What Is Advance Shipment Notice (ASN)?
An advanced shipment notice (ASN) is an electronic data interchange message the shipper sends the buyer before the departure of an order shipment from the seller’s facility. ASN usually contains details about the package and its contents.
Significance of Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) in E-Commerce Shipping and Delivery
Businesses and customers benefit from ASN-based shipping and receiving procedures because they enable timely and efficient loading and unloading of shipments while also managing inventory. Some significant benefits of advance shipment notices are:
- While ASN might seem like a shipment confirmation notification, it is also the final confirmation of order fulfillment from the seller’s side.
- ASNs help save time by providing automated shipping updates to both sellers and buyers.
- An advance shipment notice gives order visibility to customers by providing an estimated arrival time.
Prerequisites for Advance Shipment Notice (ASN) and How It Works
Advance shipment notices must have certain information, without which they would not be as useful. This information could be counted as the prerequisite for ASN and usually includes the following:
- Order information
- Location information
- Product details
- Estimated delivery date and time
- Pallet code
- Physical characteristics of the shipment
- Carrier information
An advance shipment notice is generated and sent right before a shipment is dispatched. By using EDI, ASN is automated, allowing the supplier to receive all shipment-related information quickly. After receiving all necessary data, this note is automatically converted into an EDI memo and sent to the buyer via secure internet protocols.
Use Case with Advance Shipment Notice (ASN)
Take, for example, a customer who buys a product from an e-commerce seller. After picking and packing, the order is now ready to be dispatched. Subsequently, a message stating that the order is ready to be shipped will be sent to the buyer. This is an advance shipment notice. This ASN will let the buyer know details about the shipment, an estimated arrival date, the location of the shipment, and so on. Additionally, the seller will also have a copy of all shipment-related information.
