How to level up your E-commerce Inventory Management and Order Fulfilment with Integrations

Did you know there are over 28 million e-commerce platforms worldwide? As more brands expand their reach by offering their products across a variety of online storefronts, ensuring your e-commerce order management system can seamlessly integrate with your customers' platforms is essential to fulfilling orders with ease and accuracy.

Find out how you can unlock the ability to fulfill orders on time, even in peak periods, with data automation that saves several minutes on every single order entry using integrations.

In 2024, CartonCloud users were able to save 15 years worth of manual data entry through automatic order creation using integrations!

For e-commerce 3PLs, our customers saved hours of admin each day with automated order creation from their customer’s online storefronts like WooCommerce and Shopify, to have orders automatically created in their WMS, ready to be picked. Plus, they saved even more time each day with automated rates and accounting software integrations that allow them to automate invoicing. Check out more tips to level up your e-commerce management and order fulfilment with integrations.

In order to seamlessly manage your e-commerce orders from start to finish, you need to be able to: 

• Keep your customers updated on stock levels in real-time with 3PL e-commerce inventory updates, so they can make sure their online storefront like Shopify is always accurate.
• Automate order entry directly from online store purchases to your 3PL WMS to save time on admin and order fulfilment.
• Share order status in real-time, as well as tracking details with your client’s customer once an order is complete.

By integrating with online platforms like Shopify (or creating a custom integration with our expert integration team), you can unlock more opportunities for your 3PL business and effortlessly enhance your e-commerce order management.

Easy, hassle-free e-commerce set up in minutes

For Lexington Logistics, the very first step in managing orders for their e-commerce clients is setting up integrations to their client’s online storefronts. This ensures they have a seamless, real-time data flow between both systems so they can take on e-commerce orders right away with ease.

“When we onboard a client, the first part of that is to ensure we have CartonCloud set up, to ensure their integration is spot on.”

“Once we have everything connected, [our customers] actually don’t need to touch what we do or how it operates — we’re able to integrate our systems together to a complete, autonomous process.” - Deanne Luke, Founder, Lexington Logistics

Using CartonCloud’s Self-Managed Shopify integration, this setup can be done in minutes. 

All it takes is just five simple steps to connect your client’s Shopify store to your CartonCloud warehouse (plus your client has the option to take care of it themselves using their CartonCloud login if they so choose – saving you even more time from doing admin work!) 

1. Initial configuration
2. Authentication
3. Custom field configuration
4. Order configuration
5. Location fulfillment setup

Automatically generate WMS orders instantly

Once your e-commerce 3PL integrations are up and running, sit back and watch as orders flow seamlessly into your CartonCloud e-commerce order management software, ready for your team to pick, pack, and dispatch. 

How does it work? When an order is placed on your client’s Shopify store, the CartonCloud integration automatically creates a Sale Order in your WMS system, with no manual data entry required on your part.

This supercharges your accuracy and e-commerce inventory management reporting while empowering your team to process orders right away, allowing you to offer services like same-day shipping (giving your customers even more to love). 

“When you order a product online from one of our customers, that order gets sent directly to us in real-time. Our staff can receive that, pick your order right away and we ship it off same day.” - Cassandra Strunk, Founder of Core Logistics Services.

Provide end-to-end transparency to e-commerce client customers 

Today’s online shoppers want to be in the know every step of the way — when their order is received, when it’s on its way, and exactly when to expect it at their door. Giving your customers the ability to fulfill this need for their own customers will help you win more e-commerce business. 

CartonCloud’s e-commerce order management system makes delivering this transparency simple and direct to your client’s customers. Once you mark your CartonCloud Sale Order as packed or dispatched in the system — it automatically updates the order in Shopify as ‘completed’ — no extra steps required!

You can even take this transparency one step further by integrating your CartonCloud e-commerce order management software with platforms like Shippit or Starshipit, so you can automatically send tracking numbers and carrier information back to Shopify, keeping all order details in one place.

Accurately manage e-commerce inventory in your 3PL

As soon as an order is fulfilled, CartonCloud can sync 3PL e-commerce inventory updates in real-time between your CartonCloud WMS and your client’s Shopify — ensuring stock records stays accurate, eliminating any risk of your client overselling unavailable stock.

On top of that, with CartonCloud’s 3PL WMS for e-commerce order management software, you can generate detailed stock reports that show your current inventory levels and any changes over time. 

Your customers can also log in and view these e-commerce inventory management reports directly, keeping them informed when stock levels are running low. This proactive approach helps them anticipate demand (like during cyber sale season), send replenishments as needed, as well as ensure inventory stays stocked — making your e-commerce inventory management even smoother.

Continue to scale your 3PL as order volumes rise

Now that you have your e-commerce 3PL integrations and automated 3PL e-commerce inventory updates in place, as well as manual data entry eliminated, it makes it easy to scale and grow your business. 

“E-commerce 3PL integrations give you the flexibility to add new customers, and handle increasing order volumes, especially when you have an expert, in-house integrations team by your side.”- Mitch Whitnack, Manager, Customer Operations North America 

As your customers grow through omnichannel fulfillment, offering multiple platforms for their customers to shop from, you’ll want the ability to integrate with those platforms to continue providing seamless e-commerce order management and service to your customers.

CartonCloud integrates with over 20 leading business apps and thousands more through Zapier. And if you need a more custom solution, our in-house integrations team is ready to help. 

Just see what some of our CartonCloud users had to say!

“Working with the CartonCloud Integrations Team has been an easy and enjoyable experience. Special mention to Ben, who was able to understand the integration's requirements, then design and deliver a solution that has increased our operational efficiency.” - Murray Raeburn

“We frequently check in with CartonCloud to scope new possible integrations or automated processes like reports or fulfilment updates and tracking to e-commerce storefronts.” - Mitchell S

Want to know more?

Discover how CartonCloud’s e-commerce order management software can revolutionize your e-commerce operations today! Schedule a free demo with our friendly team to explore all available integrations (plus discuss any custom options you may need) to start streamlining your e-commerce inventory management.