The Challenge:

As several of our 3PL customers rapidly grew their e-commerce business, their teams found themselves buried in shipping tasks. Operators were constantly logging into different carrier systems to manually generate labels. They also had to manually switch back to update the WMS so it would stay in sync. Trying to keep pace with thousands of orders a day and stay compliant with multiple carriers was tough.

What was meant to be business to fuel growth quickly became time-consuming and impossible to scale.

• Staff had to log into separate carrier systems to generate labels
• Rate shopping across carriers was slow and inconsistent, limiting cost optimization
• Tracking data and service codes were not standardized back into the WMS
• After labels were produced, users still had to return to the WMS and manually update each order's shipment details
• Manual post-shipping updates were tedious and unsustainable for e-commerce accounts shipping thousands of orders per day

The SC Codeworks Solution:

SC Codeworks came in and immediately saw the pattern: the disconnected systems and manual updates were slowing everything down and increasing the risk of errors. Rather than patching each bottleneck, the team reimagined the workflow from start to finish.

The goal was to make daily work less complicated for the floor team, so they could keep up with high volumes without added stress. Making life easier for the people actually doing the work was a priority.

The team replaced fragile, disconnected processes with a unified system that handled high-volume parcel shipping reliably while keeping operations compliant and efficient.

Key elements included:

• One enterprise multi-carrier platform handling label printing, rate shopping, and carrier compliance
• Deep integration with Codeworks Enterprise via API and ODBC, allowing near-instant updates back to the WMS
• Automatic write-back of shipment details immediately upon label generation
• Standardized handling of carrier services and tracking data
• Consistent view inside the WMS for the operations team
• A single, repeatable integration process to scale e-commerce operations

The Benefit:

The solution transformed outbound parcel workflows, making high-volume e-commerce shipping manageable, faster, and scalable.

Operational Efficiency & Throughput:

• Manual post-shipping updates cut by roughly 90%
• Operators can process significantly more orders per day with the same staff
• Customers average 1,000–18,000 orders per day... all without adding personnel

Accuracy & Reliability:

• Shipment details consistently updated in the WMS without human intervention
• Rate shopping is faster and more consistent, improving cost optimization
• Standardized carrier and tracking data reduce errors and ensure compliance

Scalability & Reuse:

• A single enterprise-grade multi-carrier process can be reused by multiple 3PLs
• Stronger foundation for future expansion into e-commerce
• Simplified carrier compliance and tracking visibility without adding overhead

One Operations Supervisor shared, "Before this, shipping felt like running in circles. The process is so much smoother, and we can actually keep up with the orders." This change has made daily operations far less stressful, letting teams focus on moving orders instead of managing systems and workarounds.

Conclusion:

By consolidating disconnected carrier systems into an integrated shipping workflow, these 3PLs transformed a labor-intensive, error-prone process into a scalable and reliable solution. High-volume e-commerce shipping is now faster, more accurate, and easier to manage.

If your operation is struggling with fragmented shipping workflows or manual WMS updates, SC Codeworks can help you unify and automate your parcel processes. Let's connect to talk about how we can help improve throughput, accuracy, and scalability without adding complexity.