Exclusive AMA: Streamlining Fulfillment and Delivery with Shopify Experts!

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Join Us for an Exclusive AMA on Streamlining Fulfillment and Delivery with Shopify Experts!

Date: September 11th, 2024

Time: 10 AM EDT - 12 PM EDT

Navigating fulfillment and delivery can be particularly demanding as you gear up for the hectic BFCM season. This AMA aims to equip you with the insights and tools necessary to streamline your fulfillment operations, reduce costs, and deliver an exceptional customer experience. Post your questions below, and the Shopify Product and Marketing team will be here to answer them during the live session.

What to Expect:

Real-Time Q&A: Have questions about speeding up fulfillment, reducing costs, and delivering a great customer experience during the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) rush? This is your chance to ask!

Expert Advice: Get direct answers from the Product and Marketing teams at Shopify.

Community Engagement: Connect with other Shopify merchants, share your experiences, and learn best practices from one another.

How to Participate: No pre-registration is required! Join the Shopify Community on September 11th between 10 AM and 12 PM EDT. Post your questions below, and our experts will respond directly.

Read our Rules of Engagement before participating

*Please note, there is no video component to this AMA. This is a text based AMA. Your questions will be answered LIVE via text during the time period listed above.

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I hope Shopify Experts will share some tips as opposed to just answer questions. As I’m interested in learning tips / practices to speed up fulfillment and reducing costs.

As far as one question I have… I would like to hear from someone in regards to a report or process to obtain information during the fulfillment process when pulling/picking from a specific purchase order (incoming package). In my old system it was call a committed items report that detailed specific items in a purchase order that are committed/sold and needed to be pulled for specific orders.

When receiving large orders it’s essential to know which skus/qtys are needed for specific open orders that are awaiting fulfillment and all of the rest is store stock. With a product catalog of 22,000+ skus, a report like this saves time when working on incoming deliveries.

It would also be awesome if there was a fulfillment - pull/pick worksheet screen when a user could see all of the skus/qty that need to be pulled and for which specific order they are needed without going inside each order to order. This would save a lot of time and cost for me.

Thanks for taking the time to read my situation and provide helpful insight.

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My biggest issue with fulfillment is shopify charging me when a customer raises a dispute about a shipment that was delivered. More often than not, a few customers (first timers) have gone to their banks to dispute an order that they initiated, which was shipped and also delivered. In each of these cases, UPS had proof of delivery - pictures. But these customers go their bank, raise a dispute and no matter the level of evidence we provide - that they placed the order, that the order was packed and shipped, and that it was delivered (picture of delivery), we still end up getting the amount deducted. In each case, we lose the shipment, the money initially paid, the cost of shipment, and another $15 fee charged by shopify.

Why can’t shopify fight for us? It just does not make sense.

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Hello! My question for fulfillment is: What is the best way to streamline the fulfillment and delivery process as well as lower costs when a business is in its early stages and still getting orders sporadically?

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Hi! I am wondering if you have any advice for fulfilling orders that contain pre-order items and in-stock items.

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I recently migrated from magento. All my past orders were migrated, but on shopify, they all show payment pending. How can I bulk-mark them as paid?

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I would like to know which delivery system is the most advantageous when using Shopify.

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Welcome to our second Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) day! Today, we’ll be answering questions about all things fulfillment and delivery, and how to best prepare your business for the upcoming sales season. Our dedicated team of Product Managers and Product Marketers specializing in the Fulfillment space at Shopify are here to assist you.

We’ll be available to answer your questions from 10 AM to 12 PM today. Please ask your questions in this thread. If we can’t address your question during this time, we’ll do our best to respond by the end of the day.

Looking forward to your questions!

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Ill simplify my problem; I have 2 sizes of product, one that fits in a 16x16x16 box and another that fits in a 18x18x18 box. The issue is that I can only have one store default box. What I need is to be able to assign a box size to each item so shipping is calculated based on the box size. Etsy has this feature, but Shopify does not. Shopify does not allow me to charge shipping based on box dimensions. There is a big price difference between a 16 cubed and 18 cubed box.

I need to be able to assign a box size to each item and have Shopify calculate shipping for the customer based on the different box sizes for each item

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We’re using an app right now to manage shipping. When we started with Shopify a few years ago, the standard shipping options didn’t cover everything we needed, so we have the app.
I would like to know if there have been updates that would cover these needs with the Shopify shipping functions without apps:

Hide shipping rates (do not allow checkout) for specific products to specific states
–This needs to be multilevel. For example ship NOTHING to AK or HI, and also do not allow checkout if X product is in the order and the shipping address is CA.
Calculate shipping at checkout for specific products in specific regions (by country or state)
–Calculate up to 3 items in 1 box for checkout.

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Hi where is the link to the live video session?

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We sell and ship frozen beef. I manually entered estimated shipping costs for different zones for all the variable weights (a bit overwhelming). Then I’ll get an order where I under estimated the shipping cost. 1.) Is there an easier and more accurate way to get shipping costs for the customer? 2.) Is it a bad practice to ask the customer to pay the difference for shipping because my website underestimated the cost? 3.) I disabled shipping for heavy products (50-80lbs–it is too expensive and a huge hassle) and I get a lot of people responding that they were unable to place an order because it wouldn’t accept their address. Advice on this?

Thanks

1 Like
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If our business has a special discounted rate with a carrier, and if we have our account number registered on our Shopify account, will the shipping charge be at the special discounted rate if we ship using Shopify’s shipping/labeling feature?

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Hey @juicernet !

Thanks for joining us today!

This is a text based AMA. There is no video component. Simply leave your question below and our team will answer it as soon as possible!

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Shopify seems to be the largest e-commerce platform (at least for small to midsize businesses) - so why do you only calculate shipping at checkout based on the item’s weight and the order destination? This seems like a huge oversight on Shopify’s part. Yes, I know there are third party apps, but it seems to me that Shopify should supply this feature natively as accurate shipping quotes should be a basic function of an e-commerce platform. Am I missing something? Or is there anything in the works to fill this huge gap?

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Some issue that we’ve faced when fulfilling orders is when customers request modification during the process. When we get a high volume of orders, we’ve found it difficult to catch all the changes before the items are shipped. What are some ways to organize it better and deliver a better service?

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Speaking from experience - there is no perfect delivery/shipping system. We use a combination of shopify suggested shippers (Canada Post and UPS in most cases) and the Canada Post flat rate box (outside shopify). Here is what we do. First, we already assigned a fixed cost on our shopify backend in terms of how much it will cost to ship items across Canada. We assigned cost based on whether you want regular or expedited. The size of the box does not come into consideration since you can’t put different box sizes and assigned individual cost. So, we simplify by just assigning one box but different prices as per above. We also have free shipping.

When a client makes a purchase, there are four options for them: Free in-store pick up (no cost), free shipping (no cost to them because they purchased above our threshold), regular shipping (fixed cost say, $20), and expedited shippiing (fixed cost say, $25).

Obviously, from the above, you will notice that as a business you can easily lose or gain. You lose when a client who lives say in New Foundland orders and qualifies for free shipping. You also lose when same client orders and selects either regular or expedited but the actual cost is higher etc. For us, this is ok. On the other hand, you win when a client who is located in the next province or city orders and selects any of the paid option when it actual fact it cost less to ship to them. So, we kind use this method to make up.

Here is the other trick. Shopify shipping is not always the most effective shipping. So, we have the Canada Post flat rate boxes handy. We use them when they cost less than shopify rate plus, they are expedited. So, even though a client has paid for regular shipping and the item fits in the flat rate box, we end up saving a few box, we use the flat rate box and the client gets the item faster! We just enter the tracking number on shopify and everything is done. Client is happy and we are happy.

The part to pay utmost attention to is - when it is a first time client, when using shopify shipping, select and pay the extra cost for signing for the package. Some clients will say they never received the package -by getting them to sign for it, you at least get more ‘ammunition’ to fight when there is a dispute. Shopify never helps with dispute - they collect their money and allow you to do the dispute which is sad.

Again, I am no expert but this has been our experience and of course, another work around for many things shopify :slightly_smiling_face:

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Looking forward to their answer to this. My guess is no - I just ship outside shopify and enter the tracking number on shopify. Problem solved.

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Thank you for your question @pfeifera !

You can achieve this using the Split Fulfillments feature as outlined here. This allows you to divide the order into multiple fulfillments. You can ship the in-stock items first, leaving the order in a “Partially Fulfilled” state. Once the pre-order items are available, you can ship them out to complete the order.

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I am aware of how to physically ship. But this requires us to cover the cost of shipping on one or more of the products, correct? Any other suggestions. Ideally I would want to customer to pay for shipping if there is separate shipping.