Learn what this product does, how it works, and how to get set up…
Metapack's shipping platform helps sellers ship parcels using their preferred carrier services, and generate the required shipping labels, customs documents and manifest details.
Through a single integration, the platform connects you to a very large carrier and collection point library, allowing you to ship to over 200 countries from a selection of over 4,000 carrier services (refer to Which Services can I access through the Shipping platform?).
You can configure the shipping platform to manage your warehouses, carriers and shipping rates, as well as set up the shipping logic to ensure that the appropriate carrier service can be selected for each parcel.
Once all the logic has been set up, you can use Delivery Manager to create and allocate consignments via the GUI and also integrate with the Shipping API to perform the same operations more quickly, including the generation of the associated paperwork.
Typical carrier integration usually means a 4-6 week setup period for each carrier that you want to use, with regular maintenance thereafter for changes made to the associated API. With Metapack's shipping platform, on the other hand, you can access over 350 carriers through a single integration, with none of the API maintenance headaches. This single integration also allows you to change your shipping configuration very quickly, so that your warehouses and carrier services always reflect what is happening in your business and create trust with consumers.
The API response times involved in a typical individual carrier integration usually range from 600-1800 ms. This means that, for shipping large volumes, you could face a bottleneck at the pack bench. However, we have built native integrations with our full library of carriers, resulting in response times of usually less than 300 ms, and no label wait times.
The summary of the benefits of shipping through Delivery Manager are:
Integrate quickly with multiple carriers.
Drive down costs via the automatic selection of the right service for the right parcel, with minimal wait times for labels.
Enter new markets, changing or adding carriers as required.
Change configuration quickly, with minimum impact on warehouse operations and without the need for infrastructure changes.
Increase consumer retention through the fulfilment of delivery promises.
With Delivery Manager, you gain instant access to a large global label library, and also the following:
You can access over 4,000 home delivery services from over 350 carriers, including the following service types:
Economy
Next Day
Nominated Day
Timed
Note
For the creation and use of these carrier 'service groups', refer to Creating your Carrier 'Service Groups'.
With over 350,000 PUDO locations worldwide, you can arrange delivery to convenient collection points, regardless of the markets you are serving.
You can arrange delivery to your own stores, thereby reducing shipping costs and driving footfall into your own branded locations.
If you want to present your consumers with a choice of carrier service options based on your current shipping configuration, then you can integrate Delivery Manager with Delivery Options.
This separate application allows you to use a simple API to call a given set of parameters (warehouse, whether delivery is to home, pickup point or own store, postal code, cost, date range, weight, dimensions, and so on), and return appropriate delivery options for that particular scenario.
The returned options can be displayed on the product and checkout pages of your eCommerce website. Refer to the Introduction to Metapack Delivery Options.
Note
Because Delivery Options is integrated with the Metapack shipping platform, any changes to warehouse working days, carrier availability and selection rules, are automatically reflected in the options that are returned by the API.
If you are not yet a Delivery Manager customer, you can contact our sales team to arrange a consultation, either online or in person, at a time that best suits you.
If you are an existing customer, and need help with the product, click here for support.
Before you can do anything, you need to work with Metapack to set up your Retailer account and initial warehouse, with available collection days, and check carrier availability.
The creation of an account will result in an automatically generated Administrator Login and Password that will allow you to go through the Getting started. This takes you through selecting your carriers and services, configuring the services with costs and charges, and then activating and testing the services.