Effective Store Management

[Jim@petmedstore]

We have Online store and we ship about 200 orders a day.

putting the stuff in boxes for all of the orders, weighing them, printing labels using Endicia, and packing them takes so much time that there's hardly any time left for enhancements etc.

As this is a merchant community, want suggestion as to how we can improve our shipping process, any tools softwares that help or can streamline the process so it gets easier to manage and grow more.

Will appreciate any input

Thanks
Jim

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

At 200 orders per day, I would definetly look at outsourcing shipping. The break even point for most outsources is about 70 to 80 orders (but it can be as low as 30).

One of our client, who averages 150/300 a month, but more importently 2400/5000 a month for the christmas season, when to a fulfillment house. After a shaky start with integration (they had a horrible system), the ended up saving about %30.00 on shipping, and more importently increasing turn around time, and capacity. The previous year, they had to stop shipping on Dec 7th in order to fulfill xmas orders, this year, they where able to ship up to Dec 19th...at 300 orders per day...that produced almost an entire quarters revenue.

[klassic]

We ship around 100-150 orders a day. We are in an industry that does not allow for outsourcing of shipping, Custom Clothing. Last fall we started getting really behind on orders. Eventually we hooked up with a Temp office and got someone in specifically to do shipping and other low level tasks that were taking up all our time. She didn't speak very good english so we had to show her things a few times but she was a quick learner. This helped us to increase our shipments/day. The summer is our slowest time of year so we are able to lay her off now and get someone back in the fall.

We are also looking into Stone Edge Store manager to help bring all areas of our manufacturing together.

[DesignExtend-MSI]

As this is a merchant community, want suggestion as to how we can improve our shipping process, any tools softwares that help or can streamline the process so it gets easier to manage and grow more.


Order Manager by Stone Edge (http://www.designextend.com/page/miva/PROD/orderman) can help immensely - couple that with other useful modules (like the Order Status Manager (http://www.designextend.com/page/miva/PROD/BROK_ORDERSTATUS)) and you can have a system that:

- One click order downloading into the processing system - quick review of orders, and auto generation of a PACKING LIST to use for packing orders

- Sync with shipping carrier and services like Dazzle (don't know if OM supports Endicia yet) - have a scale hooked up and postage printing is quick and easy

- Auto update of tracking number to the store and notification to customers, so they know when it shipped and can click a URL to track (saves you phonecalls and inquiries)

Basically, with these tools, all you need to do is pack the boxes. Order Manager can automate the rest of the process.

[Dyna Jim]

Order Manager by Stone Edge (http://www.designextend.com/page/miva/PROD/orderman) can help immensely - couple that with other useful modules (like the Order Status Manager (http://www.designextend.com/page/miva/PROD/BROK_ORDERSTATUS)) and you can have a system that:

- One click order downloading into the processing system - quick review of orders, and auto generation of a PACKING LIST to use for packing orders

- Sync with shipping carrier and services like Dazzle (don't know if OM supports Endicia yet) - have a scale hooked up and postage printing is quick and easy

- Auto update of tracking number to the store and notification to customers, so they know when it shipped and can click a URL to track (saves you phonecalls and inquiries)

Basically, with these tools, all you need to do is pack the boxes. Order Manager can automate the rest of the process. Does it know if the box on the automated scale is oversize?

200 a day? And I about pass out averaging 30.... I too hired a temp or two, my luck wasn't so good as yours though, they ended up costing me more in goof up's than my sanity could muster. My average packags is about 25 lbs, how much do your 200 a day average?

I agree if you could, farm it out. I want to go on vacation this summer (haven't had a real one in three years) and am looking into outsourcing shipping for that, my vendors have road reps though, and they aren't real fond of the idea. Seems the internet dealers (not me in particular) are ruining my industry, so they watch us like a hawk.

DJ

[Barney Stone]

No, the Stone Edge Order Manager does not know if the box on the scale is oversize. We may be able to do that by late Summer or early Fall of this year.

Two other comments: Although we have users shipping up to 2,500 orders per day, we find that merchants hit a "pain threshold" at 15 to 20 orders per day where the Order Manager can easily pay for itself in saved time and reduced labor costs. And we recently added direct integration with a fulfillment center called Shipwire that has large warehouses in LA and Chicago for those who prefer to outsource their shipping.

Anyone with questions about the Order Manager is welcome to call us at 215-641-1837.