An introduction to Multi-Origin Shipping and its significance

The logistics and shipping sector is the cornerstone of an economy. This industry has contributed heavily to accelerating the overall growth scenario in recent times. The country currently ranks first in the global market for logistics services, and as per the predictions, there will be continued growth in this sector. The estimated growth rate will be around 10–12% CAGR over the next decade.

The government has launched several initiatives to speed up the development of this industry, paving the way for the new and existing market players to expand their reach exponentially. Shipments can become confusing when eCommerce sellers expand beyond a single fulfillment location. It is essential to use the right tools to create strategies, processes, and systems that make shipping from multiple warehouses as seamless and automated as possible.

One such method is Multi-origin shipping.

An e-commerce merchant can use multi-origin shipping to choose the most convenient warehouse if more than one is available. Setting up shipping methods for each warehouse is necessary to manage multiple warehouses better. 

Having multi-origin shipping allows you to split orders between two or more locations effectively that benefits both you and your customers. Rather than multiple shipping rates, your customers will see only one. Multi-origin shipping may sound a bit of a hassle, but it's actually effortless. It involves having shipments sent to multiple locations at once. A retailer with multiple locations will fulfill orders most efficiently by shipping from the area closest to the customer if they store their inventory there.

No doubt, creating shipments from multiple warehouses, locating stock, and other nitty-gritty details could be challenging. When a business scales rapidly, the manual labor involved in directing shipments from various locations is a serious time sink. 

How Does Multi-Origin Shipping Work?

Warehouses that store inventory is usually fulfillment centers. Some of them are, however, brick-and-mortar retail stores.

The problem with multi-origin shipping is the cost and rate of shipping. How are the shipping costs calculated in the case of multiple products shipped from different locations to a single destination? Here is an example of how multi-origin shipping works.

For example, let's say that your customer's order consists of two products stored in a distant warehouse, such as Place A and Place B. The algorithm would select the best carrier among these two products to ship them to the customer. In order to ship an order from two locations, retailers must pay for all shipping costs of each item shipped separately, while the customer only pays one shipping fee. Some retailers can do multi-origin shipping this way, but not most.

In order to obtain real-time shipping rates, you need a way to combine them into one shipping rate. Multi-origin shipping can be managed using shipping software unless you want to calculate everything manually. You can split an order, create different shipping profiles per order, and display one single shipping cost displayed at checkout for your customers if you enable multi-origin shipping.

What Are the Benefits of Multi-Origin Shipping?

1. Estimated delivery time

If you have the same product in different locations or warehouses across the country, each product should be shipped from the closest warehouse. Delivery times will be shortened when the products are distributed among the warehouses. E-commerce is known for its fast and efficient delivery, which gives you an advantage over your competitors.

2. Implement origin-based shipping (Shipping Software)

You can cover more geographical areas in your country by shipping from two or more warehouses. In some instances, two or more warehouses may be requested in one order. Real-time shipping rates can be obtained from shipping software for each location or warehouse. To ensure that you make a profit, you should estimate the shipping cost thoroughly.

Saving money is the main reason people use Multi-Origin Shipping. As merchants fulfill orders from multiple warehouses, they often need to ship different parts of orders from different locations. The result is that they pay for several shipments while the customer only pays for one.

It may not be easy to calculate shipping for some items when dropshipping is used only for specific products. With Multi-Origin Shipping, retailers can ship orders with products from both warehouses and drop shippers, all with a single, accurate shipping rate.

Make a Choice As Per Your objectives

You have to pick the right option depending on your business objectives.

• With the closest origin option, you can send your products to customers from the nearest warehouse with the inventory you need. 
• By choosing this option, you will ship the majority of the items in your order from the source.

Conclusion

You'll spend a lot of time and effort coordinating operations if you move to multiple warehouse fulfillment and continue handling fulfillment manually. However, adding locations will be a breeze when your fulfillment is smooth, predictable, and accurate. You can now outsource your warehouse & fulfillment services with "Shyplite" for a smooth last-mile delivery providing 9 Fulfillment centers & 27,000+ shipping pin codes across India with 30 Days free storage cost and a comprehensive rate slab that is one of the lowest rates in the market.