How to you take order from being ready to go, and out to Fedex, USPS or similar?

[Unregistered]

Hi,

According to your features list, the 3DCart can have the orders integrate directly out to Fedex, USPS, and I believe also UPS. I'm just using the demo store right now, but I can't find anything that represents moving a ready to go order(s) into some type of shipping cue.

We may add the Stone Edge Order processing system down the road, but we were hoping to be able to use thd 3DCart on its own, at least for a while. Thanks much for getting back to me on this.

Arnie Schachere

[www.frik-n-frak.com]

I'm not positive on this, but... I think 3dcart has put those tools in place for the day when USPS, FedEx, etc. enable the use of these tools through their service. (?) Perhaps someone from 3dcart will come along and clarify.

We've added a few customized order status-es.. err, statii - um... staties (whatever) for in process, pending pay, ready to ship, etc. Once we change the status to "ready to ship" an email is automatically generated and sent to the customer. We then use 3dcart's Endicia plug-in to export all "status=ready to ship" to a Dazzle address book and then print off our shipping labels with ease.

Not sure if the plug-ins are available in "demo" mode? I don't think they are.

~fr_k

[mueller]

We then use 3dcart's Endicia plug-in to export all "status=ready to ship" to a Dazzle address book and then print off our shipping labels with ease.

I had tried using that a while back with Endicia and found it did not have the info that would really save us time like weight, service type, etc. that could be fed to Endicia and have it automatically generate labels and postage. This is available using XML provided by Endicia which I submitted to 3DC a while back when they said they wanted to setting up more complete integration. They said it would have to wait until after 2.2 was released and I have not heard back since then.

Since you use the export, do you know if anything additional has been done with it? From what I have read here and elsewhere it seem like a fair amount of users utilize Endicia and would benefit from this additional integration. How do you feel about it and is there anyone else interested in it?

[www.frik-n-frak.com]

Although not fully automatic, we really like how it works now.

The problem (at least with us) with sending the feed and having all the labels print automatically is the total order weight. Most of our items weigh under a pound. It makes it very difficult to calculate order weight - taking into account box weight and packing material, etc. to feed an accurate weight to Dazzle.

Sooo... we like the export as a dazzle address book, reference an order number, select the recipient from the address book, enter actual weight, print usps priority mail label.

Certainly not fully automatic, but WAY better than the way we used to do it.

Perhaps the gang will give us a more robust solution down the road?

~bc

[Arnie - MTLC Music]

How to you take order from being ready to go, and out to Fedex, USPS or similar?

Thanks for all your input on this. We're also looking into the Stone Edge solution. We have another store which is on a custom system with a lot of order processing power. It has some bugs though and limitations, that's why we are looking into other systems for our new store. The Stone Edge system looks like it's probably very good. However, they don't have a demo version or a thirty day version to try, and it sure would be good to be able to give it a whirl before proceeding. Thanks again!

Arnie - MTLC Music -
www.mtlc.net

[mueller]

Although not fully automatic, we really like how it works now.

I think they know some are happy with the way it is since they made it clear they would add a button for the more advanced integration and leave the button for the address book import. We will have the best of both worlds.

I agree with you on the weight thing, but I have found I am able to get this very accurate by keeping an eye on how close the total weights are on the order print-out when we pack orders and then making adjustments where necessary. Our total order packing weights have gotten very accurate. I could see those who have to ship in multiple boxes having trouble using this.

[WFox]

Hi Arnie,
We have used the Stone Edge Order Manager for over a year now with 3dCart. I know when we purchased the Stone Edge product, they had a 30 day money back guarantee. They have been good to work with.

I hope this helps.
Regards,
Bill Fox
http://www.4filters.com

Thanks for all your input on this. We're also looking into the Stone Edge solution. We have another store which is on a custom system with a lot of order processing power. It has some bugs though and limitations, that's why we are looking into other systems for our new store. The Stone Edge system looks like it's probably very good. However, they don't have a demo version or a thirty day version to try, and it sure would be good to be able to give it a whirl before proceeding. Thanks again!

Arnie - MTLC Music -
www.mtlc.net

[widgets]

Stone Edge does have a 30 days money back guarantee, but I just got it and haven't got a chance to try it out as I am still working on the website.

I imagine I will be keeping it, but if I don't, I will update anyone interested whether it is easy to return.