Use Cases
Carriyo enables the forward order journey and the reverse rerturn journey for an e-commerce merchant.
Shipping Orders to Customer
The use case to ship orders to a customer is known as the forward shipment journey in Carriyo. The forward shipment journey begins with a customer placing an e-commerce order on the merchant's website.
Once an order is captured online, the merchant usually creates a forward shipment (in a draft state). The shipment is not booked with the carrier at this stage, as the shipment is in a draft state, waiting for a confirmation. When the merchant has picked and packed the order, they can send a confirmation to Carriyo to book the shipment.
At this point, Carriyo dertermines the right carrier for the shipment based on the merchant's requirement, generating the tracking number and the label in the process. The tracking number, label and other details of the booking can be sent back to the merhant via webhooks.
The merchant has the option to skip the draft shipment and only make one request to Carriyo to book the shipment when the order is processed and ready to be shipped.
The two options for the forward shipment flow explained:
Create Shipment when Order Received
(also known as the Draft Shipment Flow)
Merchants can use the Carriyo draft shipment to record the shipment in Carriyo as soon a customer order is received. The draft shipment is an optional step, however it is a powerful way of allowing the e-commerce managers to get a full view of the order fulfilment journey. It gives the merchant visibility of the fulfilment process in Carriyo through the various dashboard and reports, including measuring the processing SLAs for the shipment.
Using draft shipments, the e-commerce managers can track all the steps of the last mile journey, namely
- Orders awaiting processing at the fulfilment location
- Orders awaiting collection by the carrier
- Orders awaiting delivery by the carrier
The draft shipment flow requires two calls to Carriyo. The first call is to create the draft shipment as soon as the customer order is received, and the second call is to confirm the draft when the shipment is processed. The first call usually contains the order details, such as customer name, address, items ordered etc. The second call usually contains fulfilment details such as the fulfilment location, the parcel weight, dimensions etc.
When to use this flow?
The draft shipment flow is slightly more complex as there are more touch points. However, there are business benefits with this flow. Use the draft shipment flow if you
- Want to track your end to end last mile process in Carriyo, starting from order to delivery.
- Do not have an order management system, then you can use Carriyo to give you the end to end visibility of the fulfilment process.
- Have an integration platform to integrate mutiple systems with Carriyo. If you have a middleware, then you can connect your e-commerce and order management systems to Carriyo more easily.
Create Shipment when Order Fulfilled
(also known as Confirmed Shipment Flow)
The other option for the merchant is to wait until the order is processed at the fulfilment location, and only create a shipment when the label is required for the parcel. In this model, the shipment is created and booked with a single call and works the same way except the shipment is not visible in Carriyo during order processing in the warehouse or store.
If the merchant chooses to skip the draft step and directly create a confirmed shipment, then there is only one call required at the time of order fulfilment. The confirmed shipment is assigned to the carrier and booked immediately.
When to use this flow?
Use the confirmed shipment flow if you
- Do not have the capability to easily integrate multiple systems with Carriyo, such as your e-com and order management system.
- Already have an order management system that can receive shipping updates from Carriyo, which you can use to create the end to end visibility of the fulfilment process, from order to delivery.
- Are looking for a quick pilot integration with Carriyo, and enhance later to the draft shipment flow.
Return Orders from Customer
THe reverse journey begins with a customer requesting to return an order that was delivered to the customer. The merchant usually creates a reverse shipment in Carriyo to instruct the carrier to collect the shipment from the customer and return it to the merchant's return location. Once booked, the reverse shipment follows the same flow as a forward shipment, except the pickup and dropoff locations are swapped in case of a reverse shipment.
There is an optional step in this process, which is to create a return request in Carriyo to record the customer's intent to return. This step is optional as this service is part of the Carriyo Return module.
In addition to managing the reverse shipment flow, the Carriyo Return Request allows the merchant to manage the approval and refund process associated with the return. It links to the reverse journey by creating a reverse shipment and automatically updating the status of the return request when the items are returned to the merchant. It also allows the merchant to capture any refunds issued to the customer.
