As the spooky ghost sounds of Halloween subside, you may already be hearing the whistle tones that welcome in the holiday season…
While it may feel like it’s a little too soon to mention Mariah, we do want to make sure you’re ready for those Black Friday and holiday orders, so here’s what’s in store for this month’s newsletter:
- I make a seasonally appropriate Mariah Carey reference ✔️
- A name change for an existing integration
- Two Amazon updates
- Spotlight On…Preparing Your Store For Holiday Shoppers
Integration Features & Updates
We are pleased to announce that we’ve updated our integration with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment (MCF) so that you can benefit from new MCF features. MCF provides fast order fulfillment for any ecommerce sales channel and you can now fulfill your US orders with unbranded packaging at no additional fee. Our updated integration with MCF also allows you to block Amazon Logistics as a carrier to meet marketplace guidelines. Learn more about MCF and its new features here.
In addition, you can now use the blank box and Amazon carrier restriction features in the Amazon FBA NA integration (only available in the US marketplace). These features will be automatically enabled if the incoming order comes from Walmart or eBay.
Shopping Carts
Additional integration settings are available for:
- SPS Commerce: Use Custom Folder Path to automatically append /in and /out to the folder. If left blank, /in and /out will be added to the FTP root.
Print on Demand
Additional order level options that can be set as checkout data or order metadata for:
- Turbine: Use ReferenceNumber to set an internal reference identifier. Details Here.
- DreamJunction: Use ReferenceNumber to set an internal reference identifier. Details Here.
SameDay has rebranded, so its integration is now called Swagful.
Fulfillment
Additional order level options that can be set as checkout data or order metadata for:
- 3PL: Use 3PL_Custom_x to add custom fields with custom values to your order. Just replace the x with the field name. The available fields are StullerSKU (will be mapped as Number), RingSize / Size (will be mapped as RingSize), and GiftWrap (will be mapped as GiftWrap). Details Here.
Additional item level options that can be set as variation or item metadata for:
- White Label MFG: Use ItemWeight to set item weight. Details Here.
Productivity
Additional integration settings are available for:
- Inventory Helper: Select Weekly Check Instead of Daily to schedule updates on a weekly basis instead of daily. Details Here.
New Integrations
Carts and Marketplaces: Brightpearl
Spotlight on…Preparing Your Store For Holiday Shoppers
Order Desk experiences a 20% increase is support tickets in Q4, so we know a lot about the trials and tribulations of running an ecommerce store during busy season. Here are some things to ask yourself as you prepare:
Have I confirmed fulfillment deadlines?
Each fulfillment partner is going to function differently when it comes to last order date to receive orders so that they arrive to the intended recipient by Christmas. Make sure you check on this in advance so you can let your customers know!
Do I know my fulfillment capacity?
If you’re a printer or supplier, make sure to set expectations for your customers. You don’t want to have more orders than you can fill!
For merchants, you may want to consider using safety levels in your Order Desk inventory to ensure you don’t oversell products and end up taking orders you can’t fill.
What about sales and bundles?
Everyone loves a good deal (you should see me going wild in the clearance section of my favorite websites grabbing gifts), so you might be changing prices and creating gift sets. Maybe you’re running a promotion where free gifts need to be added to your orders as they import to Order Desk. In this case, you might need to add some rules or use code_replace in your Order Desk inventory to create your bundles!
Switching Gears
Well, that’s it for us this month. Now that we’re talking Black Friday and holiday shopping, have you checked out our blog on Surviving Black Friday? It’s full of fantastic tips! Anything you don’t see there and want to ask about? You know where to find us (support@orderdesk.com).
See you next month,
Patricia and The Order Desk Team
