Descartes Peoplevox (hereafter "Peoplevox") is an eCommerce WMS (Warehouse Management System) designed for high-growth online retailers and direct-to-consumer brands.
Peoplevox has a tried and tested off-the-shelf integration with Metapack's Shipping API that can be deployed and configured very quickly. This allows the users of Peoplevox to place orders for shipments and allocate them to Metapack carriers using the Metapack Delivery Manager allocation filter. The labels and customs documentation are then printed at the pack bench and the tracking data is returned to Metapack.
How can the integration help Peoplevox's customers?
With this integration, Peoplevox’s customers have instant access to Metapack's library of almost 5,000 home delivery services from over 400 carriers. They can add these carriers and services quickly and easily with a fully compliant label library using a universal label format.
How can the integration help Metapack's customers?
If you are a Metapack customer, then using 'pre-built' adapters such as the one described here, provides maximum flexibility, allowing you to move easily and quickly between different OMS and WMS providers.
In addition, implementation costs are reduced in that you do not need to pay for your own customised integrations.
The exact type and weight of each parcel are captured at the pack bench, allowing specific weights to be sent to Delivery Manager for calculation at the point of despatch. This ensures that you only pay for what you ship.
Peoplevox does not carry out any sort of calculation or pre-processing in order to prepare the order information for Metapack. They just pass over the information provided by the Sales Platform.
The flow is as follows:
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A user in Peoplevox despatches an order and requests a label.
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Peoplevox uses invokes the Metapack integration, building Metapack parcel and consignment objects.
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Peoplevox takes the booking code provided by the seller via the Metapack Shipping API, and uses the Metapack Delivery Manager allocation filter to select the most appropriate carrier.
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The integration makes a request to create the parcel and consignment, and requests a shipping label (and if necessary, customs documentation).
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The integration saves the tracking to the Peoplevox database, and the documents to the Peoplevox file store.
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Printers in the warehouse pick up and print the documents, and the tracking data is returned to Delivery Manager.
Before you can use the integration, both Delivery Manager and Peoplevox require some administrative setup. The steps are as follows:
Note
With regard to the specific Peoplevox setup, the guide assumes that you either already have the required administrative privileges or are in touch with Peoplevox's Support team (you can contact them here).