Outward Goods, Inward Goods, Stock Feeds
We find the minimum integration requirements for 3PL's is Sales Orders, or instructions to dispatch an order to the 3PL. 3PL's normally respond to this with an shipment notification, which includes a tracking number. This is the major efficiency gain for both parties in almost all 3PL integrations.
For higher volumes, this might be expanded to work with inwards goods notifications and receipt notifications. This is where customers advise the 3PL of incoming goods, then the 3PL will advise once the goods have been received. This allows 3PL's to arrange space in their warehouse for large volumes of inwards goods.
Stock feeds are also very common, these typically arrive nightly and contain the current stock levels at the 3PL. These might be used by the customer to update the stock levels on their website.
