What is ClickPost
At first glance, ClickPost may look to you like any ordinary multi-carrier integration platform. However, this platform takes a special interest in diving deeper into the logistics of every ecommerce business. The work of an e-commerce business is varied and multifaceted. On one hand, ordinary business operations have to be maintained.
This means managing your eCommerce platform (or platforms), bringing in new customers, and enhancing your brand loyalty. On the other hand, supply chain management is also an essential part of operating. So you’ll want to keep a close eye on every courier partner. You must track how well they perform and how each order is processed, transported and delivered.
Still, your job doesn’t end there. Failed deliveries have to be well-managed and successfully completed. RTOs must be actively reduced. Cross-sales need to be promoted. Customer support has to be provided and feedback has to be collected. Overall logistics data must be tracked, stored and analysed to push improvements.
All in all, the job of an ecommerce business is to juggle 15 balls at any given time. ClickPost is the perfect tool to help you keep balance and juggle. It can turn 10 logistics balls into 2, so your hands are kept free to manage and grow your business.
List of Key Features Provided by ClickPost to eCommerce Businesses
ClickPost is an ecommerce logistics intelligence software that improves the post-purchase customer experience . That means it operates as a multi-carrier integration system, a courier tracking system, and an overall logistics solution. ClickPost uses technology to simplify previously complex tasks. And it can help you even before an order has been placed.
Courier and Shipping API integrations and AI-driven mechanisms automate functions in a way that not only speeds up delivery but enables a greater overall delivery experience. Accordingly, let's take a look at the main features of ClickPost that can help your eCommerce business truly deliver. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at how ClickPost does this for you, and what important features you can make use of.
1. Single View Order Management
ClickPost’s system provides every ecommerce business with its own dashboard to view all data surrounding all orders. Every order placed with each courier partner can be viewed and tracked from this single location. Orders can be catalogued and tracked based on their delivery status (eg: picked up, out-for-delivery, failed delivery attempt), the courier partner used or a variety of other metrics. This makes the entire order management a super easy task.
2. EDD Display
Even before a customer can place an order, ClickPost has a role to play in improving the ecommerce customer experience . Using its EDD API integration, ClickPost’s system calculates the approximate time of delivery using previous order data. This Estimated Delivery Date (EDD) is then displayed on the respective “Product Overview” page of your ecommerce website. This enables customers to make informed decisions regarding their purchases.
3. Carrier Selection
For every order placed, a courier partner has to be assigned that is equipped to handle that order and can deliver it to the required location. ClickPost’s advanced AI-driven courier recommendation engine uses basic metrics like past order data, order volume and size and delivery destination to determine the best courier services company in India .
However, it can also be configured to include specific business priority-based metrics like reduced RTO% or delayed delivery numbers to select the best courier partner for the order.
4. Order Manifestation
Order Manifestation is the process that occurs right after the order has been placed and a courier partner has been selected. The order must first be created on the courier partner's platform. The airway bill (AWB) must then be generated. With the order details in hand, the eCommerce shipping label has to be printed.
The order is then packaged and assigned for pickup. Each of these 4 steps is managed by different API integrations. ClickPost gives ecommerce businesses a single API integration to handle the process of manifestation.
5. Real-time Order Tracking
Order tracking is absolutely vital to keeping customers happy and operations running smoothly. Most multi-carrier integration systems make use of API integrations to receive tracking updates from courier partners when orders are in-transit.
ClickPost makes use of both push and pull API integrations. Together, these APIs receive tracking data for courier partners in double time and then push them to customers. This ensures customers are kept up-to-speed every time their order crosses a new milestone.
6. Branded Tracking Page for Customers
Marketing is a huge part of running an ecommerce business. ClickPost gives you a way to combine marketing with logistics to give customers an ideal delivery experience. A tracking page is made accessible to your customers through your ecommerce platform. This page can be customised to display your brand in vivid color as well as to promote any ongoing discounts or events. This goes a long way in pushing cross-sales.
7. Identification of SLA Breaches
SLA breaches can be varied depending on the terms specified in your Service Level Agreement (SLA) with each courier partner. However, by and large these include issues like failed deliveries, delayed deliveries, stuck shipments, RTOs, etc.
ClickPost’s Artificial intelligence-driven engine actively identifies SLA breaches and notifies you of the same. This enables you to approach courier partners with specific terms and penalties to help reduce SLA breaches.
8. Automated NDR Management
NDRs (Non delivery reports) notify you of failed delivery attempts. While most carriers offer assurances that at least 3 delivery re-attempts will be made, these can be difficult to track and complete. ClickPost’s NDR management workflow automatically reaches out to customers after an NDR is notified.
Based on the cause of the NDR (eg: wrong address or customer unavailability), customers are given issue-specific queries. Their answers are then immediately notified to courier partners. That way the next delivery attempt is an informed one and more likely to be successful. This process actively reduces the number of NDRs converted into RTOs.
9. Optimised Returns Management
Depending on the size and scale of your business, the number of return requests placed may vary. But no ecommerce business is exempt from handling returns. For online businesses that don’t have a designated returns page, ClickPost’s system can be used directly by customers to place return requests.
Alternatively, requests placed on your returns page can also be integrated with ClickPost’s system. This enables you to track and manage all returns from a single page on your ClickPost Dashboard.
10. Manage and Track Cancellations
Cancellations are another unavoidable element for every ecommerce business. Your business can face many losses when cancelled orders are processed too slowly as the orders can get lost or stuck during their return journey to the origin warehouse.
ClickPost uses a Cancellation API that automatically creates the cancelled order in the courier partner platform once notified. The cancelled order is quickly manifested and can therefore start its return journey sooner. The order can be tracked during its reverse journey until it reaches the origin warehouse. There it can be restocked and resold.
How ClickPost Can Help Your Ecommerce Business?
Each of the features ClickPost provides has been specifically designed to address common challenges faced in logistics. ClickPost was created working with supply chain experts, and based on hundreds of discussions with leading ecommerce businesses.
These same expert opinions help keep the ClickPost platform improving and updating to keep pace with the growing needs of ecommerce companies. All enhancements made to ClickPost’s system work actively to give you four important benefits, as listed below.
1) Improve Customer Experience
With the help of ClickPost, customers can not only receive their orders sooner, but be kept updated on every single step in the life cycle of their order. This increases their faith in your brand.
2) Easy Order Management
Juggling 1000 orders a day handled by 5 courier partners becomes a much easier task when all orders can be accessed from ClickPost’s single dashboard. Based on any number of identifiers, you can find 1 order in 1000 with ease.
3) Build Better Carrier Relationships
With ClickPost handling integrations and order monitoring, you and your courier partners can focus on strengthening your relationship. This is done through frequent communications and the easy flow of information enabled by ClickPost.
4) Push Improvement Initiatives
Improvement initiatives are why you need to build a strong relationship with carriers. ClickPost gives you the inputs you need to identify breaches and lapses in carrier performance. With this information, you and courier partners can improve the overall operational efficiency of the existing delivery mechanisms.
Final Conclusion
The work of an eCommerce business is truly never-ending and all-consuming. Supply chain and logistics management take up a big chunk of resources and effort. This is why most online businesses turn to third-party tools and external logistics management systems. Deciding which system to turn to can seem like a difficult choice. However, it all comes down to the sum of each system’s parts.
ClickPost employs a wide variety of API integrations and other tech-enabled solutions to ensure your end-to-end delivery mechanism functions like a well-oiled machine. At the end of the day, the customer’s final experience is what is most important. The goal of ClickPost’s system is to make the process more convenient for customers and more efficient for your business. ClickPost works alongside you and your courier partners to help give your customers the best online shopping experience of their lives.