Use Your Shipping System Data to Make More Sales

You took the order on your web site. But after you ship the package, are you done with that order? What do you do with the information from that order and shipment to build your business? You might have your shipping system send a shipment notification email like the CPS SHIP eLERT. Customers like those and it saves you customer service costs when your customers don't have to call you for tracking information. You may follow up with your customer to be sure they got their order and are satisfied. In the future, you might also contact them by email or snail mail about specials, send them your catalogue, or send information about product you have they really like. All of these are great. What about the shipping data? Why not use your shipping data to build sales, too?

Used correctly, the data in your shipping system can definitely help. If you analyze your shipping data to discover your average cost to ship a package, then break that down by the service you use (Ground, 2 Day, etc.), you are on your way to building sales. How? Studies show a lot of web site orders are lost when the shipping cost exceeds the customer's expectation. If you can decrease or eliminate shipping cost "sticker shock", you will decrease your site's abandoned shopping carts and increase your market size.

Analyzing shipping data can be time consuming and maybe confusing. If you build a report that breaks down shipping cost, maybe by carrier and definitely by the service used, you can use these to determine average shipping costs for each service. Use "Flat Rate" shipping charges on your web site instead of calculating shipping separately for every order and you are on your way. If you calculate shipping charges based on the delivery address for every order, you charge people who are farther away more for shipping. This turns your company into a local or, best case, regional business. You created your web site to sell to a bigger market. Why kill your plan? Flat rate shipping charges establish you as a national business.

Harvey Software's CPS shipping system has an exclusive Flat Rate Shipping Charge Analysis report that provides this invaluable shipping cost data. When you charge "Flat Rate" shipping, your customers know the shipping cost immediately, which can reduce abandoned shopping carts. Your customers have a better shopping experience and you retain more sales. The CPS Flat Rate report runs in just seconds, displaying a break down and average cost for each carrier service. You can run the report for all carriers or select the carrier(s) to be included. Your company's actual shipping history and charges are used, so you know you have the best information for your company. Use Flat Rate Shipping costs to make it simpler for you and better for your customers - a combination for more sales and savings.

Which Updates Do I Install? Why, Only the Important Ones, of Course.

That's a headline that's only missing the "smiley" face, or the "LOL" comment at the end. But it's a light-hearted comment on one of today's serious computer issues.

It seems like not a day goes by that there is not some update for your computer. It seems like they are all "critical". Plus, they all need to be installed right away or your computer will not work right, or your computer will not be safe, or life as we know it will end, or worse. Well, maybe the "life as we know it" is a little strong, but after you read the warnings and suggestions it can be confusing.

Our CPS™ shipping software updates are always virus tested before they are delivered, so you can count on CPS and its updates as safe to install. But CPS is not the whole picture for software installed on your shipping computer. Your shipping computer has an Internet connection, a web browser, maybe a connection for on-line postage - so it's exposed to the world. To keep your shipping station safe and working, here is a short list of suggestions for updating your company's shipping computer and keeping it safe.

First, install all CPS updates. CPS updates provide the most up-to-date carrier rates, services and other programming to meet the carrier's specifications. CPS can be set to do this automatically, and CPS updates normally install pretty quickly. Next, be sure to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date. There are people all over the world who want to spy on your computer, or worse, disable it. Computer protection programs may not catch everything, but they will certainly give you a fighting chance against today's cyber bad guys. But only install one anti-virus program - not more. And while you are at it, be sure to install your operating system updates, too. There is little worse than having a major computer problem and discovering that an unapplied operating system update from 4 months ago fixed the problem.

One point to consider - be sure your anti-virus/firewall updates do not block CPS or any other important program you use.

Do these basics and you are helping to keep you computer running correctly and your packages going out the door.

Harvey Software Now Viewable on YouTube

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth? We think videos are also worth a lot, so Harvey Software now has a channel on YouTube called HarveySoft. Each short video on our new channel takes about 2 minutes to show how a feature in CPS works, so you can see how it can apply to your shipping. We are sure you will find ideas about how we solve your shipping problems.

Automatic carrier rate shopping is expected in a good shipping system, so our first two videos show how the CPS RateBot and CPS Smart RateBot work. Right now, today, companies are using these easy to implement RateBots to save on their shipping. So take a look at Harvey Software on YouTube and imagine how much your company can save in its shipping. It will be 2 minutes of your time well spent.

We're easy to find at: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarveySoft

Save $$$ and Frustration When You Check the Address Before You Ship

What is more frustrating to your customer (and you) than a package that never reaches its destination? And how annoying is it to you when you pay too much to ship a package? Whenever you avoid these situations, everyone wins. Checking the address at the time a package is shipped can reduce and even eliminate the unhappy customers that result from packages that cannot be delivered due to a bad address - even when the customer typed the address themselves. Address verification can also slash "address correction" fees. These mean you pay more (sometimes a lot more) for a good package delivery.

Many companies either price shop each package or want to price shop. The better address correction programs tell you if the destination is a commercial or residential address so the right type of delivery service is used for price comparisons. After all, who wants pages of unexpected residential delivery fees on the carrier bill? An additional layer to this problem is that address verification programs can cost in the thousands, so how can you make a solution for these problems cost effective?

The Address Verification Module (AVM) for Harvey Software's CPS shipping software uses the USPS CASS certified database and: 1) Makes rate shopping happen correctly between residential and commercial services; 2) Warns you if the residential/commercial choice is incorrect; 3) Tells you when an address doesn't exist; 4) Lets you know that the address exists but is missing some key information such as suite number apt #, etc.; and 5) Standardizes addresses to match the USPS CASS certified database. Some address correction programs cost thousands. For CPS, it's just $199.95 to add this great capability.

CPS is not the only shipping system that has this available, although the CPS AVM is definitely one of the least costly. Address checking in your shipping system is another way a good shipping system helps your company put money on the bottom line and solves the shipping problem of bad addresses.

Printing Labels for More Than One Company Name Using a Single Carrier Account

Shipping under more than one name is easy if you have a carrier account for each name. If you have one account with each carrier but want to use several different name identities, that can be more complicated.

Why do companies ship packages under 2 or more different names? Maybe there is retail and wholesale divisions, or a fulfillment situation with two or more businesses all shipping from the same warehouse with one shipping system for all of the shipping. Packages shipped from ACME RETAIL need the shipping label to show ACME RETAIL. When the package is from ACME WHOLESALE it needs to say ACME WHOLESALE. But the ACME COMPANY has a single account with each of its carriers so how can this work? Your shipping software program may provide the answer for this.

In our CPS shipping software, there is a "Sender" feature that lets the user put a Sender code into a CPS field, and then CPS prints a return address on the shipping label according the address used for that Sender code. Using the Sender feature, labels print correctly and cost center reports based on the Sender codes are available. Reports can contain daily shipping data or shipping history data. Cost center reports can be broken down even further by carrier, giving several ways to manage cost information about this shipping. The result is one system that uses a single account for each carrier, and this single system prints the return address needed on the shipping label and provides reports, too.

Of course, with multiple account support for UPS, FedEx and USPS shipping, CPS can solve the multiple company name situation regardless of the carrier used.

CPS has lots of tools to solve today's shipping problems, so check out our web site at http://www.HarveySoft.com/, or call us and we'll be glad to explain how we can make these problems go away.

Getting Your Shipping System Ready for the New Year

Starting off the year, I sure hope you're looking back on a reasonable or even successful 2009. A number of our customers reported they had good 4th quarter sales and are evaluating how to make 2010 work for them, too. Here are some areas our customers are discussing:

Carrier rate changes went into effect on January 4th. This means updating your shipping system to be sure you charge your customers correctly for shipping. We continue to believe that using one rate for shipping (what we call flat rate shipping charges) results in fewer abandoned shopping carts and more completed orders, giving you more sales. Our CPS shipping software has a report that averages your actual shipping costs to give you an accurate flat-rate amount to charge. Until you get a new baseline for the 2010 rates, you can take last year's flat rate and increase it by the average carrier rate increase (4.9% for one carrier, for example) and still have a flat rate to charge for shipping that is in the right ballpark. If you have negotiated your rates with a carrier, we can work with FedEx and UPS so that your CPS will show your company's contracted rates with the carrier. Just call our sales department to ask about that.

In the shipping system itself, the start of the year is a great time to test your battery backup and be sure it's still ready to save you if your power goes out. Also, if you have a shipping computer that might be giving clues it's about to give up, this relatively less busy time might be a great opportunity to replace that aging system before it causes real trouble. In the CPS shipping system, there is a backup and restore option that makes moving the shipping software from one computer to another much easier than performing a fresh installation "from scratch".

Finally, take a look at your overall shipping costs for the year. Maybe you sent out packages by a premium next day or second day service although the packages would have arrived on time using the less expensive ground service. Or you might have a lot of address correction charges (Wow! Those add up quickly, don’t they?) or you paid unexpected residential delivery surcharges although you did not get paid for this by your customers. Our CPS shipping software has great tools to help with all of these. Check out our web site at http://www.HarveySoft.com/, or call us and we'll be glad to explain how we can make these problems go away in 2010.

Happy New Year!

What do you mean, there's no Internet?

That's not something you want to hear when you have packages to ship. Today, Internet service is pretty reliable. But there are system outages, cut cables, and other Broadband connection disasters that happen. And anytime your Internet service goes down, you know that sinking feeling since you don't know if it's going to be gone for 2 minutes, 2 days or 2 weeks. When you depend, as so many do today, on the Internet for your shipping and other business functions (your VOIP phone system!), being without the Internet for even an hour can be a real problem. Even worse, you cannot control this. Or can you?

Well, there is something you can do. Get a second Internet service. If you use DSL, get cable. If you're using cable, get DSL. If one fails, it's very likely the other will be working. Normally you'll use the fastest connection for your day-to-day operations, changing only if there is a problem. After you sign up for the second Internet service, making it work is pretty simple. You can do something as simple as move the network cable between the router and your network switch from the DSL router to the cable router. A more elegant solution (and not that costly) is to use a Dual WAN router that connects to both Internet modems. The Hotbrick router is one example of a Dual WAN router. Connect both modems to the Dual WAN router, then setup the router to connect to the cable and DSL services.

That's it, and you've just added a great layer of inexpensive insurance for your business. Now, your shipping department, your VOIP phone system, the email connection to your customers - all of your mission critical business functions are protected with this inexpensive, redundant Internet connection. Another plus? The right Dual WAN router can let you use both Internet services at the same time to give you an even faster connection when they are both working. You win both ways with this.

Happy Connected Holidays!