The process for WooCommerce sellers to ship through a freight forwarder is as follows:
Choose a freight forwarding company
- Research and screening: Through online search, industry recommendations, cross-border e-commerce forums and other channels, collect information on multiple freight forwarders, including their service scope, reputation, fees, transportation timeliness, etc. Focus on whether they have relevant experience and service capabilities in Southeast Asia business, such as whether they have cooperative customs clearance agencies and delivery networks in the Southeast Asian region.
- Communication and Confirmation: Have detailed communication with the candidate freight forwarder company to understand its specific service content, operation procedures, emergency handling mechanisms, etc. At the same time, clarify the rights and obligations of both parties, such as the scope of responsibility and compensation standards of the freight forwarder company. For some factors that may affect costs and timeliness, such as peak season surcharges and fuel surcharges, it is also necessary to understand them clearly in advance.
- Sign a contract: After comprehensively considering factors such as service quality, price, and reliability, select the most suitable freight forwarder company and sign a formal contract with it to ensure that the cooperation between both parties has a clear legal basis.
Set up the freight forwarder for shipping in the WooCommerce backend - Install relevant plugins: If the freight forwarder company provides an API for connecting with WooCommerce or has specific plugins, install and configure these plugins to achieve automatic synchronization and transmission of order information.
- Set the shipping method: In the “Settings” > “Shipping” of the WooCommerce backend, add a new shipping method, select the corresponding freight forwarder company or a custom shipping method, fill in the necessary information such as the API key and account provided by the freight forwarder company, and ensure that the system can be effectively integrated with the system of the freight forwarder company.
Shipping process
- Prepare the goods: Based on the order information, prepare the goods to be dispatched, carry out packaging, labeling and other operations, and ensure that the goods meet the transportation requirements.
- Create shipping orders: In the order list of the WooCommerce backend, find the order that needs to be shipped, click the “Ship” button, in the pop-up window, select the previously set shipping method of the freight forwarder, fill in the necessary shipping information, such as the weight, volume, and shipping address of the goods, and then click “Confirm Ship”. The system will automatically send the order information to the freight forwarder company.
- Freight forwarders receive and process orders: After receiving the order information, the freight forwarder company will handle it according to its internal procedures, including arranging for pick-up, warehousing, customs declaration and other operations. If the seller is required to provide additional customs declaration materials or information, the freight forwarder company will contact the seller in a timely manner.
- Cargo Transportation and Delivery: The freight forwarder is responsible for transporting the goods to the designated destination and conducting the final delivery. During the transportation process, sellers can check the real-time transportation status and logistics information of their goods through the WooCommerce backend or the tracking system provided by the freight forwarder company.
- Update order status: Once the goods are successfully delivered to the customer, the freight forwarder will feed back the signature information to the WooCommerce backend, and the order status will be automatically updated to “Completed”.
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