Today, shipping software providers have become essential in eCommerce, enabling online retailers to streamline their shipping processes. When you provide shipping management services as other eCommerce businesses do, you need always to stay one step ahead of the game. If you want to offer reliable software to eCommerce store owners, it becomes imperative to invest in shipping API integration with multiple shopping platforms.
Below, we'll show you how to avoid common integration issues and how you can integrate with multiple platforms at once without any issues. Also, you will be able to explore how to access all the data needed from shopping platforms and offer superior services to your clients.
Main Aspects of Shipping Processes
Shipping is often overlooked as one of the thorniest aspects of growing an eCommerce business. Everything from customer-facing policies like free and international shipping to minutiae around customized labels and USPS Flats vs. Flat Rate fits under this umbrella. The shipping industry is complicated, and when a B2C company focuses on creating & selling a great product, shipping is the last thing they want to worry about. That is why the majority of e-retailers choose to use shipping management software. With their help, they can automate their processes related to order delivery.
If you are running a shipping software company, you should know your clients’ needs and be able to provide them with the functionality they want.
High-quality shipping software usually handles things like picking, packing, and transportation. It also covers other operations like order fulfillment, shipment tracking, managing stock levels, and updating order statuses.
Shipping software depends on integration with shopping platforms. To carry out key functions, they need to access and process order, customer, and product info from online stores.
So, if you want to work with a great number of e-retailers, you should definitely develop API integration between your shipping software and multiple shopping platforms.
The Meaning of API Integration for Shipping Management Solutions
API, otherwise known as an application programming interface, enables the communication between two different software solutions.
A shipping software provider can use an API to pull data from eCommerce platforms related to orders, customers, and shipping details. Developing API integration with eCommerce platforms helps shipping systems to get information from their clients’ e-stores. Further, this info can be taken to create detailed reports that will make it easier to automate e-retailers’ shipping operations.
A good shipping API integration will allow your software to connect with multiple shopping platforms, thus increasing your marketing reach. Also, eCommerce API is required to perform the following operations by your software:
- Tracking and retrieving the orders, shipping details, and customer data from multiple sales channels
- Changing of order statuses and tracking information
- Generating shipping labels
- Creating up-to-date reports that offer insightful data
Shipping API Integration: How to Develop It with Multiple Platforms
No matter what eCommerce software business you are in, third-party integrations are unavoidable. In 2021, companies that want to offer reliable shipping management services will need some kind of integration into place. The biggest challenge with API integration is that you can fall into certain difficulties. For example:
- The integration is not an easy process – it will take at least 4 weeks to finish. The developer must study the architecture of the required eCommerce platform and ensure he manages to bypass any integration pitfalls.
- An integration is a complicated matter, and that means it will require a lot of time and money. A standard integration may cost around $2,000 in setup plus another $1,000 per month or less after that.
- The integration updates could cause issues with your work process that you'll need to deal with. You will need to hire developers to maintain the integration.
In order to avoid these integration difficulties, you can use a shopping platform integration service like API2Cart.
API2Cart provides a unified API that allows you to connect and interact with dozens of shopping platforms at the same time.
API2Cart supports integration with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy. This solution can save you hundreds of hours as well as thousands of dollars in the long run.
If you are a shipping software provider, API2Cart API methods can help you to:
- Collect data about e-store customers, products, shipping details
- Import and manage orders on multiple platforms
- Keep tracking information updated in real-time
- Create shipping labels and generate shipments
It is possible to use API2Cart for 30 days absolutely for free. All you need to do is to register a free account.
