What is a Multi-Carrier Parcel Management Solution?

The term "multi-carrier parcel management solutions" is becoming increasingly common as companies digitize their supply chains to successfully execute omnichannel order fulfillment strategies and competitively deliver parcels across borders. 

But what is a multi-carrier parcel management solution?

Cross-border multi-carrier parcel management solutions help cross-border e-commerce companies select the right (best) parcel carrier from among all contracted carriers while helping carriers to deliver cross-border parcels more easily, quickly and efficiently. Multi-carrier parcel management solutions are often integrated with a company's ERP system and/or logistics parcel management system to create a single, efficient cross-border logistics chain ecosystem. Orders flow seamlessly between technologies in the ecosystem, creating organizational consistency, reducing order-to-delivery times, and yielding benefits such as

Reduced transport spend and increased profitability per cross-border parcel

Save time

Increased customer satisfaction

Simplifies collaboration with cross-border parcel logistics supply chain stakeholders

Cost-effective

How to choose the right cross-border multi-carrier parcel management solution

Choosing a shipper for parcel shipments is unique to any parcel shipping business. The truth is that the same is true of the multi-carrier parcel management solutions on the market, and it is important to choose the solution that best suits your business. The first step is to understand the immediate impact of each feature in the technology and then determine if it will improve the efficiency of your parcel shipments.

Most multi-carrier parcel management solutions offer basic functionality that unlocks the potential to improve operational efficiency and visibility across the cross-border parcel logistics supply chain. These may include

Parcel execution

Real-time parcel visibility

Reporting/analysis

Mobile solutions

Last mile delivery

While cost optimization and the ability to work within a large network of carrier services are often top priorities for cross-border parcel shippers, capabilities beyond the above-mentioned foundations can enhance the entire cross-border shipping process, provide better customer service and make more efficient use of data.

Multi-carrier parcel management solutions offer so many features and capabilities that even the most experienced logistics service provider experts can be confused when looking to implement a new solution. That's why it's especially important to choose an experienced parcel management solution development company. 

eTower can help you provide a cloud-based multi-carrier parcel solution to solve the problems caused by your cross-border parcel logistics, reduce labor costs and improve the efficiency of cross-border parcel shipments.

The difference between cross-border and local multi-carrier parcel management solutions

Multi-carrier parcel management solutions can be installed and accessed in different ways. The traditional approach, and the one used by many early adopters of transportation technology, is to deploy it on-premise. The local multi-carrier parcel management solution delivery model does exactly that - the solution is hosted on your premises (i.e. your server). This means that the system relies on your network and IT resources. While this can mean faster LAN speeds and file access, it also means you need the right infrastructure to manage the security, maintenance, IT, upgrades and support of your system. Many companies find that as they scale up (e.g. cross-border e-commerce), they quickly struggle.

In contrast, cross-border e-commerce and cross-border logistics provider users can access a cloud multi-carrier parcel management solution via the internet and have it managed by a third-party provider. Instead of installing and hosting the software locally on a server, you essentially 'rent' it out for a fee. The cloud delivery model is becoming increasingly popular, improving scalability, accessibility and security - seamlessly connecting people, processes, and third parties to your parcel shipping business in real-time, regardless of location, with minimal upfront costs and IT investment. All users can execute, track and analyze parcel shipments in one solution - improving response times, collaboration and decision accuracy.

Because the eTower solution provider hosts and maintains the Amazon Cloud Cross Border Multi-Carrier Parcel Management solution, the software does not monopolize space on your servers or consume your IT resources. eTower Cross Border Multi-Carrier Parcel Management solution provider takes care of all upgrades, maintenance and support, which means that the eTower solution is faster to deploy, enabling you to quickly realize a return on investment - independent of the initial investment - and benefit from accelerated implementation and integration of cross-border logistics system processes.

It is also important to note: that another benefit of the cloud model is security. A reputable cloud multi-carrier parcel management solution may offer stronger data security than you can provide on your own - especially if you lack deep IT resources, staff, control, or expertise.

How can a multi-carrier parcel management solution reduce shipping expenses?

Whether your parcels are cross-border or next-day arrivals, a multi-carrier parcel management solution can reduce transportation costs by

Increased visibility: Shippers utilizing a multi-carrier parcel management solution have increased visibility into their supply chain operations. All stakeholders use a single platform to view delivery status updates, receive delivery event alerts and make real-time adjustments to keep the supply chain running smoothly and customers happy, and tracking delivery exceptions allows shippers to capture accurate carrier performance data

Reduce costs and efficiency, reduce labor costs: reduce the extent of reliance on staff to manually enter parcel information, simplify the difficulty of interfacing with major systems and integrate multiple parcel business scenarios in one system. eTower cross-border parcel solutions help you reduce this expense. Freeing your staff from manual, time-consuming, and tedious tasks, helps you reduce costs and increase efficiency and ensures that shipping rules are applied automatically, enabling a millisecond fast shipping process without intervention.

Built to address the many business pain points of international engineering, trade import, and export processes, combining real business needs and digital technology.

We reduce costs and increase efficiency in operations, collaborate and share processes, provide early warning and traceability in risk control and support decision-making in management.

eTower parcel management solutions are designed to handle large volumes of orders, and whether your company has one or more distribution centers, we don't charge for the extra workstations needed to handle seasonal business growth. With decades of experience integrating our systems into many different order management systems, we can ensure that your solution is optimized for speed.

If you're shipping thousands of parcels a day, you need to know that your system won't be down. Our uptime is over 99.9% and our servers are deployed globally to ensure your business is not affected by internet delays.

Our dedicated team - who will also install your system - are just a phone call away, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

eTower - the Multi-Carrier Parcel Management Solution for global enterprise-wide parcel shipping management. Contact us today to arrange a free consultation. Our logistics experts are available to answer your questions.