When the holiday season is near, many people place multiple orders either on the same day or consecutively to spend more time relaxing or with family. Multiple orders are a big source of revenue and satisfaction for business owners due to a few reasons. Therefore, in this article, we discuss what joint shipment is, who coined the term, what its benefits are, and whether there are any options to take full benefit from it.
What is a Joint Shipment?
If you have made multiple orders and they are combined in a single package, then it is called a joint shipment. The single package helps the seller make a single delivery for their customers. The term coined by the Shein e-commerce platform has a few general requirements, especially when they apply to their customers. These special requirements are as follows:
- A customer has placed multiple orders within 24 hours.
- Orders that are being sent to the same home address or same collection point.
- If most of what you have ordered is inventory of the same warehouse, they will also be part of the joint shipment
However, if some of the orders are in different warehouses and may take some time to arrive, then they will not be combined. According to Shien, then they will see which is the best approach for either a single package or one big package while other smaller packages.
Is Joint Shipment the Same as Combined Shipment?
Yes, it is the same; the only difference is that Shien started using the term combined shipment as a joint shipment. Shien combines different orders into a single package if ordered within 24 hours, while others combine from the same purchaser.
The other common and regularly used names for joint shipping are:
- Order consolidation
- Package consolidation
- Combined shipping
Benefits of Joint Shipment?
Several practices benefit both the supplier and the customer, and one of them is joint shipping. So, the following are some of these prime benefits:
Cost Efficiency
Where you would send a few packages and pay for each to the logistic company, in the joint, you are only sending one package and thus paying only once. That is why online businesses have promoted this method recently, which allows them to offer competitive pricing to their customers.
Transportation is Streamlined
Instead of managing multiple orders and printing multiple receipts, the warehouse or supplier will collect these orders under a single order. This order now has to go out of the warehouse only once, thus saving picking, packing, and delivery.
Convenience
As a customer, you first don’t have to track multiple packages because of your orders. Secondly, you will receive all of your orders on the same day, thus benefiting from quick service and may use them immediately. It becomes more important if you are going to collect them from a drop-off point.
How to Handle Joint Shipment?
As a growing business, if you want to implement joint shipping into your business, you have to take care of a few things, such as policies and what support you need to provide.
If you are planning to start offering this service to your customers, here is how you can approach this streamlined delivery method.
Consolidation Policy
The first thing that you need to control and make sure you implement is the timeframe that allows a number of orders to be consolidated. Now, it can be any order from one customer or the same shipping address while you are readying the first order. But like Shien, you can make the consolidation window of 24 hours.
You need to mention this policy clearly in your shop so your customers can fully benefit from this policy.
Configuring the Order Management System
If you have a store on Shopify, this system comes built into the platform, and you can enable the consolidation feature. If you are considering a different marketplace, then you need to install a plugin to implement this. It also helps your customer select this feature during checkout.
Most of the OMS will have the option to flag a customer each time they make more than one order, thus making it easier for you and your team to do the consolidation.
Inventory Management Update Process
system or install a plugin to do it for you. You can ask for an API from the e-commerce platform or the marketplace to help you in setting it up.
The purpose of this update is to ensure that whenever a customer is flagged for consolidation, the inventory management system will automatically deduct these items from your inventory. Remember, updating this to all your SKUs and what items are left in the stock is also important, and you must apply what we mentioned above.
Optimizing Your Warehouse and its Management System
First, you need to control and train inventory management to either auto-select a box for joint shipment or have a worker do it after the system flags it. The same can be done by the WMS or warehouse management system, which can tell your team to do the grouping for joint shipping. It would help tons if you implemented a collecting area dedicated to this very method.
Important Shipping and Refund Practices
Here are a few practices for shipping and refunds that you need to implement.
- The labels for joint shipping must be labeled accordingly, and the carriers must be informed to update this information at their end, too.
- This process would require a single shipping or tracking number for the combined package.
- Any refunds can be assigned to a single return or a package as a whole but still under the same issue and tracking number.
- It is beneficial if you add success rates for a number of consolidations that you made. It can be a good metric, allowing you to have an overview of the success of your business.
FRQs
What is the Definition of Join Shipment?
It is a practice that online e-commerce stores employ to attract customers to spend on more than one order. When a customer does this, they only have to pay for shipping for a single order as the rest of the orders are combined into a single package and arrive at their doorstep at the same time.
What is Combined Shipment, and is it the Same as Joint Shipment?
Other than getting your orders in one package and on the same arrival date, here are some great benefits of joint shipment:
- Reduced cost from shipping in one package and courier instead of many.
- Minimal resources are used, such as couriers, packing and collecting staff, printing labels, etc.
- Fewer people and documentation are required to dispatch one package instead of many.
- A customer gets the package of different orders in a single delivery instead of many delivery timings and dates.
Handle Joint Shipment with NextSmartShip
if you are overwhelmed by the concept of flagging orders, picking, collecting, and packing all the orders in a single order, then there is a much simpler solution. You, as a business, hire 3PL services from companies like NextSmartShip to do all that for you. All you need to do then is optimize your online shop or store while fulfillment is taken care of by NextSmartShip.
With extensive experience in all dispatch-related activities, streamlined dashboards, and management systems, NextSmartShip can do a lot for a small service fee. Get in touch with their expert today and get the best plan suitable for your business.
Conclusion
Joint shipment is a great cost-saving concept when it comes to running an online store. Not only are you saving on delivery costs, but reduced packaging allows for a sustainable business, which is good for the environment, too. The only worry you may have as a business is whether the marketplace hosting your shop has a good logistical policy or not.
No matter if it does or not, it is better to take NextSmartShip as your 3PL partner to alleviate all the worries for a small price to your profits. With better delivery and joint shipment services by NextSmartShip, you have a higher chance of gaining more valued and permanent customers and growing your business.
