What exactly does automated shipping mean? It’s a phrase frequently used in the eCommerce space, but what is it? Automating certain tasks like assigning orders to a certain user on your team or certain carrier services to specific shipment types can cut hours out of your day. In the world of ShippingEasy, automated shipping includes our Shipping Rules. Shipping Rules are If/Then statements that are similar to a cause and effect scenario and automatically put processes into place, without any involvement from you or your staff. We’re going to highlight some of the most commonly used to give you a jumping-off point and show how beneficial automated shipping can be.
Assign a priority color to expedited shipments
The eCommerce space moves at an incredibly rapid pace. Big marketplaces like Amazon have completely changed customer expectations around when orders will arrive. So, if one of your customers chooses an expedited shipping method when they complete their purchase, you don’t have time to waste!
Automatically assigning a priority color to your expedited shipments helps you sort by color and prioritize processing. This way, you get those packages out of the way and don’t get bogged down processing lower priority orders first. Moving with your customer’s expected delivery timeline also helps you avoid customer service issues and potential negative reviews.
Assign orders to a user
Do you have a crew of people handling your shipments, and certain orders need to get assigned to employees in a specific warehouse or location? Shipping automation can help you here as well. Let’s say you have someone in a warehouse on the west coast, and someone at a warehouse on the east coast. To expedite delivery, you may want to break orders down by similar time zones to ensure orders can be processed in a timely manner and can be sent from a closer origin point. You can easily assign orders to a user in one of those two warehouses based on your shipment’s destination.
Seasonal shipment notifications
It may currently be summertime, but the holidays are already creeping up for all of us in the eCommerce world. Speaking of, the holidays are a great time to build relationships with returning customers and even start building relationships with new customers. But where do you get started? Why, confirmation emails, of course!
Creating a special holiday version of your shipment notifications that include any holiday specials you’re running and a personalized touch really will really show your customers you care. After you’ve created your email, you can add a Shipping Rule where if an order comes during a specific month, it’ll receive a shipment notice template for whatever holiday you’ve made one for.
Print a special packing slip for gift orders
Another big part of the holidays involves one word: gifts. If you give your customers the ability to mark something as a gift, you can keep the price of any gifts they might be ordering a surprise! Setting up automation to print a special packing slip for items marked as gifts means you can remove the pricing information to help avoid those awkward moments of knowing how much someone spent on a gift.
This rule also lets you include special messages on the packing slip. Plus, the person receiving the gift might not know your brand, and you can use the customization on your packing slip to potentially gain a new customer by welcoming them and even including a discount code or invitation to join your email newsletter.
Conclusion
Automated shipping isn’t something to be feared ⸺ it’s something really helpful to have under your shipping belt. Shipping Rules can help you compete with the expedited shipping of larger marketplaces and retailers, organize your orders for your team or yourself, connect with your customers, and keep gift prices a secret. The time you spent individually assigning specific options to your orders can now be spent reviewing your return policy, looking into sustainable resources for your business, or even just drinking that extra cup of coffee.
Take advantage of automated shipping with ShippingEasy today!
Baillee Perkins
