Manual vs. automated parcel shipping: compare costs and processing time

Why the method of shipping parcels matters for small e-commerce

A growing number of orders is every entrepreneur’s dream, but it comes with enormous pressure on operational efficiency. Customers are accustomed to standards set by market giants and expect:

• lightning-fast same-day shipping
• precise tracking
• hassle-free returns

The way you process orders—from clicking “Buy now” to printing the label—has a direct impact on your margin. Every minute spent manually retyping address data is time you’re not dedicating to marketing, product development, or customer service.

Moreover, with manual processes, business scalability is strictly limited by human productivity, which during peak periods (like Black Friday) can become a bottleneck that constrains revenue.

How does manual parcel shipping work?

Manual shipment processing is the reality for many beginning online stores, resembling tedious office work from decades ago. This process begins when an order comes in. The seller must open their store’s admin panel or marketplace platform (e.g., Allegro), and in another browser tab, log into the carrier’s system. Next comes the most critical stage: copying data. First name, last name, street, house number, postal code, phone number, and email address must all be transferred using the “copy-paste” method into the shipping form.

After pasting the data, manual definition of package parameters is necessary. This is where inefficiency often occurs—selecting a box “by eye” and manually entering dimensions. If the store uses multiple carriers, this process must be repeated across different systems. Finally, the label is generated as a PDF file, downloaded to disk, and printed. The main limitations of this model are lack of data flow and low packing precision.

How does automated parcel shipping work?

Logistics automation completely changes the work philosophy, shifting the operational burden from humans to software. The foundation of this model is advanced integrations (APIs) between the store platform and the shipping system. In this scenario, order data “flows” automatically. When a customer completes their purchase, all necessary information is immediately transmitted to the shipping management panel. The user logs into one panel, sees the order list, and generates labels in bulk.

Automation, ecology, and “shipping air”

Research reveals shocking data: Polish consumers receive over 40 million m³ of air along with their ordered products due to oversized packaging. That’s equivalent to paying to ship the air contained in 13,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Manual box selection “by feel” generates enormous waste. Packing shipments in poorly fitted boxes accounts for over 42,000 tons of unnecessary CO2 annually. Automation allows precise matching of carrier and size to actual product dimensions, reducing this problem and lowering your store’s carbon footprint.

Cost comparison – manual vs. automated

At first glance, the manual model seems cheaper because it doesn’t generate a monthly software invoice. However, this is a classic example of false economy. The biggest financial burden in the manual model is labor cost per hour. If an employee spends 3 minutes handling one package, with a volume of 500 shipments per month, that amounts to 25 hours of pure administrative work. That’s over three working days for which you must pay salary, social security, and taxes.

Add to this the aforementioned cost of “shipping air” in oversized packages, for which carriers charge higher dimensional rates. Automation costs are typically predictable and scalable, and systems often offer negotiated, cheaper courier rates that are unattainable for individual shippers. Small e-commerce businesses actually save money with automation when the system cost is lower than the value of time wasted on manual handling and overpayments for poorly dimensioned shipments.

Time comparison – manual vs. automated

Time in e-commerce is a currency that cannot be recovered. For a single manual shipment, the process takes an average of 3 to 5 minutes. In an automated system, generating a label for a single order takes 15-30 seconds. However, the real gap appears when scaling. Manual processing is linear in nature—handling 100 packages takes 100 times longer than handling one.

During a sudden sales spike, a manually operated store can become paralyzed. Automation works almost instantaneously. Generating labels for 100 orders takes the system the same amount of time as for one—you simply select more items from the list. This allows the store to ship hundreds of packages the same day, eliminating the bottleneck of limited typing speed.

How does process automation impact error reduction?

Human error is statistically the most common cause of problems in logistics processes. When manually retyping hundreds of strings of numbers, the human brain naturally loses concentration. If we assume that the average error rate for manual data entry is approximately 1% to 3%, for a store shipping 300 packages monthly, that means 3 to 9 problematic shipments each month.

This may seem like a small number, but the financial consequences are disproportionately large. Each such error requires covering the cost of package return, re-shipping, and often results in customer loss and negative online reviews. Automated systems eliminate the risk of typos by capturing data exactly as the customer entered it and validating postal code accuracy before printing the label.

When should you definitely choose automation?

The transition to automation typically happens naturally when an entrepreneur starts feeling that logistics, instead of supporting sales, begins to hinder them. Here are key signals suggesting your e-commerce should implement automation:

• Exceeding the threshold of 30-50 packages monthly: Manual handling begins taking up too much valuable time.
• Multi-channel sales: Managing Allegro, Amazon, and your own store from one place (e.g., through Alsendo Business) means no more logging into multiple panels.
• High seasonality: Readiness to handle a 10-fold increase in orders during Black Friday without hiring additional staff.
• Desire to be ECO-friendly: Avoiding “shipping air” through better package fitting, which is impossible to achieve “by eye” at large scale.

Example scenarios for small e-commerce

To better illustrate the difference, let’s examine three specific business situations.

Scenario 1: Hobby store shipping 50 packages monthly

In the manual model, the owner spends about 3 hours monthly just entering data. After implementing automation, this process shortens to 20 minutes. The gained hours can be dedicated to marketing, which will actually increase sales.

Scenario 2: Growing boutique with 300 monthly orders

At this scale, manual handling amounts to 15-25 hours monthly—nearly 1/4 of a full-time position. The owner faces a choice: hire an administrative employee (costing several thousand dollars) or implement a system for a fraction of that amount. Automation replaces the need to create a position solely for “printing labels.”

Scenario 3: Store with irregular product “drops”

On release day, you receive 100 orders per hour. Manual shipping means chaos and working until midnight. Automation allows handling these 100 orders in a few minutes, providing “on-demand” scalability without the fixed costs of maintaining a large staff.

Automation: a requirement, not a luxury

In 2025, logistics technology is accessible enough that persisting with “manual shipping” for cost-saving purposes has become a myth. For most e-commerce businesses, automation is not a luxury but a fundamental tool for competitiveness and—importantly—environmental responsibility.

Avoiding address errors (which are a statistical certainty with manual work) and reducing empty space in packages represent real savings. The recommendation is simple: implement automation before your first sales peak turns your office into a warehouse full of problematic shipments. Let technology handle logistics while you focus on business development.

Sources

1. https://www.dssmith.com/pl/media/aktualnosci/2022/8/air-commerce

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