Thane Direct - Multi carrier, No integration
The Challenge
As business continued to grow with orders coming in through various channels, Thane Direct knew they had to look at streamlining their despatch process. With only one carrier linked into their in-house system, they could only offer their customers a limited range of delivery options. Thane Direct understood that in order to remain as a market leader they needed to offer their customers a wider range of delivery options to reduce the possibility of cart abandonment and ensure repeat business. Another disadvantage to using just one carrier meant it was not proving cost effective when sending the smaller items and it left them without a contingency plan should anything happen to their carrier. Thane Direct tried to add additional carriers but it proved to be a complex process to link with their internal system. It wouldn’t have worked efficiently and they didn’t have the resource to allocate to it..
The Solution
After reading about MetaPack’s various successes in the trade press, Thane Direct approached MetaPack to see how it would benefit their operation. At the time, Thane Direct were building an order processing system and knew they needed a solution which would allow them access to different carriers. The implementation of MetaPack was incorporated into a development stream of their own order processing system, and the Thane Direct development team are based in Canada worked closely with the team at MetaPack to create API’s (Application Program Interface) which would seamlessly transmit despatch data between the two systems. MetaPack are integrated with all the major UK carriers, so was in an ideal position to offer Thane Direct the flexible solution they were looking for without them having to create any additional work for themselves. The introduction of new carriers and services has allowed Thane Direct to maximise their carrier selection procedure and the initial savings they made from despatching their smaller items with a suitable carrier has meant that MetaPack paid for itself in a matter of days. With the new delivery options in place, Thane Direct now have a contingency plan and will not be in left in a position where they can’t ship."MetaPack was the only solution I was looking for. We needed the flexibility to select different carriers without having to do all the background work in house. Watching our development team in Canada work with the MetaPack guys is testament to how easy it is to set up. MetaPack has not only given us flexibility but they have saved us money too”
Thomas Parrott, Managing Director
