Q&A: How do you automate Endicia for postage printing?
QUESTION: You had mentioned that you use Endicia for its speed. I downloaded the trial program and found it slow-going. I open Amazon's pack slip page and print that to pull my orders with. While there, I copy the order number and address information and paste that into the MS Word label window and print that label on an Eltron direct thermal printer.My dilemma with Endicia is that when you have the pack slip page open you can cut and paste the address info into the address section in DAZzle, but until you have the book pulled and packed, you don't know the weight and postage amount.
With this being the case, my only option is to process a single order at a time. What am I doing wrong?
ANSWER: There's a couple of ways to do this faster. First, you can import your buyer names and addresses into DaZzle. (For this you'd need a database of your day's orders from your Pro-Merchant fulfillment report.) By typing the first few letters of the addressee, Dazzle will highlight that name and address. If you have a scale hooked up to your computer, you can let DaZzle grab the weight.
About a year ago I switched to a faster way of doing this, by building an XML file of my day's orders. I'd gotten the idea by seeing Endicia's Tarantula program, which can print your postage label and packing slip on one laser-printed integrated form. You peel off the label and slap it on the package, and the paper goes inside as the packing slip.
Unfortunately, using Tarantula requires an Endicia "professional" account, which costs $34.95 a month. I didn't want to pay that, so I rigged up my own way of generating an XML file using my order database and a Microsoft Word form letter as a stylesheet.
I have to manually input the weights of the books into my database, but most of my books are one or two pounds. Once I've got my XML file ready, I just tell Endicia to print it, and all my postage and packing slips are done by pressing one button.
Many of the third-party seller software enables automated postage printing, if you don't feel like rigging up your own system.
Here's Endicia's XML specifications.
And here some other advanced info on Endicia.
posted by Steve Weber at 10/19/2006
4 Comments:
So what are you saying is the best way to Mail Media mail?
Hi Steve,
I've made progress on my order processing with endicia. I have experience with application development and created a utility that starts with 2 download files from Amazon, the open listings report and the order fulfillment report.
The application opens those files, creates all of the pack slips which can be printed all at once. It also displays each order on a grid below the pack slips. By clicking on the grid to select an order, the address information is send to the 'clip board' where endicia automatically 'pastes' that address into the address section of DAZzle. All I need to do then is confirm the shipping speed and weight and click print.
So now, to process an order, I download the daily report (which I have Amazon set up to run every day automatically), open the program, click the import orders button, click print reports, pull all the books, package and weigh them (not sealing them yet), click on the grid for each order and click print on endicia. Then I just seal the envelope and stick on the label.
I don't have to go to Amazon to print each pack slip individually, I don't have to go back to get the address information and I don't have to manually enter address information either.
Endicia is definetly the way to go. I was using a postage meter before. The meter was $20 per month, the ink was $50 per month, the postage tapes were $100 per month where endicia is $15.95.
I use the direct thermal printer which you can get for under $50 on eBay. The 4X6" labels are also very inexpensive on eBay. Endica offers online Delivery Confirmation for .14 cents instead of .60 and it's free for Priority Mail. That saves me about $50 per month. Endicia also offers insurance at less than half the cost of the Post Office. They also have a postage log that tracks all of your shipments. Before, there was no way for me to be positive that I didn't mess up an order. Now I can go look and tell the person the day and time the package was shipped.
Endicia also has the 'stealth' mode for shipping cost. Many buyers get upset when they paid $3.49 for shipping on a small book that you send Media Mail for $1.59. Endicia in 'stealth' mode doesn't put the cost on the label.
It also looks way more professional.
Thanks Steve for pointing me in that direction.
Ben
Thanks for the comment, Ben. Sounds like you're pretty good with computers.
Cindy, the major thing with your mailing operation is just being able to avoid going to the Post Office window to mail your packages manually. Online postage enables you to do that. Plus, you have the added benefit of the electronic rate on Delivery Confirmation, and having all your tracking info right on your PC to answer customer inquiries.
If it wasn't for Endica, I probably would have spent at least a solid year of my life standing in line at the Post Office -- so far.
When you're at the point where you're mailing 25-75 packages a day, there's further ways to automate Endicia as discussed.
One major problem I have with electronic shipping are tracking problems. Sometimes my packages are never scanned into the mail stream. Recently I had to replace a book for a customer because it was not in the mail stream and the post office failed to deliver it after several weeks. What good is automated shipping if the postal employees won't scan packages into the system? The customer support people at USPS aren't really much help either. They are just lip service really. I wouldn't be suprised if postal employees occasionally enjoy a good book free of charge benefit of a friendly online bookseller. I still use Endicia because it saves alot of time, but the postal workers could definitely be a little more on the ball. Thanks for listening to my rant. :)
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