5 shipping settings to check before Black Friday

A shipping rule that no longer fits, an outdated delivery promise, or return settings that don’t match your volume: in the busiest weeks of the year, that costs you exactly the time you don’t have.

So go through them now. These five settings get your shipping ready for Black Friday, Sinterklaas and the holidays.

1. Delivery options, against failed deliveries.

A parcel that can’t be delivered at home goes back into the network. Another run, another attempt, and a customer who contacts you in the meantime.

Which options your customer sees, you set in your plug-in or in your checkout settings: which carrier, and a pickup point or locker nearby. You decide what you offer, your customer picks from it. A parcel that goes to a pickup point only has to be delivered once.

The dynamic checkout is free in the basic account and comes with most integrations.

Check this now: which delivery options do you offer, and do they still fit your shipping process?

2. Shipping rules, against mistakes in the warehouse.

In November there’s staff on the floor who weren’t there in September. They don’t know that heavy parcels go with a different carrier, or that orders above a certain value need to be insured.

Shipping rules let you set that in advance. You define conditions based on destination. After that the system automatically selects the carrier, the parcel type and the delivery option.

That saves manual work when packing and prevents surcharges afterwards caused by the wrong parcel type.

You get one shipping rule for free. An unlimited number is available from MyParcel Pakket Premium onwards.

Check this now: go through your existing shipping rules. Do the conditions still hold, and do new staff know how it works?

3. Cut-off and transit times, for a promise you can keep.

The delivery date in your checkout depends among other things on your cut-off time, the transit time and the days on which you ship.

If those are still set to a quiet period, your checkout will show a date in week 48 that your warehouse can’t make. If you process orders until 20.00 during the peak instead of until 23.00, your last order moment shifts with it.

Watch out for pakjesavond this year. It falls on Saturday 5 December. Does your carrier deliver on Saturdays? If not, Friday 4 December is your last delivery day.

Check this now: your cut-off time, transit times and shipping days. You’ll find these in your checkout settings or your plug-in, depending on your configuration.

4. Track & Trace, against customer questions.

“Where is my parcel” comes in more often when things get busy. That’s exactly when you want your customer service to have time for the questions that really need attention.

With automatic Track & Trace emails and a tracking page in your own branding, your customer follows the shipment themselves, without anyone having to look up a status. And it’s your brand they see, not the carrier’s.

Track & Trace is free in the basic account and you set it up in the back office.

Check this now: are your Track & Trace emails switched on, and does your tracking page match your branding?

5. Return rules, for the peak after the peak.

While the last Sinterklaas orders are going out, the first Black Friday returns are coming in. Same warehouse, opposite direction. In January the rest arrives.

With MyReturns you set the conditions under which a customer registers a return, per country, including whether you charge a contribution.

The standard return portal saves you work too: your customer registers the return themselves in your own branding, instead of sending you an email.

That makes the return process clearer for you and for your customer.

Check this now: do your return conditions still match your return policy, and do customers know where to register a return?

What you check before Black Friday gives you room during the peak.

The busiest period of the year asks a lot of your webshop, your warehouse and your customer service. That’s exactly why it pays to check your shipping settings in time.

A shipping rule that’s set wrong, or a delivery promise that no longer holds, is easier to fix before the orders start coming in. Once your warehouse is running at full capacity, you want your attention on processing and shipping orders.

So take the time now to go through your settings. Do that together with your warehouse team where you can, so everyone knows what needs to happen during the peak.