Over the past few weeks, we’ve implemented a ton of new features into ShipStation to make your lives easier and to delegate a bit for when you’ve got a ton of shipments to complete.

Let’s Talk Users

First, we’ve enabled orders to be tasked to certain users. So, if you have multiple users on your account, you’ll see this handy new button on your dashboard. Click on it, and a dropdown list of all your users will display. Clicking on one of those names will assign the order to that user, simple as that!

For Gold-and-above plans, you now have some extra security features, too. For any specific user, you can allow only orders assigned to them to be viewed, in addition to only seeing shipments that were created by that user. Finally, you can do something called “workstation approval.” This means that you can restrict the computers on which a person can use ShipStation, cutting down on shipments being created at any other place than where you deem.

Please Note This Important Change…

For everybody, we’re also implementing changes that restrict the ability for a user to be logged into different machines at the same time. This was a necessary change for many reasons, including maintaining data integrity, account security, and keeping the locked out users occurrences to a minimum.  If you currently have multiple individuals that are using the same login for their account, you will need to create new logins for those individuals.  You can do this in the Settings area under “Manage Users”.

Importing Orders & Tracking Info

In June, we reported on the ability to import your orders into ShipStation from a CSV (comma-separated values) file. Well, now the feature is fully out of beta and released to all subscribers on a Silver or higher plan. So, if you need to bulk import some orders, just get or create a CSV file and get to shipping them!

If you have a dropshipper or have ever manually shipped some packages, you’ve been able to mark orders a shipped, but updating the tracking info has been kind of a pain. No more! Now, as long as you’ve got the order and the tracking numbers, you can copy and paste the information directly into ShipStation. Once you’ve done that, you can choose to update the marketplace and/or the customers about that shipment. Voilà! Tons of orders shipped and recorded as such in only a few seconds.

Yahoo! (The company and the expression.)

We’re proud to announce our integration with Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, and add the ability to user your Yahoo! store with ShipStation. Now you can create your labels, communicate with your customers, and do everything you love to do in ShipStation with your Yahoo! store, too.

As you know, we’ve always got something in the works here @ShipStation, and you can bet you’ll see more coming from us in the near future, especially with the busy holiday season coming up soon!

I’m Erika, the social media & content manager for ShipStation. You’ll find me on Twitter, Facebook, and the other areas of the ShipStation world. In my free time, I’m a lover of video games, my cats, and other generally nerdy things. :)

It’s the first week of October. It is, officially, the 4th and final quarter of 2012. Thanksgiving is now just 52 days away, including today. Which means that you have 52 days until Black Friday, and then another 23 until Christmas Day. But…

You’ll be fine. Just follow these tips and you should be a bit more comfortable about the upcoming months. Remember, all this traffic is a great thing for you and your business. :)

1. Research. Before you do anything, you must research your position. See what your competition is doing. Try the Internet’s WayBack Machine and see if you can find out what promotions went on last year. You don’t have to beat it, but some of them may be clever enough to inspire you to make your own version for this year.
2. Pricing. You need to make sure that when people see your products, they immediately go “That’s a great value.” People during the holidays are buying a lot of merchandise, and the more valuable they feel your product is for their money, the better you and they will feel during and after the sale. Don’t offer your products for less than they are worth, but overpricing could kill you this holiday season.
3. Promotions. Sales are the lynchpin of Black Friday and holiday sales. With your pricing strategy, keep in mind the promotions that you’re planning to offer for these days and how you’re going to make sure you are still making a profit on your sales. Remember, most everybody’s horrible at fractions and percentages. So, use that to your advantage. Giving 50% more of a product free and a B1G1 seem the same to people purchasing, but the former is more likely to be easier on your pocket.
4. Shipping. If you don’t offer expedited shipping, now may be a time to look into it. Having the “order by [date] to receive by [date]” message on your website is paramount to preventing the majority of concerns on arrivals for e-commerce stores. For marketplaces & auctions, this is probably not as easy for you, but some sort of notification might be nice in your listings. Consider offering free or discounted shipping for some of your higher-selling products, or creating a discount around “order $X and get free shipping.”
5. Marketing. Every customer pretty much expects that you’re going to offer some sort of sale for Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday. Don’t let yourself get left by the wayside by not telling them about exactly what you’re doing. Make up a snappy title for your e-mail campaign that will leave others looking lame. If you participate in PPC ads, make sure that they’re also eye-catching, advertise whatever promotions you’re running, and call the customer to actually click on your ad. (And then make it worth their while when they actually get to the landing page. After all, you paid for that click.)
6. Record. Write down everything. Next year, around this time, you’ll love yourself for doing this. Time has a funny effect on memories, and writing yourself a diary of the time everything took to manage, what you did, what worked (and what didn’t), and the successes you experienced will help immensely when it’s time to do it all again.
7. Relax. You will get everything done. Don’t try to conquer the world, just do what you do the best that you can. These months are busy. They always have been; they always will be. So, take the moments that present themselves and relax. Wine, beer, potato chips, molten chocolate cake… whatever floats your boat. (You can see that food is my favorite way to indulge.)

As much as you can do ahead of time, do it. Automation can help you tackle this season, as well as a couple of extra hands on deck. Stock up on shipping labels, boxes, tape, and packing materials so that you’re ready to fulfill and ship orders almost as quickly as they come in.

Do you have some pearls of wisdom that you’ve gained through previous seasons? Let me know in the comments!

I’m Erika, the social media & content manager for ShipStation. You’ll find me on Twitter, Facebook, and the other areas of the ShipStation world. In my free time, I’m a lover of video games, my cats, and other generally nerdy things. :)

Our sporting of the fashionable and handy LOCK LACES™

Name: Louisa Eyler

Title: President

Company: Positive Distribution

Website: http://positivedistribution.com/

Louisa is the distributor for LOCK LACES™, a company that offers bungie cord-style laces for athletes’ running shoes. Her company has been tasked with the marketing, logistics and fulfillment for the brand. Unfortunately, she shortly found herself bogged down in hundreds of orders and hours of processing. Luckily, she found ShipStation, and voila, her day cleared up!

“I can have all of my hundreds of orders done, in less than an hour, and that would not be possible without ShipStation.”

We’re so glad you’re on board, Louisa! Congratulations on your successes and we wish you all the best!

Have you been experiencing slower than expected processing speeds with ShipStation? If so, we have some news that we’d like to share.

 
ShipStation makes heavy use of Javascript which allows us to provide a feature-rich user interface. JavaScript speed is very important in optimizing the overall performance of your ShipStation experience, including site navigation, order imports, batch processing and label generation. Unfortunately, all browsers are not created equal when it comes to Javascript performance. The following chart is from a ZDNet article that compared the major web browsers:

 
In the Futuremark Peacekeeper v2.0 benchmark test, Google Chrome was the clear winner in overall Javascript performance. If you’ve tried ShipStation with both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, you’ve likely come to this conclusion as well. This is one of the reasons Google Chrome is now the most popular browser available (image courtesy of StatCounter.com):

 

 
If you prefer or need to use Internet Explorer over any other browser, then we have found a way to help. To increase the overall speed and performance of ShipStation through your Internet Explorer browser versions 6, 7, 8 and 9, you can install a Google Chrome plug-in called the Google Chrome Frame. The plug-in can be downloaded from the following link. Just hit “Accept and Install”, and you’re on your way to a much faster ShipStation (note, you will need to restart Internet Explorer after installing the plug-in).

 
http://www.google.com/chromeframe

 
Note that the plug-in is only used for web sites that explicitly support the Google Chrome Frame, which ShipStation does, so it won’t affect any other sites that you regularly visit. For your convenience, we have included a video to help better explain how Google Chrome Frame works:

 
We hope that you have found this information helpful and that you are now experiencing ShipStation as it was intended – sleek, powerful, and FAST!

We’re excited to announce Shipping Presets, a powerful feature suggested by ShipStation’s very own user community. Shipping Presets allow you to quickly apply settings to one or more orders.

 
Manage your presets by clicking on the Shipping Presets menu above the shipping fields in the Order Information pane.

 
Click “+ New Preset” to add a new preset. Supply values for some or all of the fields.

 
There are 3 ways to apply shipping presets:

1. Apply a preset to a single order from the Shipping Preset menu.
 

 
2. Press defined hotkey to apply preset to one or more orders.

 
3. Use Bulk Update to apply preset to multiple orders.
 

 
Register now for your 30 day free trial of one of the most powerful shipping applications on the market. You’ll have access to a fully functioning solution containing time-saving features and access to discounted shipping rates!

ShipStation is a web-based shipping application that is fully compatible with Mac OSX and Safari. Whether you want to print single or multiple labels, domestic or international, via USPS, UPS or FedEx, ShipStation does it all on your Mac without the need for external software. Our commitment to intuitive and intelligent shipping software was built with Mac users in mind!

ShipStation brings a rich set of features to Mac users who have traditionally been neglected by desktop shipping software. Importing orders from multiple marketplaces and shipping them using USPS, UPS or FedEx is a seamless experience in Safari or any other web browser you choose. Customizable automation rules help you build a shipping process that’s fast, consistent, and tailored specifically to your business needs. Best of all, ShipStation can be accessed from anywhere!

ShipStation Feature Highlights:

• Integrates with over 25 ecommerce platforms, including eBay, Amazon, Sears, and Etsy
• Generates USPS, UPS, and FedEx domestic and international labels, including all supporting international documentation
• Free Endicia subscription with every account
• Discounted shipping rates
• Time-saving features like batch printing and automation rules

At ShipStation, we care about the details too. By offering tools like a multi-carrier rate calculator, address validation checker, and product pick list generator, we help you to make quick and easy shipping decisions from within our platform.

If you’re looking for a powerful shipping application that runs effortlessly on a Mac, check out our 30-day free trial. Jennifer, an Apple user and founder of Gracefully Girly, gave us a shot and said, “I tried ShipStation and I’m in love. Pure love.“ We love hearing from our customers and discovering how we can continue providing top of the line shipping software for online retailers.

Entering manual orders can be very time consuming and tedious. ShipStation now has a solution that will allow sellers to quickly import existing orders into our application. By using our new CSV Import feature, sellers can upload orders for marketplaces not currently supported by ShipStation. This feature is currently in Beta testing and is available to ShipStation users on the Silver or higher plans.

To begin importing your orders with our CSV Import feature in ShipStation, follow these simple instructions:

Step 1) Head to the “Orders” page and locate the “Import” button.

Step 2) Select a file to import from your local hard drive.

Step 3) If this is your first upload, select to create new field mappings. Remember to choose if your file is Comma Separated or Tab Delimited. Be sure to also specify if the first line of your file contains column names.

Step 4) You can now create your field mappings and save these settings for future imports.

Step 5) Click next to finalize your upload and view your orders.

We have just launched a beta test of our CSV Order Import feature, if you would like to be include you may let us know by emailing support@shipstation.com
or from within ShipStation by hovering over Support and select “Submit a Support Ticket.

As with any beta testing, we hope you’ll forgive the occasional hiccup. If you encounter any issues, please contact us through the same channels and and one our technical support team members will respond.