Shipping Labels and Postage

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tmcgregor
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Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by tmcgregor » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:21 pm

Will AC7 provide the capability to print shipping labels and postage for any of the major carriers like USPS or UPS?

Thanks.

kbeazer
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kbeazer » Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:47 pm

In my opinion, this is one of the biggest holes that ablecommerce has. It seems to do everything else but when it comes to getting orders out, it stops short forcing other options that don't integrate all too well.

Please consider adding a function that from the shipments page of the merchant admin area to print labels using the major carriers and/or the ability to tie to shipping carrier api's.

Thanks

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by afm » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:59 pm

Shipper integrates with AbleCommerce very well and you can print UPS, FedEx, and USPS labels with or without postage. You can also print and email branded invoices, packing slips, coupons, brochures, and more; generate management reports; and analyze your order/shipping data.

If you want a browser based solution embedded in the AbleCommerce shipment page, Shipper is not for you. But if you want a high volume solution that works with both laser and thermal printers and an electronic scale; give Shipper a try.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by mazhar » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:56 am

Label printing ability from within merchant panel is in our logs. You can track progress on it here
http://bugs.ablecommerce.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5769

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kbeazer » Mon Mar 08, 2010 7:33 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. I will take a look at Shipper but do think that it would be nice to have it all contained in one area.

Thanks again. I will keep my eyes open.

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kbeazer » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:08 pm

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the info on Shipper. I have downloaded it and am testing it out. The only downfall that I see is that it only uses ShipRush for USPS through Endicia. I need to have a custom version of ShipRush for an API that we are wanting to use but am not getting any response on the matter from zfirm. Having ShipRush for Stamps.com seems pretty big as well.

Thanks,
Kevin

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by jeremy_pascual » Fri Aug 13, 2010 4:08 pm

i agree, this really should be in one place. it would be awesome of it's part of AC7 and we don't need to buy another piece of software or custom code it ourselves. we need the ability to print from FedEx as well. Also, to mention that a feature of the product is integration with shippers, like UPS and FedEx, but only grabs the rates and does not print labels is misleading.

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by paularonw » Wed Dec 01, 2010 11:50 am

We have been using Shipper3 for a year now and we've had several problems with the software downloading orders, duplicating orders and when we get into high volume days (on slow days we have 50 orders on huge days we could have 2000 orders) the system slows to a crawl. We can pick and pack faster than the system will download orders from Able. I can't believe that we've outgrown this software already, but if the software can't keep up with our orders, then we have to look for something else. The fact that Able still doesn't have a workable shipping module is very dissapointing. It wouldn't be so bad, except Structured Solutions offers very limited support, from their website "Structured Solutions is a part-time sole proprietorship. Phone support is not possible under any circumstance. Email responses may take up to a week when the sole proprietor is traveling."

I've tried to get support on the phone from Structured Solutions but it just doesn't exist. I have a hard time supporting a company and software that can't (or won't) support me back. Email only support just doesn't cut it. I have to seriously consider Able as my Cart because there are few viable options for shipping.

If I can't get a good solution for Shipping from Able, I'm going to find another shopping cart software... even though we think Able suits us just fine. If I can't ship faster it doesn't matter if the cart works, my customers still get upset.

Any suggestions????? Anyone?

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by afm » Wed Dec 01, 2010 8:57 pm

I don't believe the slowness is caused by Shipper or AbleCommerce. No other Shipper/AbleCommerce customer has reported slowness (and there are several that routinely process 100's of orders per day).

I believe it is being caused by your database or web server. Shipper makes many small web service requests (very similar to the AbleCommerce DataPort product) very quickly. Hacking detection software on the server may mistake that behavior for a denial of service attack and throttle the requests. You need to get a knowledgable server tech to take a detailed look into the behavior on the server (not a level 1 support person that looks at CPU utilization and tells you everything is OK).

I can suggest two alternatives to Shipper that also work with AbleCommerce:

1. You could try using AbleCommerce DataPort. It has an export (and import I think) format that UPS WorldShip can read. That format could probably be made to work with any software you choose to print the shipping label.

2. Switch to Stoneedge Order Manager. It works with AbleCommerce and supports up to 5000 orders per day (according to their web site). Their product costs a bit more, but they do provide phone support.

Finally, you could also approach Z-Firm to see if they will add direct support for AbleCommerce.
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compunerdy
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by compunerdy » Thu Dec 02, 2010 1:16 am

You could also try to be a little more dramatic with your posts which I am sure will make Able cater to your needs faster... :roll:

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kwikstand » Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:06 pm

I can't log in to Bugzilla. Can anybody tell me how close the UPS label printing feature is? Should I hire a programmer to do it, or will it be available soon?

Thanks,
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kwikstand » Sun Dec 19, 2010 7:41 pm

I guess nobody knows.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by bkort@web2market.com » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:49 am

In case you haven't seen it, Web 2 Market has now taken over sales, support and development of Shipper. It doesn't sound like a Shipper problem per se. But if you're still having a problem, email ctemplin@web2market.com and we'll try to help. For more details, see:
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14915

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by crazyjoe » Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:09 am

We are ready for this feature now. Please update your Bug 5769 to make this a feature for your next update. UPS and FedEX have updated their API's and this feature should be easier to implement then ever before (not to say it will be easy, but easier then if you tried back in '07). Please look into adding this as it will increase my order fulfillment efficiency exponentially. I would assume it would be a feature used by most if not all your users who have shipping integration with the major carriers.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by hassonmike » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:29 pm

So we're being forced to make a switch from endicia to another service (something about a depreciation of compatibility?). We are looking into stamps.com to replace endicia

We are currently using Shipper3 with "Shiprush for Endicia"...


So this brings about two big questions:

Is "ShipRush for Stamps.com" compatible with Shipper3?

and Should we expect our processes to stay the same if switching to "Shiprush for Stamps.com"?

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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kwikstand » Thu Mar 08, 2012 8:05 pm

Why should we have to go to a 3rd party for something a simple as printing labels? I have had simpler stores in the past that do it. Pro Stores was one. You simply print the order right from the order page and the tracking # automatically gets entered and the order is marked shipped. I don't understand why Able doesn't do this. According to this forum post, it is on the list as of a year ago. Can anyone say if this is going to happen soon or not?
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by jmestep » Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:00 pm

It might be inconvenient, but Able is an ecommerce website solution with some order fulfillment capabilities and not an order fulfillment solution. If they did everything every merchant wanted, they would never complete the software. We have a large number of clients and it's very rare to have a group of them that want the same thing handled in the same way.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by kwikstand » Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:32 pm

I understand that, but shipping directly from the admin. should be standard. Many other stores do it.

Also, Mazhar said " Label printing ability from within merchant panel is in our logs" a year ago. I was wondering what the status is.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by jmestep » Mon Mar 12, 2012 7:36 am

What size label? If there are more than one on a sheet, how do they repeat? What do you want on it? What browser are you using? What kind of printer are you using? What are the margins you have set on the printer?
These are all things that would have to be taken into consideration for a label design. You could take something like the admin packing list, duplicate it and leave only the address and move everything around so it matches your label.
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Re: Shipping Labels and Postage

Post by cmorganmcp » Thu May 10, 2012 2:57 pm

Actually, it's been over 2 years since Mazhar made that statment (March 2010). I (along with others here apparently) are not able to login to bugzilla to see the status. We'd simply like to know a)Is it coming at all? and b)Do you have a time frame?

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