perpetual system as things start growing for your company, you can keep a paper trail to track and project continued growth. Deciding to add a perpetual system set up to your company sooner rather than later can also mean saving future training and rollover costs.
You have dozens of SKUs
Dozens and dozens of SKUs are hard to track, especially when you have to go through and correctly note them manually. More SKUs mean more potential for human error and longer hours to try and track inventory data. Perpetual systems don’t struggle no matter how many SKUs you have, making them a great option if you have a large inventory variety. For example, grocery stores almost always use perpetual systems to track all of their various products.
Inventory turnover is high
Slow, manual counts don’t often cut it for analytics and tracking when your company has exceptionally high inventory turnover. It is harder to track trends and demand when your inventory moves quickly, so a real-time system is crucial for accurate data collection.
When stock is turning over fast in your company, it also can lead to lost inventory. A perpetual system helps keep precise data tracking and prevents things like theft.
Formulas in perpetual inventory
There are a few crucial formulas used within perpetual inventory systems. Cost of goods sold (COGS) and gross profit formulas help make sense of your data and give your company data for future business decisions.
The Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
You can calculate the cost of goods sold (COGS) first by adding your beginning purchases and inventory, which is the cost of goods available for sale. Next, you will find the ending inventory and subtract that from your initial numbers. These numbers are tracked easily and automatically in a perpetual inventory, which means you can pull a continually updated COGS report.
Beginning Inventory + Purchases – Ending inventory = COGS
Gross profit
The gross profit is your actual profits after subtracting how much your operating expenses cost you during a period. To find this number, all you have to do is subtract your COGS from your total revenue.
Revenue – COGS = Gross Profit
Conclusion
Perpetual inventory systems can be an investment to implement, but they have many strengths over periodic systems. While periodic inventory systems can be suitable for companies with lower turnover or less product variety, perpetual inventory systems can provide significant advantages to companies that make many sales or have a broader range of product lines.
Manual tracking used in period systems takes time and is prone to human error. Perpetual systems track your inventory data in real-time, allowing your team to make faster reports, more accurate analytics, and save time in manual counting by leveraging technology. While the initial investment may seem daunting, the long-term profits seen from saved money in areas like inventory management make perpetual systems an excellent move for many growing companies.
Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Aug 6, 2021 | Blog, Fulfillment, Warehouse Management Software
By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO of ShipHero
Ecommerce websites are constantly shifting to keep up with buyer expectations. With competition from gigantic online stores such as Amazon, keeping up with ecommerce giants can be tricky. Luckily, there are a few key ecommerce trends that online retailers can look to in order to keep up with the wants of online shoppers.
With the rise of the ecommerce industry, more customers than ever are making purchases online. While brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t dead yet, many of them are seeing their customers flock to online stores. With a rise in ecommerce sales comes ecommerce trends.
Here are the 15 trends to keep in mind to help grow your ecommerce business.
AI helps improve ad campaigns and messaging
Top ecommerce stores are implementing AI and automation to help boost their ad campaigns and messaging across marketing initiatives and social media platforms. Through machine learning and artificial intelligence technology, companies have been able to make hyper-personalized advertising allowing for tailored messaging to customers. Specialized messages can include content specifically targeted at the user’s interests or product recommendations that fit their previous browsing history.
On top of being able to personalize messaging to specific users, AI can track the performance of these campaigns and let marketing leads know how each initiative is performing. By carefully examining you and your competitor’s marketing success, automation can pick out trends from the complex and time-consuming data, something hard for a human to discover manually.
The customer experience must be personalized
While AI is helping us customize our marketing experience for customers, we have to tailor the process from start to finish. For example, when searching through an online marketplace, users are more likely to purchase items they are interested in if they find them through sidebar suggestions based on their browsing habits throughout your site. Personalized product recommendations can help prevent cart abandoners and can help you sell more inventory too!
2-day shipping becomes the norm
Retail giants like Amazon have used their significant logistics network to ensure that 2-day shipping has become the new normal. Longer shipping times, though sometimes tolerated, are not going to be seen as the usual farther into the future. Finding shipping and logistics solutions to keep up with this 2-day expectation is difficult, but it is, unfortunately, a strong trend that will separate some sellers from their competitors. For ecommerce merchants that want to leverage 2-day shipping, consider working with a 3PL.
But customers will be hungry for 1-day and same-day shipping
Big ecommerce sites have made it possible for 1-day and same-day shipping, especially during the boom in online shopping during COVID-19. Customers can easily have food, snacks, household goods, or other products delivered to their homes overnight or even on the same day.
While many smaller companies have trouble keeping up with this high bar, many people have found the convenience of it even better than visiting a brick-and-mortar store to grab an item.
Chatbots improve shopping experiences
Chatbots, often powered by automation, can help guide customers through their shopping experience. By answering frequently asked questions or directing the customer to their desired page, chatbots can help users through any confusion or concerns without taxing your customer support staff. The answers are instant, customizable depending on your preference, and work on multiple devices.
Headless commerce drives innovation
Headless commerce, where the frontend and backend of your website are separated, can help you drive innovation on your site. The flexibility of being able to customize, brand, and play with your customer-facing front end while not harming the utilities within your backend lets companies make more considerable changes without stress or danger.
Separating your front and backend also helps improve customer experience by enhancing the website functionality and speed.
Subscriptions keep customers coming back
Subscriptions create a commitment, whether with SaaS in b2b, or monthly product boxes in b2c. Subscription models keep customers interested in your products and brand.
Even when your subscriptions aren’t your main product line, they can help buyers get connected and familiar with your messaging and quality, making them more likely to open their wallets when looking at your other product lines. Subscriptions are also a regular reminder that your business exists, keeping you at the forefront of a customer’s mind.
Customers want sustainability
With millennials taking up much of the ecommerce buying power, it is crucial to tap into things that often sway them. A Nielsen report has shown that 73% of millennials would pay more for sustainable products. Some examples of industries that benefit from this trend include upcycled products, consignment, and local p2p transactions. Tapping into these markets will require new initiatives and green product lines to appeal to these wants.
Mobile shopping is here to stay
Mobile devices have become more and more prominently used when shopping online, so much so that Insider Intelligence stated that mobile commerce would reach $488.0 billion (44% of ecommerce) by 2024. One-click shopping and easily accessible social commerce ads on apps have driven mobile shopping. In order to tap into the mCommerce market, it will be essential to make sure your website has mobile-friendly shopping or a mobile app.
Gen Z becomes more of a focus
The oldest of the Gen Z era are now in their early 20s, meaning they are quickly becoming more common customers within the ecommerce world. For a generation that has always known the conveniences of ecommerce and online ordering, a smooth customer experience will be vital. Gen Z is more partial to social commerce, meaning Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram are key places to garner their interest.
User-generated content remains key
Influencers have grown in popularity within marketing, especially when selling products through social media sites. Having a trusted celebrity or influencer tout your product can immediately get thousands of eyes on your business and markets much more directly to a group of consumers than SEO or content marketing.
TikTok and Instagram shopping become major sales channels
Both TikTok and Instagram are rising as major sales channels, especially with Gen Z starting to become a larger and larger part of the ecommerce market. Pew Research Center saw that 48% of United States adults between 18-29 years old use TikTok, a number that falls dramatically to 20% in the 30-49 age range. When marketing to younger consumers, both TikTok and Instagram will be a vital piece of the puzzle.
With Instagram and TikTok investing significantly in commerce capabilities, ordering directly from these apps is going to become much easier.
Brick-and-mortar retailers aren’t dead
Score saw that 55% of those who do online shopping prefer to buy from stores with a physical location rather than an online-only shop. Being able to do returns, try on clothes in the store, or see products in person is still valuable to consumers. You shouldn’t overlook the advantages of a brick-and-mortar location, especially in specific sectors such as apparel.
Buy Now Pay Later gains more traction
Buy Now Pay Later has become a wildly popular payment method for consumers. Services like Affirm, Sezzle, and Klarna make it easy for customers to make purchases on installment payments. Shopify has implemented the option natively with Shop Pay.
Apple Pay is launching a similar service. Having these installment-like payment options helps those without credit cards finance payments and creates accessibility for many shoppers. Having flexibility in payment systems also means that customers can make big-ticket item purchases that they may not have entertained otherwise.
The checkout experience must be easy and simple
Many platforms such as Shopify have made the checkout experience extremely smooth. Ensuring an easy and painless checkout can prevent cart abandonment and improve the crucial last parts of the customer experience. Poor checkout experiences are also more common on mobile devices, so make sure this process is simple across all of your platforms!
How ShipHero grows ecommerce businesses
Are you worried about keeping up with these ecommerce trends? ShipHero can help. Our software connects with your warehouse, outsourced shipping processes, and 3PLs to help you deliver your ecommerce. We help you elevate your experience through:
Fast shipping speeds
ShipHero offers standard, expedited, and overnight shipping so that you can keep up with top ecommerce retailers like Amazon and Walmart. We facilitate fast shipping without the hassle and frustration. ShipHero has no hidden fees, and we help you find the cheapest overnight options to save money.
Multi-channel fulfillment
Our software can help you handle your order fulfillment through a nationwide network of warehouses. By creating distributing processes throughout these warehouses, delivery delays are minimized, and orders arrive at your customers quicker. Multi-channel fulfillment allows us to offer overnight and 2-day shipping without the worry.
Easy returns management
Returns happen. When managed correctly, they can help you grow your sales and create repeat customers. Through built-in self-service options for your customers and easy label printing through connected shipping accounts, returns become simple for customers.
Conclusion
Keeping up with ecommerce trends is crucial to staying on top of the competition. From AI and chatbots to a heavier social commerce presence, adapting to the new normals can help you stay relevant and bring in new audiences. To give yourself an edge, implement technology and software such as ShipHero to help facilitate faster shipping and smoother fulfillment processes.
Schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin is the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
Jul 7, 2021 | Blog, News & Updates, Warehouse Management Software
By: Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO at ShipHero
Effective July 1, 2021, the EU & UK will begin enforcing the eCommerce VAT Package and One Stop Shop (OSS), which includes new rules regarding eCommerce and VAT. These rules will impact all businesses in the supply chain, including individual sellers and marketplaces. All distance sellers within and trading with the EU & UK must update their VAT requirements as this package replaces existing distance-selling rules and extends the Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) into a wider-ranging One Stop Shop (OSS). Full details from the European Union may be found online.
There will be a lower pan-EU & UK threshold of €10,000 (€0 for businesses established outside the EU), which means businesses will need to account for VAT on additional supplies.
One Stop Shop (OSS):
Many businesses may be able to register in one Member State and report all EU & UK transactions through a single OSS return. Your payments will be collected and distributed from the tax authority in the Member State to other states where VAT is to be paid.
New OSS Schemes:
European Commission, New Future Proof VAT Rules
Important Facts:
- Removing the distance selling thresholds for sales of goods and setting a unified threshold of 10.000 euros.
- Expanding the Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) by launching the new One Stop Shop (OSS).
- Ending the low-value import VAT exemption and introducing the new IOSS.
- Online marketplaces will be deemed the seller for collecting and reporting VAT.
- New record-keeping requirements will be introduced for online marketplaces facilitating supplies of goods and services.
- Special arrangements in order to simplify imported goods with a value of less than €150 in case the IOSS (import one-stop-shop) is not used.
ShipHero Software Updates:
Your ShipHero software includes a new VAT field to help automate the new processes. Please read the ShipHero knowledgebase article on how to set up eCommerce VAT in ShipHero today HERE.
The following have been updated to support the new fields:
- Public API
- New Order CSV upload
- Automation Rules
- Order Detail page
- Generate Label Workbook
For carriers, the following are done:
- Shippo
- DHL ecomm v4
- FedEx
- Endicia
- Firstmile
- Globegistics
- Endicia
In progress are:
- DHL Express
- UPS
- Webshipper
- Asendia
- Canada Post
- Purolator
- NZ Post
- Australia Post
If you’re an existing ShipHero customer, you can contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) today to find out how ShipHero can help you navigate the new EU & UK eCommerce VAT and OSS Package requirements.
If you’re new to ShipHero, please schedule a meeting today with our experts to learn more about our WMS software built for ecommerce brands & 3PLs looking to run their best warehouse and how ShipHero works to ensure that organizations invest in the solutions that match their needs, to improve productivity, revenue, and success.
Click HERE to Schedule a Meeting Today
Aaron Rubin, Founder & CEO
ShipHero
About the author: Aaron Rubin the Founder & CEO of ShipHero. He is responsible for planning and executing the overall vision and strategy of the organization. Rubin’s greatest strengths are leadership, change management, strategic planning and a passion for progression. He is known for having his finger on the pulse of ShipHero’s major initiatives, his entrepreneurial spirit, and keen business acumen. His leadership of ShipHero is grounded in providing excellent customer service that drives improved business operations. His passion for ShipHero comes from the culture and his ability to have an impact on the lives of employees, customers, partners, and investors.
Follow Aaron on Twitter & LinkedIn.
