Here are our top 10 most read blog posts from 2020

As this whirlwind of a year comes to an end, it’s important to look back at the events that took place, as well as the knowledge we’ve gained due to unprecedented parcel volumes and overall historic peak season statistics. With the bad, comes the good. For that reason, we’d like to take a look back at our most popular blog posts of 2020 and revisit the information that came out of an unparalleled year.

1. Single-Carrier Parcel Shipping Strategies are Dead. Here’s Why.

If there is one prominent piece of advice that ProShip has shared this year, it is this one. 2020 has been challenging for both online sellers and carriers. So challenging, that shippers who are currently utilizing single-carrier strategies or national carriers only are struggling with a variety of pain points and risk failing their customers. This blog explores four risks associated with single-carrier strategies and four reasons why you need to diversify your carrier mix when carriers begin accepting new customers again.

2. ProShip Software Acquired by FOG Software Group

Some exciting news came out of this year as well! In March of 2020, FOG Software Group, a division of Vela Software, and Constellation Software, Inc. [TSX: CSU] announced that it acquired ProShip, Inc. Since the acquisition, ProShip has operated as an independent division of FOG Software Group and continued to develop, enhance, service, and support our market-leading software in providing a competitive edge to customers.

3. Why It’s Imperitive for Manufacturers to Embrace a DTC Shipping Strategy Now

2020 is proof that manufacturers need DTC strategies. In the past, manufacturing shipping strategies may have been limited to fulfilling bulk orders, picking full cases, building pallets and shipping truckloads of products to big box distribution centers. But if that’s your current model, you’re probably discovering that it’s no longer enough.

Instead, more and more manufacturers are now fulfilling thousands of smaller orders and shipping them directly to consumers (DTC). You may have already started shipping DTC, or perhaps you’re considering it. If so, there are good reasons to do so, but also some challenges. Take a look.

4. 10 Parcel Shipping Mistakes and How to Fix Them, Part 1

Mistakes happen, but they are sometimes impossible to fix before peak season when you realize them later in the year (this is especially true for 2020’s peak season). No time of the year is more critical and stressful for shippers than the holiday peak season, and in a global pandemic, things have never been more nerve-wracking. But as you focused on your peak strategy, did you take a hard enough look at your parcel shipping operation? What didn’t work in past years? What did you want to change but haven’t gotten to yet? In part one, we explore mistakes related to single carrier approaches, carrier APIs vs. carrier engines, TMS, homegrown solutions and support.

5. 10 Parcel Shipping Mistakes and How to Fix Them, Part 2

In part 2, we discuss parcel shipping mistakes related to automation and integration, vendors lacking automatic updates, shipping data, address validation and over-customized shipping labels.

6. ProShip Receives 7th Year-in-a-Row FedEx Diamond Status Win

More exciting news! Towards the beginning of the year, we were awarded with our 7^th FedEx Diamond Solution status win. The selection of the award is based on a variety of criteria including customer compliance, year-over-year growth in volume, revenues and customer installations, percentage of customer renewals on the newest software versions and maintaining annual software certifications.

Stay tuned as we go for our 8^th Diamond win in early 2021! (Spoiler alert, we won!)

7. [ProShip ParcelCast] Episode 2: The Inside Scoop on Regional Carriers

That’s right, we started our very own podcast towards the end of 2020 due to many in-person interactions going virtual. Each month, our parcel shipping experts will discuss topics on supply chain trends, carrier compliance, delivery speed, technological advancements and more, and will invite numerous technology partners, national and regional carriers, and ProShip customers to join as guests in our discussions. We will continue bringing you insightful new episodes into 2021, so stay tuned!

8. Parcel Shipping: The Need for Speed

One reason our shipping content is so well-read is that we sometimes utilize our partners’ expertise to provide additional industry knowledge and insider tips. In our blog on speed, we called on LaserShip’s recent research report titled, How Retailers Can Stay Ahead of Consumer Expectations After COVID-19. LaserShip’s data combined with our internal shipping experts, provided a unique look inside the importance of parcel shipping speed.

9. 3 Fulfillment Centers Every Retailer Should Consider for Parcel Shipping

Retail e-commerce is one of the fastest growing industries today, and shippers are struggling with fulfilling massive amounts of parcel volume. In this blog, we discuss mega, traditional and micro-fulfillment centers and explain where they are typically located, what they do and the pros and cons of each.

10. ProShip and JDA Partner for Integrated Shipping and Supply Chain Management

In February of this year, ProShip and Blue Yonder (formerly JDA), announced our partnership, which stemmed from our companies collaborating on some of our largest, most complicated customer installs. Since our formal partnership announcement, we’ve worked on multiple new customers together. Learn more about our partnership in this blog.

In conclusion, we hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays. Stay tuned in 2021 as we continue to produce shipping resources in an effort to keep all parcel shippers informed.