Blog

This week, we're going to try and help out companies that have their own in house shipping and warehousing software. We call it the Fulfillment API.

This is a simple enough feature to explain. Basically we wanted a way for companies that run their own warehousing and shipping software, to still be able to use Limited Run as their online store platform, but not have to export using the dashboard. This is where the Fulfillment API idea came from. It will allow you to pull unshipped orders, without having to go into the dashboard at all.

There's something else it does too. It will allow you to change inventory levels for stock requests or issues with inventory. For instance, lets say a client contacts you and asks if you can send them 3 shirts. Instead of going into the dashboard and searching for the product, then editing the inventory manually, you can do it right through your own warehousing software, that's connected to Limited Run through the Fulfillment API. Another good example is lets say you find some damaged goods, or even worse, you don't find the goods at all! This is an unfortunate reality when dealing with physical goods. Sometimes they just "disappear". Hopefully this helps you manage issues like this, a little easier.

If you have any specific questions, please get in touch. Thanks Everyone.

Last week we announced a Tracking Number Importer. It’s going to solve the problem that arises, when you need to ship out a lot of orders, and don’t want to manually add the tracking numbers. The example we gave was when a preorder ships. Pre-orders are a stressful time, and we’re doing our best to make your lives easier. That’s what we’re going for with v3. Make your lives easier, by reducing the work you put into running your store. You might also see a pattern with our announcements. They all seem to be connected, in some way. For instance, we just mentioned how the new Tracking Number Importer, is going to work great for shipping preorders. And the feature we’re announcing this week, is actually called Pre-Order!

All a pre-order is, is a an order that doesn’t get immediately shipped out. The standard reason is the release date for the album hasn’t been reached yet, but you want to start selling the album now. Seems simple right? It is, but there's just one issue. When you take an order, that order goes into your Unshipped section. Whether it’s a preorder or not. Which means if you want to continue shipping out non pre-orders, you need to sift through the section like a gold panner. With the new Pre-Order feature, we’ve solved that problem. Here’s how:

Pre-Order

We said easier, right? All you need to do is check the box, and then any order containing that product, will get sent to a new area in your Sales Section called "Pre-Order".

Another really cool part of this feature, is how it's handled in the cart:

Any order containing a product on Pre-Order, will have "Pre-Order" written next to that product in the cart.

Now you might be asking, "Well what happens when the product is off pre-order, and you want to ship them out?" Well, that's easy too. Just go into the product, and uncheck the box. Then all those orders containing the product, will immediately move to the Unshipped section!

And the last part of this feature we'd like to tell you about is how it's retroactive. So when we launch v3 (hopefully in about a month), you can go into any product that you currently have on Pre-Order, and check the box. This will move all past orders into the Pre-Order section. And immediately clean up that Unshipped section. Whoa!

If you have any specific questions, please get in touch. Thanks Everyone.

Last week we announced Stamps.com integration, and this week we’re going to stick with the shipping theme and talk about tracking numbers.

Right now if you want to include a tracking number in the shipped email you send to your customer, you have to do it one at a time. That’s a rough process when shipping out 500 preorders. So for v3, we thought it was a good idea to solve this shipping stumbling block.

Tracking Number Import

What’s great about this importer is it’s so simple. All you need is the tracking numbers, and the order numbers. We’ll connect the dots after the import. Then just Ship them. Another cool thing about this importer, is when used in conjunction with Stamps or Endicia, they can export you the exact info you need.

Next week it’s time to break out some more heavy hitters.

If you have any specific questions, please get in touch. Thanks Everyone.

Our first two feature announcements have gone over real well with everyone. We're getting a lot of great feedback and even people asking to switch now! Hopefully v3 will be out at the end of February, beginning of March. That's what we're shooting for. Till then though, we're going to keep announcing more features.

This week that feature announcement is Stamps.com integration!

Stamps.com

We've had Endicia for a while, and a lot of people have asked us about Stamps.com. So we're super happy to have this available in v3.

If you don't know what either of these services are, we can explain. Both are postage on demand services, that allow you to bulk buy and print shipping labels for your packages. These services are great for shipping a lot of packages in one fell swoop. It's something that would make your life a million times easier, when shipping out a preorder.

The other really cool thing these services usually provide is a discount on shipping costs. They're sort of like a Mass Mailer, in a way. Since they're buying tons of postage from USPS, USPS gives them a discount, and then they pass part of that discount onto you. It might only be a couple percent, but that adds up when you're shipping a lot of packages.

If you have any specific questions about Stamps.com, head over to their help section or contact them here. If you have any questions about our integration please get in touch with us.

Thanks Everyone. See you next week!

Last week we announced a fully integrated newsletter system for LR v3. It’s going to completely change the way you think about, and execute, newsletter sending. This week, we want to talk about Campaign Tracking.

Right now there’s a very big hole in social media, ads, and newsletter. We have no idea how all this translates into sales. No one knows if their post on twitter is working better than their post on some old forum. Now you might say, “Who cares, I’m going to post on them all anyway.” Well there’s 2 things to think about here: One is, if you knew what post did better, then you’d know which community you should nurture more. And two, if you knew which post did worse, then you could tweak the way in which you posted it, the next time around. For instance, maybe posting day or night matters. Maybe you need to make it shorter/longer, or use more/less graphic language. Maybe you want to get someone else to post it under their username, and compare those results to yours. There’s a million ways to go about it. But the main issue surrounding all this is, without a way to track it to sales, you have no idea where to start.

Campaign Tracking

Introducing, the way to track it! With our Campaign Tracking app, you’ll be able to decipher exactly how all those posts and emails are affecting sales. And what’s great about it, is it works off the very simple UTM Parameters standard. Here’s a link to the Google UTM Builder. All you're going to do is create the link, with the link builder, post it as usual, and we do the rest. It's really that simple.

Another slick little trick in the Campaign Tracking app, is that blue sold number is clickable. And when you do click it, it takes you right to the sales area, and shows you all those sales.

And finally, we've made this incredibly easy to use with our Newsletter feature. in fact, you don’t even have to do anything but click a checkbox. That’s right. You click a checkbox, and we automatically create the UTM links for you. Then as soon as one registers in the Campaign Tracking App, we start tracking sales.

Google Ecommerce Tracking

Another way we’re letting stores track sales is with Google Ecommerce Tracking integration. This is a free Google product, that works alongside their Analytics product. Much like how our campaign app works, it lets you track sales, and how they worked with campaigns. This is going to allow stores to work more closely with marketing companies, who have a lot of experience with Google and their offerings. To read more about this product, head over here.

If you have any specific questions, please get in touch. Thanks Everyone. See you next week!