Real-Time Shipping, Coupon Start Dates and Other Upgrades and Updates

Tiffany WhiteNo CommentsContent Shelf Updates

Content Shelf celebrated our first anniversary last month (December 2013)… and WOW!  Thanks to all of you, our first year was awesome!

Our goal this year is to make Content Shelf even better with new features and expanded functionality. And to start the year off right, we’ve just launched some excellent new features (listed below).  What’s even more exciting?  As we move through the coming months, we promise to offer even more!

And now to our new features today…

Real-Time Shipping Rates

Selling tangible items just got easier with Content Shelf!

We now offer direct integration to our clients’ FedEx and/or UPS Accounts, as well as provide real-time shipping rates at checkout.

During the checkout process, buyers receive real-time rates based on their zip code and shipping method choice.

Not only does our new feature calculate the shipping rates fast, it’s extremely accurate.  How?  Because we’ve gone above and beyond what our competition does and created our very own proprietary algorithm that helps solve the “bin packing problem” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_packing_problem).

Sellers will find the set up process refreshingly easy with only 10 fields of information required, as well as providing the dimensions/sizes for the products. We’ve also added the ability to charge a handling fee at the client’s request. Once set, the handling fee is automatically added to the shipping cost.

Real-Time Shipping is available for all Premium and Premium Plus users and can be found in the Store Settings area under Shipping.

A couple of other worthy mentions related to this feature include:

  • Customizable Shipping Rate Rules – If a client chooses not to use real-time shipping with FedEx or UPS, know that he or she can still set up rules that work for his or her product line. These rules can be flat rate or tiered and for domestic and/or international shipping.
  • Shipment Information Emails – Once the client has shipped the package and has a tracking number, we offer the ability to provide the buyer with all of the shipping information (shipping vendor, tracking number, and tracking URL). Delivery confirmation can be offered via email or simply posted to the buyer’s content shelf.

Start Dates for Coupons and Promotions

While we don’t like to use slogans from other vendors*, we couldn’t resist this one. It really is the “set it and forget it” feature.

Simply set the start and end date for the coupon or promotion and that’s it. Content Shelf takes over from there and makes it all work.

A Brand New Order Status

We’ve added a brand new Order Status called Refunded which can be found in Reports under the Sales Management Review Orders area. Upon setting the status to refunded, clients will find that it makes life a whole lot easier when generating reports and sorting the data.

Guest Checkout

Last but not least, we made a small change to the checkout page by changing the New Customer Account Status to a Guest Customer Status.

Performance Enhancements & Bug Fixes

As with many upgrades and adjustments, we’ve fixed some bugs in our code and made a few performance enhancements.

Thanks for the continued feedback and suggestions.  We appreciate it and we’re listening.

 

*Slogan Attribution – Ronco Pro Rotisserie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLq27iOW0R0) – Are we showing our age or what?