Artificial intelligence has rapidly changed workflows for logistics professionals and fleet owners, with many pursuing AI-powered cross-border fulfillment. The technology can reduce many challenges associated with shipping orders from a central location and delivering them worldwide. People use highly coordinated efforts to succeed in this aim, but strategically chosen technology platforms help, too.
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Streamlining Activities Between Entities
Logistics professionals tasked with cross-border fulfillment and other essentials spend substantial amounts of time communicating with the different businesses responsible for getting goods to their destinations. Even those in the industry for years experience challenges that tech tools might resolve. Such was the case at Louisiana’s Tricon Steamship Agency, an intermediary interacting with vendors, ships and companies to keep all parties informed.
In 2021, the company’s CEO grappled with changing numerous internal processes based on the technologies available and what the company could afford. There was no universally suitable product for the business, so workers had to use numerous programs and store information across several databases. It was then that the leader began exploring artificial intelligence and implemented it in late 2022.
Now, ship agents complete forms in only a half-hour instead of four hours. Many of the company’s 15 employees have been in their roles for several years, following the lead of parents who were also in that career. Because these professionals rely on years of accumulated institutional knowledge and have many data-driven tasks, it used to take years to fill the gaps they left when someone retired or left the company. However, thanks to AI-powered cross-border fulfillment, new employees get well-equipped in much less time.
That is largely because forms are now standardized and automated. Plus, the platform flags unusual conditions, prompting people to check that they filled everything in correctly.
Solving Pain Points
Other artificial intelligence applications enable entities involved in cross-border fulfillment to meet their continuous improvement goals. ShipERP Spotlight is an AI-powered tool that analyzes key metrics to benchmark enterprise performance against competitors. That data shows areas to target and is especially useful for businesses creating or managing multiregion logistics networks. The platform also converts shipping insights into actionable suggestions for better outcomes.
Similarly, this platform has helped well-known companies address issues and unlock growth potential. One example detailed in a ShipERP case study comes from Scentsy, a multinational direct-selling company known for its fragrance-based products, such as scented wax warmers and soap. Representatives received many calls from customers who did not receive all their multibox orders and wanted clarity. The necessity of working with various carriers for delivery also complicated these challenges.
Scentsy has over 1,000 employees in North America, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, emphasizing the need to address cross-border fulfillment obstacles. Decision-makers deployed three ShipERP modules to pursue several goals, such as enhancing order visibility, improving carrier integration compatibility and eliminating a previously used system with many problems.
ShipERP allowed Scentsy to handle up to 75,000 orders daily while reducing its bulk shipment process by 70%. The technology integrates with more than 200 carrier services, streamlining cross-border shipments. Additionally, the modules enable the company to process shipments without existing sales orders, elevating cost and inventory movement awareness.
Improving Visibility and Transparency
Once products leave fulfillment centers and embark on journeys to destinations across borders, professionals understandably want to track what happens to those items during each phase. Numerous handling partners increase the chances of things going wrong, potentially resulting in damaged goods. Such outcomes happening too often could adversely affect the reputations of the product sellers, making it necessary for decision-makers at those businesses to find reputable logistics partners.
Even once they locate trustworthy providers, numerous external factors can pose challenges that may cause delayed deliveries. One statistic indicated a 36% increase in delivery vehicles would add 11 minutes to last-mile delivery time frames due to high demand. That example shows how numerous individual factors can combine to cause issues. However, proactive behavior can reduce unwanted outcomes.
Artificial intelligence tools can find patterns in vast amounts of data that humans would not otherwise notice. When AI predicts issues early enough, people can adapt to prevent problems or reduce their effects.
Nuvocargo is a company that specializes in helping companies ship, track and protect their goods across borders. Some of the world’s most recognizable brands use its technology to minimize the issues that can occur with these shipments. It recently revamped its main platform to include an AI-powered cross-border fulfillment feature that features GPS freight tracking, dynamic estimated-time-of-arrival estimates and granular details about individual parcels.
The platform also automatically generates alerts for shipments that have been idle for more than a half-hour, giving logistics leaders opportunities to investigate and resolve problems. These offerings make clients’ freight clear customs 34% fasterlowering the associated fees by up to 20%. The sooner shipping professionals know about potential delays, the quicker they can react to address matters that could otherwise cause costly, preventable problems.
Enhancing Customs Form Accuracy
Company leaders who plan shipments must account for landed costs, which include all expenses required to move products from factories to customers’ doorsteps. The amounts can rise due to incorrectly completed customs forms, which could result in fines imposed on sellers or seizures that prevent the goods from reaching their destinations. How could AI-powered cross-border fulfillment tools prevent those outcomes? Some significantly automate processes, reducing the mistakes that can happen when people are tired or distracted.
One product from FlavorCloud — marketed as the first AI tool of its kind — extracts product descriptions directly from e-commerce stores, using that data to provide real-time landed cost estimates. It also automates the complex harmonized system code classifications that indicate the categories of items shipped. Indicating the incorrect code on a customs form could result in seized goods, fines, delays and even the loss of shipping privileges.
Fortunately, FlavorCloud’s Flash AI is an AI-powered cross-border fulfillment engine that automates code assignments, achieving 98% accuracy in this usually complicated task. It eliminates the need for spreadsheets and outdated code-retrieval systems and uses product-description text, images and item categories from online storefronts.
This approach does not require manual input, and people can use the tool without needing customs expertise. That makes it particularly helpful to those new to cross-border shipments or overwhelmed by other heavy workloads. When artificial intelligence can automate this crucial part of the process, other tasks become much more manageable.
Getting things right when completing customs forms also prevents delayed deliveries. Using AI to improve accuracy is a practical way to shorten cross-border shipping time frames. The results keep customers happy and eager to purchase from businesses again or recommend the companies to their friends.
Implementing AI-Powered Cross-Border Fulfillment
These examples show how AI-powered cross-border fulfillment tools can benefit logistics professionals by solving many common problems. These parties can optimize their tech investments by determining which issues to tackle and then finding suitable platforms to address them. When researching the possibilities, they should prioritize options that meet current needs and will grow with the companies.
Investigating factors such as user-friendliness is also essential, especially when businesses have many team members early in their careers or those not yet accustomed to using AI in their daily processes. Although successful implementation takes time and dedication, the applications highlighted here reveal the exciting improvements artificial intelligence can bring.
