Take Magento, add ShipWorks and package shipping hits a whole new level

Magento Ecommerce Platform for Growth is indeed the gold standard for online stores, giving customers a rich and rewarding shopping experience, and giving online merchants all the tools they need to administer their online store(s) and concentrate on selling. By integrating a highly specific software program like ShipWorks into a Magento platform, online merchants can take their package shipping operations to new heights and garner even more control over shipping costs, package tracking and product delivery and return administration.

Unleaded Software, as a Magento Professional Partner — one of only a handful worldwide and only three in the Western United States — is a recognized expert at developing and implementing both the Magento Community Edition and Enterprise Edition products on behalf of clients. What this means is that Unleaded has the expertise and the demonstrated expertise to build out robust, vibrant online stores within the visual language of existing client branding, taking their online sales to the new, Magento level. Unleaded Software has done dozens of Magento sites, from small mom-and-pop e-retailers to some of the leading web retailers in the world.

The importance of engaging a Magento Professional Partner like Unleaded Software when enhancing an online store comes in tapping the knowledge base to create a unique and custom online shopping experience within the power of Magento. Often this entails the integration of other available software to ride along with Magento and boost the power for specific store functions.

One such integration Unleaded Software highly recommends is ShipWorks, from Interapptive, Inc., a complete shipping program exclusively for online stores that handles every aspect of the product shipping process. ShipWorks has established relationships with the leading shipping carriers worldwide as well as third-party shipping products so online merchants can generate shipping labels, purchase postage, manage customers and emails, track shipments, insure packages, and even audit and verify the shipment history and claim shipping refunds. In other words, when it comes to shipping, ShipWorks does it all.

Here's some of the benefits of integrating ShipWorks:

ShipWorks is fully functional with the following shippers and 3rd-party resources:

With the ShipWorks program integrated with Magento, online merchants can prepare shipping labels, purchase postage, track packages and delivery (and returns) and even generate emails to alert customers of shipping status and tracking information — automatically.

Integrated Insurance

Interapptive Insurance for all of your packages saves you money on insurance rates. The insurance is integrated into the ShipWorks program and is very easy to use. What's more, with the built-in auditing feature, ShipWorks verifies the delivery of each package sent and provides detailed shipping reports. Currently, about 5% of shipments arrive late and up to $5 billion a year in qualified shipping refunds go unclaimed. With ShipWorks, this will never be a problem — the copy tracks the shipping history and claims any shipping refunds owed and credits them to the client account.

Reporting

Interapptive Shipment Auditing provides standard and customized reports that detail the performance of the shipping carriers, allowing clients to customize shipment reporting. These reports allow clients to manage shipping traffic, pinpoint inefficiencies, giving ample information to renegotiate service contracts with carriers.

Automated Tasks

ShipWorks can be configured to do common tasks automatically, such as printing invoices, sending emails, and updating the online status of an order. Automated tasks occur based on triggers the client specifies, such as processing a shipment when a new order is downloaded.

Manage Orders

Orders are directly downloaded by ShipWorks, eliminating manual imports. ShipWorks keeps track of notes, shipments and tracking numbers, and emails related to each order. Orders are easily searchable and easily organized using ShipWorks filters.

Manage Customers

ShipWorks maintains a comprehensive list of client customers based on all orders in the system. Quickly see which customers have the most orders, have spent the most money, and all email and shipments sent to any customer. Customers are easily searchable and easily organized using ShipWorks filters.

Shipping

ShipWorks pre-fills all address information for shipments, eliminating time-consuming copy and paste. ShipWorks connects directly to each supported shipping provider, providing a fast, seamless label printing with no manual exports.

Product weights and the customer-preferred shipping method are downloaded from your online store. ShipWorks supports attached scales for easy manual weighing.
Zero-configuration scale support for serial ports. (Or USB with a USB->Serial cable)

ShipWorks supports laser and inkjet printers, and thermal printers such as Dymo and Eltron. All varieties of label sheets are supported, including multi-up sheets, combined invoices and labels, full-sheet labels, and plain paper.

Tracking

ShipWorks saves the tracking number for every processed shipment. Track shipments in real-time from within ShipWorks in response to customer inquiries. Send emails with tracking information in one click. ShipWorks will email tracking numbers automatically as each shipment is processed using automated tasks.

Customer Service

Quickly lookup orders and customers with the “Quick Search” boxes. All order information, including notes, status, and tracking information is conveniently displayed at once. ShipWorks makes it easy to keep customers up-to-date with shipping and status notifications. Networking support keeps all staff members synchronized.

Online Status Update

ShipWorks updates the online status of an order automatically or manually. Depending on the online store, ShipWorks will send back one or more of the tracking number, shipping method, cost, and payment status of each order.

Filters (Search Folders)

Configure folders whose contents are based on search criteria. The content of each folder is automatically updated when any change occurs. Easily organize orders according to the steps in the store's workflow, or use filtering to build complex reports about who is buying how much of what.

Email

Automatically send emails when shipments are processed. Compose individual emails using the built-in WYSIWYG editor. Sending email in bulk to groups of customers is easy. Send payment requests, shipping notifications, invoices, and product announcements. All emails are saved by ShipWorks and can associated with the order and customer to which they are related.

Reports

Utilize reports that come with ShipWorks or create unique reports. See what customers are buying and how much of it. Compare actual shipping costs to the shipping costs being charged. ShipWorks makes it easy to report on any aspect of the online business.

Labels

Print labels on any label sheet, including Avery and Dymo. Labels are fully customizable using ShipWorks templates. Labels can be printed for downloaded UPS or FedEx shipping labels, address labels, or any type of label needed. ShipWorks' SureSize™ technology ensures that each label is automatically zoomed so that no images or addresses are ever cutoff.

Data Export

Export any data in ShipWorks to any text based format, including .txt, .xml, and .csv. Allows for export to third-party applications not directly supported by ShipWorks, such as Excel, MOM, and Great Plains Accounting.

Multiple Computer Networking

Install ShipWorks on multiple computers and connect them all to the same ShipWorks database. Each computer stays automatically synchronized with changes made on any other computer. Multiple employees can work with ShipWorks at the same time, greatly increasing efficiency.

Users and Administration

ShipWorks supports multiple user accounts and is simple to administer. Managing users, backing up ShipWorks, and network setup is easy with the step-by-step wizards included in ShipWorks.

SQL Server Database

ShipWorks uses the Microsoft SQL Desktop Engine (MSDE), which is provided free with ShipWorks, as its database. No database administration is required — it's all handled by ShipWorks.

At this time, ShipWorks is a Windows-based program only, meaning that it won't work on Macs. Also, it is device-central, not web-based, so it must be utilized on-site with the PCs where it is installed.

And the cost is amazing — depending on the shipping volume the online store experiences, the price for Shipworks starts at $14.95 per month with a maximum of $49.95 per month!

Ask Unleaded Software for more information on how to integrate this marvelous program into your Magento website. ShipWorks is just another example of how Unleaded Software Fuels Your Brand.

Read about our content management services »


Magento Enterprise Edition »