Getting Ready for the Holidays: Part 3

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Getting Ready for the Holidays: Part 1
Getting Ready for the Holidays: Part 2
 
As you are preparing for the holidays, we recommend that you review the shipping options on your site and take advantage of the shipping integrations that are available to help make shipping items out to customers easier this season.  Be aware that there may be shipping delays and encourage your customers to shop early. 
 
We have put together some recommendations that we hope will help you. 
 
Coupons
You can only ship out early if your customers shop early.  Offer coupons as incentives for customers to shop sooner rather than later!  You can find some coupon ideas on our discount coupons documentation in our help center.
Shipping Methods
Review the shipping options you offer and adjust prices accordingly.  You can disable or enable shipping options that you do not want to offer. You may want to adjust the label that customers see at checkout.  For example, customers do not necessarily need to know that you will be using USPS Priority or UPS Ground.  Making the label more generic will give you the option to ship the orders using a method that is best for you.  For example, you could change the label of UPS ground to simply Ground Shipping, allowing you to choose between comparable services based on individual orders.  
Please note that changing the title of the shipping methods that Ingram offers will affect an order’s Ingram eligibility through your website. The title of those shipping methods should not be changed. 
Shipping Integrations
Stores can easily export orders to create shipping labels using one of our shipping integrations.  
Shipping Price Adjustments for Custom Products
You may want to increase the shipping rates for special products such as book bundles or more bulky items, for which you have created a custom product, as they tend to be more expensive to ship. You can accomplish that by adjusting the Default rate for only those custom products.  
 
To adjust the Default rate, navigate to your custom product page > select 'Edit' > select 'Shipping settings' > expand 'Flat Shipping Rates' > Enter the increased amount for the ‘Default rate’ for each shipping option you wish to ship at a higher rate for that particular product.
 
The Default rate is the rate that increases per additional item in the cart.  For example, if the Base Price = $8.00  and the Default Product Shipping Rate = $1.00
  • Shipping 1 product would be $9.00
  • Shipping 2 products would be $10.00
To increase the shipping rate for the custom product, you would increase the Default Rate.
From the example above, if you increase the Default rate in your custom product setting to $2.00, the Base Price ($8.00) will increase by $2.00 per number of that custom product in the cart. So, the new shipping rate will be as follows:
  • Shipping 1 custom product   = $10.00
  • Shipping 2 custom products = $12.00
  • Shipping 3 custom products = $14.00 
The changes made to the Default rate on your custom product’s shipping settings will only affect the custom product it is set on.
 
Bulk Order Invoice Printing
You also have the option to print invoices in bulk.  Printing in bulk can help save staff time as you do not need to open each order to print!  These invoices can also be used as packlists for shipment!
Manage Customer Expectations
Communicate with your customers and provide them with information about your shipping policy if there are delivery issues such as lost or damaged packages and/or any potential delays.
 
Consider altering descriptive text on shipping methods to manage customer expectations as the holidays approach, or even removing slower shipping methods such as Media Mail entirely for a period of time.

IndieCommerce Help Documents

 

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