Why Merchants Should Act Now To Stop Shipping Errors

You’ve seen it before: You get a returned package that couldn’t find its way to the customer. Now, you have to spend time and money getting in touch with the customer and reshipping the product.

The culprit could be a typo. It could be a missing apartment or suite number. Perhaps the zip code was wrong. Whatever the cause, you’re the one stuck footing the bill.

Shipping errors are extremely common for online merchants. They’re also costly. And they’re completely out of your control—or are they?

We’ll offer the answer to that later. For now, let’s pretend you could stop shipping errors before they happen. What benefits would this ability offer your online store?

Save money on lost products and reshipping costs.

Some shipments get sucked into a vortex, never to reach their final destination. Others end up on your doorstep, returned because they were unable to locate the recipient. Both of these situations cost you money. By preventing shipping errors, you can eliminate these costs.

Don’t lose any more business.

Shipping errors place other financial burdens on merchants, too. An order that takes too long due to a shipping error could end up getting canceled, for example.

It doesn’t seem fair that your store would be penalized when the shopper made the mistake. But in retail, the customer is always right. (We’ll explain why that’s important in a second.)

Lost sales obviously affect your bottom line. But there’s more than just the immediately quantifiable costs that shipping errors cost…

Keep your customers happy.

When you avoid shipping mistakes, you’re much more likely to keep your customers happy. And keeping your customers happy…well, that’s the key to a successful online business.

Repeat business represents the bulk of sales for any truly powerful merchant. It’s so much more difficult to convert a new customer than it is to convince someone who has already bought to buy again. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t focus on getting new customers—but it means keeping current customers means spending less to build a continuing revenue stream that could last for years.

Hassle around a shipped product, especially on a first order, could ruin your relationship with that customer. If you can stop that hassle from happening, there’s a much better chance you can create a long-term customer.

Worried this article is living a fantasy? Worry no more. 3dcart has you covered.

Stop shipping errors with 3dcart’s Address Verification add-on.

Our new Address Verification add-on is exactly what merchants need to stop shipping errors before they happen. It’s a tool that works in real-time to confirm addresses in the UPS database before your customer completes the checkout process.

If Address Verification finds a closely related match, it updates the shopper’s address and gives him the opportunity to review his order before it’s processed. If multiple possible addresses come up, the feature presents the shopper with the options, and he chooses the correct one.

You can get started with Address Verification through the 3dcart App Store.

Jimmy Rodriguez+

CTO and co-founder of 3DCart, developer of an e-commerce suite for businesses of all sizes. As an authority on e-commerce best practices, Jimmy combines more than 10 years as an e-commerce developer and web programmer with SEO, social marketing and business intelligence

How Much A Faulty Address Will Cost You

What online merchant hasn’t dealt with bad address problems?

It happens. And it’s out of your control. After all, you can’t sit and watch your customer every time she makes an order. How would you even know whether or not the address is correct?

When a bad address is entered on one or two orders, the penalties don’t seem to add up to much. But customers enter bad addresses more often than that. For a large retail organization, these penalties can become substantial losses. For a smaller organization, they can be crippling to your bottom line.

How much does a bad address cost you? Here’s a quick look at how FedEx structures address correction fees.

• FedEx for Packages: For smaller packages through FedEx, you’ll incur an $11 charge for address correction.

• FedEx for Freight: For larger freight items, you’re looking at $65 fee.

• FedEx for Multiweight (Express): Dealing with address correction for multiple packages weighing more than 200 pounds will cost $84.

• FedEx for Multiweight (Ground): This one runs up a $38.15 tab.

None of these are negligible for an ecommerce business of any size. UPS and other shipping companies charge similar rates.

At 3dcart, we heard from customers who had these issues, and we resolved to do something about it. That’s where the idea for our new Address Verification add-on came from.

Address Verification for 3dcart Merchants

Address Verification is a brand new service that we’re proud to offer our merchants. It’s a simple system that works on without your intervention, adding to 3dcart’s suite of automation tools targeting more efficient online business.

Most importantly, it helps merchants recoup the losses from faulty addresses by preventing them.

We’ve put together two scenarios to show how Address Verification works. Here’s an automatic address replacement scenario.

• The shopper inputs his address information on the checkout page. He accidentally switches two numbers in his zip code.

• The Address Verification module scours the USPS database for a matching address. With the faulty information, it won’t find one. It does, however, find a closely related match with the correct address information.

• It updates the address information on the next page of the checkout, prompting the shopper to review the address. The error is fixed before the shipment goes out, saving you the cost and hassle of correcting the error.

Here’s another scenario. In this case, Address Verification finds multiple matches.

• The shopper inputs her address information on the checkout page. This time, she forgets to add the suffix after the street name, Briar.

• The Address Verification module hits the database again, but it finds two possible matches. One is for “Briar St.” and the other is for “Briar Court.”

• On the next page, the shopper is prompted to choose the correct option, ensuring the package is delivered to the correct address.

Ready to start saving money with more accurate shipping? Visit the 3dcart App Store, where you can find the Address Verification add-on.

Jimmy Rodriguez+

CTO and co-founder of 3DCart, developer of an e-commerce suite for businesses of all sizes. As an authority on e-commerce best practices, Jimmy combines more than 10 years as an e-commerce developer and web programmer with SEO, social marketing and business intelligence

New Built-in USPS Shipping Labels Printing with DYMO Endicia Integration

Our 5.1 Version release from January, brings to all 3dcart merchants a new integration DYMO Endicia®, the leading provider of postage technology solutions. The integration with Endicia Label Server (ELS) simplifies printing of U.S. Postal Service® (USPS®) labels, eliminating the need for a third-party software. The new feature is now available to all 3dcart’s online merchants.

Even when the capability of printing USPS Shipping labels has been available to merchants for a long time, it was simply for delivery confirmation purposes and it wasn’t possible to include Pre-paid Postage on these. Now 3dcart users can print Pre-paid USPS labels directly from the 3dcart admin interface, in the same manner that it’s currently available for UPS and FEDEX.

Customers view Endicia as vital to their business because we help them save time, money, and resources and increase efficiency. Whether you’re a high-volume warehouse shipper, operating an e-commerce site from a garage, or simply trying to get invoices out before the day is over, Endicia can help.

As a special promotion to 3dcart merchants, Endicia is offering a 60 Day Free-Trial of the Endicia Label Server solution ($15.95/mo) and 15% OFF the DYMO 4XL Label Printer.

For more information, visit http://www.3dcart.com/ecommerce-apps/endicia-shopping-cart.htm

Jimmy Rodriguez+

CTO and co-founder of 3DCart, developer of an e-commerce suite for businesses of all sizes. As an authority on e-commerce best practices, Jimmy combines more than 10 years as an e-commerce developer and web programmer with SEO, social marketing and business intelligence