4 Steps to Streamline your 3PL E-commerce Fulfilment in Seconds

If the phrase “next-day delivery” has you sweating, you’re not alone. Online shopping and fast last-mile delivery has changed the game for 3PL fulfillment. E-commerce fulfilment has opened new revenue streams for a range of 3PLs and specialty warehousing providers to tap into a market of continuous growth driven by rising consumer demands — however these demands are also driving faster delivery, lower fees, returns, and flexible delivery options. 

Do more, charge less, and get it there faster. No worries, right! For 3PLs like you, this means you need to be able to save time and boost efficiency wherever possible. That’s where we come in. We’ve laid out 4 tips you can use today with real-world examples, to cut hours from your operations — using the power of integrations. 

We’ll take a look at TNS Logistics, who uses CartonCloud’s e-commerce WMS and integrations to efficiently manage their e-commerce operations from start to finish. 

CartonCloud’s powerful e-commerce integrations let you get rid of time-consuming tasks, automate reporting and updates, streamline operations, and keep your customers happy. Check out how to set up your 3PL WMS for e-commerce success.   

What are e-commerce integrations? Think of e-commerce integrations as the glue that connects your entire network and facilitates communication with each other: for your customers, their end customers, shipping carriers, and physical stores.

Connecting your e-commerce WMS with multiple platforms and partners using e-commerce integrations ensures you’ll be able to fulfil each order quickly and accurately, with real-time visibility for clients and customers at every step.

How do e-commerce integrations help optimize my 3PL? Connect, set, and forget. Through CartonCloud integrations, you can effortlessly link your CartonCloud e-commerce 3PL system to popular online platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce, accounting software such as Xero and QuickBooks, as well as shipping carriers, allowing you to:

• Instantly receive orders in your CartonCloud e-commerce WMS as soon as they’re placed to save time on admin work (CartonCloud users eliminated 15 years' worth of data entry back in 2024 by using integrations to automate their order creation!)
• Provide clients with inventory updates and reports to efficiently manage your warehouse stock.
• Share real-time order tracking details with your clients’ end customers.
• Automatically generate invoices for streamlined billing.

By integrating your entire supply chain network, your 3PL will be able to fulfill orders faster, ditch the manual data entry, and keep everyone — from clients to end customers — informed at every step.

Syncing data across all fronts

Use your e-commerce integrations to directly connect your e-commerce warehouse with online storefronts, shipping carriers, and accounting software to ensure every piece of data is automated in real-time.

Alongside actually picking, packing, and shipping the orders, you need to also ensure your WMS, customer storefronts, and tracking details are all in sync, ensuring your inventory is accurately up-to-date, all stakeholders informed, and of course — to ensure your invoices are created and sent off to clients so your operations remain profitable! 

For your 3PL, omnichannel means that your e-commerce warehouse acts as the central hub where data flows to and from multiple online storefronts, as well as out to multiple delivery points.

For high-volume warehouses taking on e-commerce orders, you need to manage your e-commerce clients at every step from one platform. Now let’s take a look inside TNS Logistics 3PL warehouse to see how they are expanding to a global market with the power of integrations. 

Step 1: Save hours with automatic order creation 

Seamless integrations with real-time connectivity to your WMS lets your e-commerce warehouse receive orders instantly, so you can fulfill and ship orders the same day — boosting your customer satisfaction even further!

TNS connects their CartonCloud e-commerce WMS directly to their customers' online stores, like Shopify and WooCommerce, for secure and instant data transfer— saving them hours on order creation and management. Their online orders flow directly from the storefront straight into the warehouse, creating a sales order ready for the team to pick and pack — making the process faster, smoother, and hassle-free.

“Our warehouse manager now comes in each morning, he can clearly see the day’s orders, [and] the warehouse team can pick directly from the mobile app.”  - Matthew Norton, Commercial Manager, TNS Logistics

Watch how TNS receives orders in real-time to allow them to provide customers with same day dispatch.

Step 2: Delight customers with instant inventory updates

Are you ready to deliver real-time transparency to your clients and their end customers? It only takes a second! 

Use your WMS to track real-time inventory updates as your team fulfills e-commerce orders, to maintain accurate inventory records across multiple platforms. With CartonCloud, your team can pick orders on the mobile app, and as inventory is picked — CartonCloud automatically adjusts your stock reports to reflect the changes — keeping you and your customers on top of low stock levels, and aware of buyer trends. 

Check out how to use CartonCloud’s Self-managed Shopify integration to effortlessly provide full transparency for your client’s customers in just a few clicks!

CartonCloud’s customer portal gives your clients the ability to log in, view live stock reports, track stock movements, and monitor order fulfillment all in real-time, helping to replenish stock as needed and prepare for any upcoming demand. 

“[Pick and pack] is tracked and updated in real-time, so customers can log in and see their orders being fulfilled, accessing the most up-to-date information 24/7.”  - Matthew Norton

Step 3: Deliver orders with full transparency

CartonCloud is a fully integrated WMS and TMS, delivering comprehensive optimization from end-to-end and seamless data transfer between warehousing and transport delivery. 

For 3PLs focused on warehousing only, you may want to integrate with multiple carriers and shipping platforms to simplify order tracking and delivery.

We’ve got you covered. Take Shippit, for example — a platform that connects your warehouse to various shipping couriers. Using CartonCloud’s Shippit integration, details like delivery address, weight, and volume are automatically transferred from each sales order into Shippit. A tracking number is then generated and added back to your CartonCloud sales order, ready to share with end customers on platforms like Shopify.

TNS ensures orders are assigned for delivery and freight collection and are tracked in real-time with direct integrations to their freight forwarders, couriers, and shipping partners — providing transparency on orders from the moment an order leaves the warehouse.

“Our clients love that the shipping feature is a part of CartonCloud, so our staff and the client aren’t having to use multiple platforms. Through our couriers, we can print courier labels directly through the platform which means that we are limiting time and mistakes.

It’s also really important for our clients to see when stock is leaving our warehouse. So if we’re spending the morning picking and packing, we need to be able to provide proof to our clients that it’s left on-time and on-route to the final delivery.” - Matthew Norton

Step 4: Automate invoices without lifting a finger

Now the work is done, it’s time to get paid! Well, with CartonCloud, you can automate rates and invoicing to be completed in the background as your team works, so you can get paid faster! 

With CartonCloud’s e-commerce 3PL system, invoices are sent out accurately and on time, saving you valuable admin time. 

How does it work? CartonCloud tracks all charges — including ad-hoc fees — directly within your e-commerce WMS. Once CartonCloud is integrated with your accounting software (like Xero, QuickBooks, or MYOB), it automatically creates and sends invoices through your chosen platform, making invoicing seamless and stress-free.

For TNS Logistics, every service — from receiving and storing incoming stock to tracking movements, picking, packing, and dispatch — are captured within CartonCloud’s e-commerce 3PL system. By simply marking an order as dispatched, the system will then automatically generate and send an invoice to clients.

“All of the charges are captured automatically, and the invoices can be automated to be sent directly to our customers.” - Matthew Norton

Want to know more?

Effortlessly take control of your e-commerce operations from start to finish with CartonCloud’s integrated WMS and TMS. Discover how easy it is to connect your entire network through seamless integrations with all your favorite platforms. Book a free demo with our expert team today to learn more!