How can a shipping supplies tracker improve your ecommerce store?

[Shane_Shoemaker]

I am in the process of developing a shipping supplies tracker for my Shopify store but I want to make it available to other stores. Are you having trouble tracking your shipping supplies or am I the only one? I am making it so supplies are a sub product of each product and using box selection at fulfillment. Each supply page has a field for a link to each supply to reorder. There is also a field for the lead time of the supply so you are notified when to reorder. Are there any other features you would expect to help track shipping supplies/sub components of products? If anyone is aware of an app that already does this please let me know so I don’t waste my time. Thanks guys!

[shipguru]

Hello @Shane_Shoemaker ,

if you search for tracker in the shopify app store - there are a few apps already providing this solution  -  https://apps.shopify.com/trackiest-shipping-tracking

[Shane_Shoemaker]

Hey shipguru,

That app seems great for tracking a fulfilled order, I am looking to track shipping supplies as products so I know when to re-order boxes, foam, labels, bubble wrap and what not.

[shipguru]

this solution would be a challenge to create  - I understand the box qty scenario, but how do you monitor usage of packaging supply? 

[Shane_Shoemaker]

We have a packaging system that has repeated usage of supplies per product. This means we know what supplies are used when products are fulfilled

[phebert]

100% would want this. Literally just posted a reddit question asking about such an app.

[SharonReeds]

Hey!

I would definitely spend some time doing research in the forums to see if this is a common pain point amongst merchants before building it for the masses.  This sounds like it would be a "nice to have" but not a "need to have" in a store, and I can see any larger stores having this type of tech already built into their ERP.  If you have the skill or resources, build the app for your store since it's definitely something that will help you. Operating a public app has a hefty price tag associated with it so I would see how much it costs to operate and what you expect the support burden to be (never underestimate people's inability to not read) to identify if this is something you want to offer to all merchants. 

Feel free to reach out to our CTO, @Joel-Reeds, if you run into any snags during development - we operate on the customer's side of the shipping journey so we've likely solved a lot of the development problems you may come across.

Warm regards,
Sharon 

[Shane_Shoemaker]

Thanks so much Sharon!

As my store has grown, I have also been able to mitigate this issue with a system. I basically doubled my shipping inventory, and generated a "pull from" section of my inventory. Once a box of supplies is pulled, another is ordered. This could cause issues when an unforeseeable spike in sales pulls too fast, but having an app that tracks inventory would not prevent that same issue. 

I also don't have the luxury of bulk shipping with this system. 

[CharliePond]

Hi Shane!

Did you ever make this app? It would be so helpful!

[kated27]

Howdy Shane, 

I agree a supply tracking would be very useful. Especially that shopify has this data, being able to pull in an inventory of current boxes and labels would be especially helpful!

Kate

[Vestirsi]

Hey Shane

I would love this app and definitely use it. Counting packaging supplies (boxes, dust bags, shipping bags) is a huge waste of time for me, but i have such a long lead time for packaging production, i have to be on it 24/7 and keep an eye on it carefully, to ensure we don't run out....Have you found a solution for managing this? I would think lots of e-comm businesses would want a way to track this. Thanks

[Mim2132]

Did you ever build this app? I need it!