With the rapid growth of eCommerce, numerous recurring themes relating to the supply chain have appeared, including higher customer expectations for shipping. Here’s the fourth part of the ShipHawk supply chain series about the top trends impacting the supply chain right now and what you can do about it.

Proliferation of Shipping Options

With the explosion of available shipping options and carriers, you would assume that a process would streamlined to help meet the needs of retailers. However, the reality is that with the ever-increasing array of distribution options, there has been more confusion than understanding, increased research by logistics professionals, and manual outreach by employees to determine the best supply chain solution in any given circumstance.

Many retailers believe they must offer all available delivery options in order to keep customers happy. But with more choice for the customer, where it used to be a simple parcel delivery option, now there are numerous shipping options, each with its own processes and systems that are often too complex and idiosyncratic for a retailer to manage from within a single Excel spreadsheet. High-end furniture marketplace Viyet, for example, had been employing two full-time staff to manage its quoting and shipping process before it automated its logistics system. Doing so enabled the company to free up those employees for other client-facing work—and lower its overall shipping costs by 20%.

To learn about the other trends impacting supply chain logistics and how to proactively react to them, download our white paper Five Trends Changing the Supply Chain Landscape as We Know It