March 17, 2025
Ramin Popal
Consider you just opened an online store. You’ve worked hard to build your website, attract visitors, and make sales. But once those sales start, you’re overwhelmed by the number of orders and shipping logistics. Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. Many eCommerce businesses face the same challenges—especially in the beginning. One crucial step to streamlining operations is learning how to find a supplier for your product, ensuring you have a reliable source for inventory and smoother order fulfillment.
Luckily, there’s a solution to help you get organized and regain control: eCommerce shipping automation. This guide will explore how shipping automation can streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve customer experience. You’ll also discover a valuable tool to help you tackle the specifics of eCommerce shipping automation: AI Store Builder’s AI store builder.
As e-commerce sales grow, so do the challenges of operating an online store. Traditional e-commerce stores require constant manual work to handle orders, manage inventory, and fulfill shipping requests. As a business grows, this becomes unsustainable, leading to delays, mistakes, and inefficiencies. By automating key processes, businesses can:
Instead of handling each order manually, automation processes transactions instantly. Reduces the workload on employees, allowing them to focus on customer experience and business growth.
Manual order fulfillment increases the chances of incorrect addresses, duplicate orders, and tracking mistakes. Automation ensures accurate shipping details, customer addresses, and inventory records.
Customers expect fast shipping and real-time updates—automation ensures orders are processed and shipped without delays. Automated tracking notifications keep customers informed about their order status.
Hiring a team to manage orders manually, update stock, and handle shipping inquiries is expensive. Automation allows businesses to handle high order volumes with fewer employees.
A business that relies on manual processes struggles to keep up with growth. Automation allows companies to expand without increasing overhead costs.
To better understand automation, let’s break it down into three core functions:
This involves automating repetitive processes to ensure business operations run smoothly.
Example
When a customer places an order, the system automatically:
Without automation
This type of automation connects multiple systems, ensuring that data moves smoothly.
Example
A Shopify store automatically syncs with a fulfillment center, ensuring that:
Without automation
Modern automation tools analyze customer behavior and optimize decision-making using artificial intelligence (AI).
Example
Without automation
E-commerce automation covers many business operations. Here are some of the most common areas:
It automatically confirms orders and sends them to suppliers or fulfillment centers. It also generates invoices and packing slips without human intervention.
Choose the most cost-effective shipping method based on weight, location, and carrier rates. Create shipping labels and send tracking updates to customers instantly.
Sends real-time tracking details via email or SMS, reducing “Where is my order?” inquiries. Updates customers about order status, delivery delays, and estimated arrival times.
Generates return labels automatically when a customer requests a return. Updates stock levels when a returned item is processed without manual inventory updates.
Syncs stock levels across multiple sales channels (Shopify, Amazon, eBay, etc.). Sends low-stock alerts and automatically places reorder requests for high-demand products.
Businesses that automate these processes experience faster growth, lower costs, and better customer satisfaction.
The future of e-commerce relies on automation to remain competitive. As customer expectations for faster deliveries, real-time tracking, and smooth shopping experiences continue to rise, businesses that rely on manual processes will struggle to keep up.
Customers now expect next-day or even same-day shipping, which is impossible to achieve manually. Automated fulfillment centers and logistics networks enable rapid shipping at scale.
Manual shipping and fulfillment processes increase costs due to labor and inefficiencies. Automation helps businesses reduce costs by optimizing carrier selection and fulfillment workflows.
AI is improving shipping speed, delivery accuracy, and fraud detection, giving businesses that use automation a competitive edge. Predictive analytics help forecast demand, allowing companies to automate restocking and inventory planning.
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Automation is not just a buzzword; it has real-world impacts on eCommerce businesses. This section will cover how eCommerce shipping automation affects order processing and shipping labels.
The first step in understanding how shipping automation impacts your business is to look at the manual process. Here’s how it works without automation:
The manual order fulfillment process is slow, tedious, and prone to errors. Here’s why:
With automation, the entire order fulfillment and shipping process can happen without human intervention, allowing businesses to process orders faster, reduce errors, and provide better service. Here’s how the automated process works:
Customers expect quick and efficient shipping, and delays in processing can lead to order cancellations, negative reviews, and lost sales. Manually entering order details, selecting carriers, and generating shipping labels slow down fulfillment times.
Shipping costs can cut profit margins, mainly when businesses rely on expensive shipping options without comparing rates. Choosing the wrong carrier or package size increases unnecessary expenses.
Incorrect addresses, duplicate shipments, and misprinted labels lead to delayed deliveries and higher return rates. Human errors in manual data entry increase the chances of mistakes.
Customers want real-time updates on their order status. Businesses that fail to provide tracking information receive a high volume of customer inquiries, increasing support workload.
Choosing a single carrier for all orders limits flexibility and increases costs. Different regions may have better carrier options for faster, cheaper delivery.
As businesses grow, handling more orders manually becomes unsustainable. Processing each order manually limits scalability and increases labor costs.
A slow or complicated return process reduces customer satisfaction and leads to negative reviews. Manually handling returns is time-consuming and prone to errors.
Without inventory tracking, businesses risk overselling out-of-stock products. Poor inventory management leads to excess storage costs and slow-moving stock.
A slow, error-prone shipping process frustrates customers and reduces repeat purchases. Smooth and reliable shipping boosts customer loyalty.
Manual shipping processes become a bottleneck as businesses expand. Automation ensures that companies can scale without significantly increasing costs.
Shipping automation tools are not created equal. The right automation tool determines how efficiently your store can process orders, generate shipping labels, and provide tracking updates. Some platforms offer multi-carrier support, while others focus on inventory and shipping management.
AI Store Builder integrates real-time carrier selection, automated shipping label generation, and smooth order tracking into its platform. Businesses using AI Store Builder can set up automated workflows in minutes, ensuring efficient shipping.
A disconnected shipping process causes delays, fulfillment errors, and poor tracking visibility. Integrating automation allows all systems (storefront, warehouse, carrier, and customer service) to work smoothly.
AI Store Builder provides pre-configured integrations with major shipping carriers and fulfillment services, removing the complexity of manual setup. The platform automatically syncs orders from your store and assigns the best shipping method, reducing the risk of errors.
Choosing a shipping carrier manually wastes time and increases costs if a more affordable or faster option is available. Creating shipping labels is inefficient, especially for stores handling high order volumes.
AI Store Builder automatically selects the best carrier based on cost, delivery speed, and customer location. The system creates and prints shipping labels instantly, ensuring orders are ready for shipment.
Customers expect real-time tracking updates and will contact support if they don’t receive them. Manual tracking updates increase workload and delay customer responses.
AI Store Builder’s built-in automation sends tracking numbers and delivery status updates to customers without manual input. By providing real-time tracking links, businesses can reduce customer support inquiries.
A slow return process reduces customer trust and discourages repeat purchases. Manual refund and return handling increases workload and operational inefficiencies.
AI Store Builder provides automated return label generation and refund approvals, reducing the time it takes to process returns. The platform integrates with warehouse management systems, ensuring inventory updates automatically when returns are received.
Businesses need to track the effectiveness of their shipping automation system to ensure it’s reducing costs and improving efficiency. Without performance monitoring, automated workflows may not be fully optimized.
AI Store Builder provides detailed analytics and reporting on shipping costs, delivery times, and carrier performance. The platform automatically adjusts shipping workflows based on real-time business performance data.
As businesses grow, manual shipping becomes a bottleneck, preventing scalability. Automation allows companies to expand to new markets, offer faster shipping, and handle higher order volumes without increasing operational complexity.
AI Store Builder’s automated shipping system adapts to business growth, handling higher order volumes without increasing workload. With multi-warehouse shipping and expanded carrier options, businesses can scale efficiently.
At AI Store Builder, we create a complete Shopify store for you in under 10 minutes. We include 20 trending products, trusted suppliers, and a dropshipping course that others charge thousands for. Plus, you get live support calls and community access. Skip the headaches of store setup, product research, and supplier hunting - we handle it all so you can focus on growing your business. Get your store built for you in less than 10 minutes today!
When starting with dropshipping, you must find a supplier or manufacturer for the products you want to sell. Some dropshippers choose to work with suppliers already integrated with their online store. For example, if you create a Shopify store for your dropshipping business, you can easily find products from trusted suppliers on the Shopify app store.
Once you find a few potential dropshipping suppliers, take the time to research each one. Look for reviews on third-party websites. Also, check out the supplier's social media pages to understand how they interact with customers. Ask the supplier questions before committing to working with them if you can. This can help you gauge their responsiveness, which is essential for future business operations.
Your dropshipping supplier will be responsible for fulfilling your customers' orders, so you need to ensure they have good communication and reliable operations. If they fail to meet your expectations, your business will suffer, not theirs. Before you get started with a dropshipping supplier, look for signs that they have solid operations. For example, you can read online reviews to learn about other merchants' experiences with the supplier. Also, consider placing a test order with the supplier to see how quickly they fulfill the order and if the product matches the description.
Since you won't be handling the products in a dropshipping business model, you must ensure your supplier is shipping quality items to your customers. Otherwise, you risk frustrating your buyers and hurting your business's reputation. As mentioned, one way to gauge product quality is to read online reviews. Purchase items from the supplier and inspect them yourself before selling them in your store.
If your target customers are located in the United States, finding dropshipping suppliers based in the US is a good idea. This is because US-based suppliers tend to have faster shipping times for domestic customers. For example, if you dropship a product from a supplier located in China, it could take several weeks for your customer to receive their order. However, if you work with a US-based supplier, your customer could receive their order in just a few days. Faster shipping times will help you provide better customer service and increase your chances of getting repeat business.
Once you've researched and found a few suppliers you feel comfortable with, it's time to choose one (or more) to work with. Let's start with two suppliers for the same products. This way, if one supplier has stock issues or stops fulfilling orders, you can easily switch to another without inconveniencing your customers.
At AI Store Builder, we create a complete Shopify store for you in under 10 minutes. We include 20 trending products, trusted suppliers, and a dropshipping course that others charge thousands for. Plus, you get live support calls and community access. Skip the headaches of store setup, product research, and supplier hunting - we handle it all so you can focus on growing your business. Get your store built for you in less than 10 minutes today!
Get your free store in less than 10 minutes today
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