Princes Vintage: Despatch solutions for eBay seller
The Challenge
Princesvintage.com felt that eBay was a great platform for them to start their business. Picking lists and invoices were printed through the eBay Selling Manager Pro. The invoices would have the Royal Mail PPI included and would be attached to the parcel in a ‘documents enclosed’ wallet. A Royal Mail sticker would then be applied; dependent on what service had been selected. In theory the process worked, but there were areas for improvement. Firstly, the susceptibility to human error, attaching the wrong sticker to the parcel could result in a disappointed customer and unnecessary costs to the company. Secondly, there was the time element involved in processing each order. Thirdly, the costs associated with printing the labels, and using the document wallets. Lastly, the limitation of delivery options available Princesvintage.com were aware that they needed to look at increasing their delivery options to cater for their growing customer base.
The Solution
ChannelAdvisor advised Princesvintage.com to contact MetaPack, as they saw how MetaPack would benefit them. ChannelAdvisor are an ecommerce platform provider, with a large number of their customers using the MetaPack Delivery Management solution. Princesvintage.com is using the ‘Middleware’ software which fully integrates MetaPack and ChannelAdvisor, automatically transferring the delivery information between the two systems, therefore saving time and removing the opportunity for packing errors. By automatically allocating the goods to the service the customer has selected, the packer no longer has to determine what service to send the goods out on. MetaPack has saved additional time because it’s now produced on one label. Princesvintage.com has seen their costs come down. As they continue to grow, it’s very important for them to be able to offer their customers a high level of service, and are using MetaPack to increase their delivery options. For customer service, Princesvintage.com use MetaPack’s email functionality. An email is sent to the customer at the point of despatch advising them of their uniquetracking number and a link to the carrier’s tracking site. This enables them to offer a proactive service and saves them having to trawl through numerous folders to source the information.
"We use MetaPack, and I can’t sing its praises highly enough. The pressure on retailers to provide useful information to their customers is always growing, and MetaPack have provided the solution. As we add additional couriers, it’s easy to see how much of a time saver MetaPack can be. It also removes the chance of any errors at the pack bench as the most appropriate and cost effective service is automatically selected. When we have additional services to choose from this will prove even more beneficial. All in all, a great product that lives up to the hype, I have yet to come across anyone with a bad word to say.”
Sam Docker, Proprietor
