Advanced Analytics: What’s Their Real Value in Shipping?

Advanced analytics in shipping are often underestimated, with their tangible benefits misunderstood or overlooked. For medium to large enterprises, the potential of advanced analytics in shipping tools like ShipAccel is substantial. These tools enable key decision-making that impacts both top-line and bottom-line performance, offering insights into business operations and benefiting key stakeholders, including customers. This article highlights the key benefits and features of advanced analytics in shipping and why businesses should leverage them daily.

Key benefits of advanced analytics in shipping software

Shipping software like ShipAccel includes advanced analytics to help businesses enhance operational efficiency and optimize shipping strategies. Specifically, advanced analytics can help businesses with:

1. Cost reduction and increased efficiency: through automation from pre-defined business rules, advanced analytics can reduce IT and operational costs with routine tasks. Furthermore, users can leverage the data for better decision making on resource allocation, talent, and more, thus improving efficiency
2. Increased visibility: owners can leverage advanced analytics to provide full visibility in not only logistics processes but the entire business operations. This enhanced visibility will not only improve efficiency and decision-making, but also satisfy key stakeholders like customers and managers
3. Smart carrier selection: one of the most significant benefits is the automatic enablement of “best carrier” choice for each service level. By analyzing factors such as cost, speed, and route, analytics features can determine the most efficient and cost-effective carrier for each package
4. Customer satisfaction: advanced analytics can provide the most up-to-date tracking and delivery details that businesses can provide to customers. This increased visibility will increase customer satisfaction, as they are aware and notified of where their packages are
5. Forecasting: advanced analytics can use historical data and economic factors to predict and forecast demand based on trends and seasonality. Through these predictions, businesses can implement plans for stock-keeping, inventory, production, and more. As a result, businesses can save costs and improve their top-line
6. Performance monitoring: businesses can use insights from advanced analytics to help with tracking progress and performance, as well as identify areas of improvement. By comparing historical data and current period performance over time, businesses can gain valuable information

The benefits listed above are just a few examples of how advanced analytics can help businesses. To experience these benefits, consider choosing a shipping solution complete with a host of analytics capabilities—a solution that enables automation, includes smart selection of carriers, and proactively assists in continuous performance management. ShipAccel is a shipping solution that includes all of the above and more—learn more about how you can begin using our advanced analytics capabilities today – Get a Free Demo.