Howdy!

Our store is not online yet but we are working fast and furious. We run our store with very little inventory, we order it when the customer orders...hence the order goes out about 1 week after they have ordered. In our old system, the shipping date was automatically put on the bottom of the order when we finallized the order. We don't see a place for shipping dates or even a way to have them calculated......how does everyone else handle shipping dates? Is it important to your business or doesn't it matter? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

www.Scrappindeals.com

Nancy,

That is a great idea.. I will use this in the future.. I think a place to put a shipping date is a good feature. Maybe it should say approx shipping date..since it is hard to be absolutely sure the package will get there..

You might want to submit this to the New Features Website!

Nancy and cbhale:

Thank you so much for responding! And I would have never thought of putting it in that field.....we were going to put it in the Cust. Comments section, but the Rep field is a much better place......we really wanted to be able to see it whenever we did a search or printout of orders. And I will add it to the New Features area because I really think ship date is an integral part of finishing an order.

Would love to hear from others though.......what does everyone else do?

Thanks again!

ScrappinDeals

I would mention it on your website everywhere you can. This will keep those couple of customers who don't see on their invoice from getting pissed at your for waiting so long to get their merchandise.
Also, the company you order from, have you talked to them about drop shipping? What do I mean - Everytime a customer orders from you, you call them and they ship directly to the customer under your name. Many companies will do this, few won't, it doesn't hurt to ask and can only help your business by making faster shipping times.
The faster your shipping is, the better your customer service is, the better your price is, match those 3 items and your business will gain loyal customers (price is the last on that list, do the first 2 and some won't care about price).
Always think about the customer when you make business decisions, if you do them to benefit you than it could hurt your company.
My two cents

Strapworks:

Thanks for the response.....we do have it posted all over our store and our customers are aware that this is how we work and they are happy about it....we give them very nice discounts on the products we sell as an incentive for them to shop with us. But you are very right that if we can get our shipping time faster we get and keep more customers. Drop shipping isn't an option, unfortunately, but we have found another supplier that is closer to us and can ship faster, hence we will get the products faster. Our customers don't seem to mind the wait, they, in most cases would much rather save the money than get it fast...I know, completely opposite of the norm, but that's how it goes in the scrapbooking world!

Thanks again for your comments, they are appreciated!