Company Overview
Based in Barrington, Illinois, PackagingPrice.com is a web-based packaging materials supplier
filling the void of on-line bulk purchasing of shipping and packaging related materials.
Through consistent inventory, reduced prices, multiple shipping options, and a strong focus
on customer service, PackagingPrice.com has become a unique and powerful on-line business.
Founded in March of 2000, PackagingPrice.com has simplified the process of purchasing packaging
materials for thousands of their customers and has maintained pricing that is 15 to 20 percent
lower than catalog based competitors.
Synopsis
In online packaging sales, shipping costs are a crucial decision factor when a customer
evaluates which site to order from. Due to packaging materials odd shapes and weights, it is
very difficult to calculate the best way to bundle and source an order that contains multiple
items.
Most of Packagingprice.com’s competitors were employing shipping policies that either required a
phone call to get a quote or ‘safe’ quotes that were often much higher than actual shipping costs.
PackagingPrice saw this as an opportunity to have a cost advantage over their competitors by
building a shipping quote engine that could accurately calculate the shipping costs even on
complicated orders that were being sourced from multiple suppliers or warehouses.
The biggest hurdle for the shipping module is the large number of variables that affect shipping:
- Package Size / Dimensions / Weight
- How an order can be packed
- UPS oversize levels
- Multiple Suppliers / Warehouses
- Residential vs. Commercial Addresses
- LTL Carriers for large orders
- LTL Fuel Surcharges
- Carrier Surcharges
Solution
Triton-Tek built a very sophisticated shipping quote engine that can instantly provide extremely
accurate quotes for online shoppers and internal users. The shipping module uses a brute force
algorithm that calculates every possible combination of shipping variables and selects the cheapest
shipping method. These calculations are performed in seconds and therefore provide immediate quotes
to online shoppers.
An administrative interface allows PackagingPrice administrators the ability to update shipping
parameters, product information and carrier information so the shipping quotes are always accurate
and the most competitive.
Additionally, the shipping quote engine is entirely self contained and does not require a connection
to any third party systems such as UPS. This greatly reduced the amount of shipping quote ‘down time’
due to outside system outages or failures.
Results
PackagingPrice.com now has extremely competitive shipping which generates more order volume and larger
orders. Having a flexible shipping quote engine has allowed PackagingPrice to negotiate with more
suppliers all over the country to even further reduce customer shipping costs. These new suppliers can
be added to the shipping structure with minimum effort and zero programming.
Significant benefits include:
- Accurate shipping quotes to increase order volume.
- Reduction in under-bid quotes and lost revenue from shipping.
- Increase in revenue and profits from shipping in general
- New Supplier and Warehouse locations can quickly be added to shipping module.
- Shipping quotes are performed internally and do not require access to 3rd party systems.
- Shipping quotes are served significantly faster.
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