The Advantage of a 3PL With Its Own WMS

Our WMS is a full-featured system that lets you manage orders, inventory, lots, serials, returns, and more in one unified platform. Unlike simple fulfillment dashboards, ShipNetwork’s WMS gives you end-to-end traceability, owned technology (we built it in-house), and deeper control over every step of your supply chain.

Lot tracking lets you group items by batch or production lot (with shared expiry or manufacture date), trace them from receipt through shipping, and apply FIFO or FEFO logic. This reduces waste, prevents shipping expired items, and ensures compliance. It’s especially relevant for perishable goods, cosmetics, supplements, food, etc. (as of mid-2025 many eCommerce brands list lot & expiry tracking among their top requested WMS features).

Yes. Serial tracking is built-in. Each serialized item can be uniquely identified, traced, and tracked through its lifecycle—from receiving, through storage, order picking, shipment, and returns. This helps with asset integrity, warranty claims, recalls, or any compliance needing item-level identity.

Our WMS provides real-time inventory visibility across all channels, automatic alerts for low stock or aging lots, and synchronization with your order systems or marketplaces. This ensures the stock counts you see are accurate, avoiding overselling or selling items you don’t actually have.

ShipNetwork’s WMS supports custom API, partner API, and EDI via CRSTL for seamless integration. That means your shopping carts, marketplaces, ERP, or order management system can communicate directly with our WMS. Data flows like order creation, inventory updates, tracking, lot/serial status are kept synchronized in real time, reducing manual work and error risk.

You get dashboards and detailed reporting on order fulfillment rates, lot‐level tracking (including expiration or age), serial item movement, inventory on hand, inventory aging, returns, and order editing history. These reports are designed to be intuitive, searchable, and usable for operations, compliance, and accounting.

We built the WMS in-house with user experience top of mind. The UI is streamlined, with clearly defined workflows for receiving, lot/serial scanning, order picking, returns, etc. We provide onboarding/training, documentation, and support. Because we own the tech, we can iterate and improve quickly based on user feedback.

Returns are managed directly in the WMS with full traceability: when items are returned, the system tracks them, updates inventory, assigns lot/serial as needed, and supports routing those items back into inventory, quality check, or disposal. You can see status in real time.

If a recall or quality issue arises, you can use lot tracking to isolate the specific batch(s) affected, trace where they came in, where they’re stored, and where they went out. Serial tracking adds finer granularity. This helps minimize impact of recall, avoid unnecessary disruptions, and meet regulatory requirements.

The WMS is designed to scale with you: as order volume increases, SKU count grows, or new product lines with different tracking needs (lots, serials, expiration) are added, the system adapts without needing major overhauls. Because we own the technology, we add features, optimize performance, and support growing usage.