The past few years have been volatile for businesses; while it was feasible for many to stay indoors and handle their operations remotely, it wasn’t the same for manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and shippers.

With restrictions on nearly everything, consumers had no choice but to shop online. Increased availability and demand of goods online alongside the urge to deliver faster and catch up to the industry standards have reported the growth of outsourcing logistics and its integration with ERP.

Outsourcing supply chain operations to a 3PL provider allow businesses to focus on what they do best.

Whether you are already outsourcing your supply chain operations to the 3PL provider or thinking about partnering with one, the chances are high you will, at some point, require to perform 3PL Integration with Odoo setup.

Who needs to integrate Odoo and 3PL software?

Manufacturers:

Odoo Integration with 3PL for Manufacturers lets them track the logistics from their raw material vendor while syncing all updates of moving goods from manufacturers to the end customer.

For example, We can help you Integrate Odoo with United Parcel Services– a 3PL provider in the US to drive efficiency and sophisticated control over your supply chain operations.

Wholesalers Distributors:

Integrating Odoo with 3PL providers like ShipBob will help wholesalers to simplify the Delivery process from their warehouse to the retail stores. Moreover, operations like- Last-mile delivery can be directed from the ERP suite itself.

Online Retailers: 

Many retailers are leveraging the benefits of Odoo Integration with FedEx 3PL fulfillment services to help their business stay up to date with the delivery schedule, order management, and shipment tracking in real-time.

Why Integrate 3PL with Odoo?

Understanding what tools your company needs to carry out successful manufacturing, distribution, and fulfillment activities are critical to your ongoing success. While having the necessary tools in place, integrating those tools makes your enterprise work like a well-oiled machine.

However, when the success of your business depends on accurate and timely order fulfillment, you will require as much visibility as possible into the supply chain operations at your third-party warehouse.

Challenges you might face without Integrating Odoo with 3PL software:

When a customer asks about their order status, the manufacturers/distributors/retailers would be responsible for answering and not the 3PL vendors who actually have the information.

You will need to contact your 3PL vendor or go through the 3PL software to help your customer with the query which itself is a tedious task. Imagine repeating it every time a customer enquires for delivery status or other anything that isn’t available on your current Odoo setup.

When you aren’t the one managing the logistical operations, it becomes challenging to get an accurate answer for your customer. And for that to happen, you need visibility into your 3PL operations.

Without integrating your third-party logistics with Odoo, you will only receive reports from your 3PL vendors at the end of the day. Clearly, with those reports, you wouldn’t be able to respond to queries quickly or make decisions in real-time with the most accurate information.

Those who refrain from integrating both systems end up dissatisfying customers with inaccurate information, delayed shipments, and stockouts.

Neither the 3PL vendors nor the Odoo users know:

• when the inventory is being received.
• When orders are being picked, staged, shipped, and processed by the carrier.
• When the PO’s are sent out and when the inventory is about to come in.
• If the Sales orders are coming along with shipping and handling instructions.

Proper 3PL integration with Odoo expands the ability of the company to sync operational and logistical processes in real-time.

How does 3PL Integration work for Odoo Users?

3PL integration with Odoo fulfills the logistics and supply chain operations. It syncs the activities recorded by a 3PL provider or Odoo users for transportation, warehousing, customs brokerage, freight audit, shipment tracking, procurement, inventory management, and payment.

To put it simply, the ultimate goal of 3PL integration with Odoo is to have real-time, end-to-end supply chain traceability, allowing you to provide the best possible customer service.

The integration connects all your selling fronts like website, storefronts, and marketplaces with the 3PL warehouse while helping you execute the following:

• Item Updates: Sync product catalog, sale orders, and delivery details from Odoo to 3PL.
• Order Status: Sync inbound shipment requests and receipts from 3PL to Odoo.
• Inventory Visibility: Sync inventory levels across Odoo with 3PL warehouses
• Order Fulfillment: Sync new sales orders, order cancellations, shipment confirmations, etc.
• Export shipment details from Odoo to 3PL
• Return Processing: Sync RMA’s to 3PL

Schedule a live demo to know more about the operations 3PL-Odoo Integration could perform.

Benefits of 3PL Integration with Odoo

Improve Customer Experience: Automatic updates speed up the fulfillment process while eliminating errors by syncing sales orders to your 3PLs. The integration will provide customers with real-time updates through complete transparency into order status.

Centralized Data Control: Now, you can manage orders from a single control point, even for a multi-warehouse process.

Disconnected applications or processes may not cope with the supply chain demand fluctuations. Odoo ERP-3PL integration will ensure seamless data flow while avoiding to-and-fro, confusion, variable demands, and decision-making between the logistics vendor and ERP users.

Keep your Transactions Updated: Logistics integration with Odoo allows you to sync and track data of your inventory status, orders, and shipments in real-time which becomes crucial while fulfilling a large volume of orders.

Cut down Operational Costs: 3PL integration with Odoo get you rid of slow, resource-heavy, inaccurate manual processes of inventory tracking, order processing, and receiving requests across multiple systems and warehouses.

Continuous optimization:

Now that you don’t need to monitor the shipping and warehousing operations manually, you can spare time to determine the unnecessary processes, thereby finding the potential for improvising.

3PL integration works wonders when you have it. But the problem is that it’s challenging to execute the 3PL integration with Odoo, and if it’s poorly done, it becomes a nightmare.

It would be best to have someone with a wealth of experience integrating both systems; we have been doing this for years and have tested solutions for various business requirements.

We will ensure that the 3PL Integration with Odoo doesn’t become a challenge for you.

Contact our certified consultants today to discuss a 3PL integration strategy for your business.