Running your own small business is time-consuming. You create your eCommerce store, interact with your customers, pack your orders, ship your orders, and the list goes on and on. What if we told you we had a way to automate your shipping process? Shipping presets and rules both help you streamline your shipping process by applying various services, packaging, and other conditions to your orders through shortcuts or an automated process. This way, you can spend less time packing and preparing your orders and more time streaming a new show, visiting your favorite coffee shop, or reading a new book.
What are Shipping Presets and Shipping Rules?
Shipping rules are based on programmable statements based on order details, product information, customer data, or shipping carrier selections. These rules consist of if/then statements that tell ShippingEasy how certain orders should be classified. Shipping presets are a collection of shortcuts for your favorite carrier, service, and packaging selections, and these presets can be paired with your shipping rules to automate selections as orders come in from your stores and marketplaces.
Why use Shipping Presets and Shipping Rules?
We’ve mentioned shipping presets and shipping rules automate your shipping process, but how exactly do they help? Three of the main benefits of using shipping presets and shipping rules include smarter shipping, fewer mistakes, and faster processing. Let’s break it down!
Smarter shipping
ShippingEasy user Evan Mashall, CEO of Plain Jane, a CBD products company, uses shipping rules and presets to assign a carrier and service to his orders automatically. As orders come in, Evan doesn’t have to worry about making the decision on how to ship each one. Based on rules he sets in ShippingEasy, we assign a carrier and service. This generates a rate quote, and Evan is able to batch print labels quickly and efficiently.
“Every order shouldn’t have to be a decision,” says Evan Marshall, owner of Plain Jane, a CBD products company.
For more ideas to add to your shipping rules and presets, check out our blog What are The Cheapest Shipping Options for USPS, UPS and Fedex?
Fewer mistakes
We all make mistakes because we’re only human! However, these shipping mistakes can lead to things like carrier adjustments. Over time, these little mistakes cost you time and money, meaning you have less time to watch the show everyone’s been talking about. With shipping presets and shipping rules, different carriers and services are automatically applied to your orders, you don’t have to worry about accidentally selecting the wrong service. Say goodbye to shipping mistakes and hello to pop culture.
Faster processing
If you sell on Amazon via Seller Fulfilled Prime, you have to get your orders out as quickly as possible to meet Amazon’s guidelines. Shipping rules automatically identify orders with priority over the others by tagging them with a color or an indicator you can then use to sort them. This way, you know to start with these orders first and then move to orders with less strict shipping guidelines and restrictions.
Thinking of shipping specialty items but don’t know their guidelines? Check out our How to Ship Toiletries blog!
Case Study
Let’s go back to our user, Plain Jane, and take a look at a shipping rule they actually use in their business. Evan has a shipping rule to automatically apply a Flat Rate Envelope because it gives him a better shipping rate, and the packaging is the right packaging for his shipment’s weight and dimensions.
The shipping rule below was created to only include their packs of 1-4 items and exclude 8-pack items, so they aren’t running the risk of selecting the wrong service or using a service that doesn’t work for their order and will cost them more money later. Plain Jane’s products are mostly smaller items, so this rule works perfectly for their stock.
Conclusion
Instead of spending your morning manually adding services to all of your orders and trying to sort your orders by priority of their shipping, you crack open the new book you’ve been dying to read. You know ShippingEasy is going to automate your process, so you know you have time to spare. You also know you’re in good company with ShippingEasy users like Plain Jane, and there’s less room for potential adjustments on your shipments for using the wrong packaging and/or service. Now, you’re able to enjoy your show a little more, your latte tastes a little sweeter, and your bookmark can take a break.
Looking for more carrier services? Check out our blog on Media Mail!
Baillee Perkins
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