The Best POS System for Grocery Store Selling in 2023

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Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/best-pos-system-for-grocery-store

The best POS system for grocery store selling will allow you to manage transactions and track inventory more effectively in a brick-and-mortar store.

Today’s POS technology has grown increasingly impressive, making it easier to combine inventory management with customer loyalty, barcode scanning and of course, payment processing. However, it can be difficult for grocers and supermarkets to determine exactly what they need.

After all, a good point of sale system needs to combine a fantastic range of checkout features, with ease of use, and budget-friendly pricing.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the top POS solutions for grocery store selling, and why they’re so effective for your niche.

Our pick:

Shopify POS

Shopify POS logo

Features
10/10

Ease of use
9/10

Pricing
9/10

Hardware
10/10

Try Shopify POS

Shopify POS Review

Shopify Lite is an excellent choice for companies in search of the perfect way to combine online and offline selling. If you also have an online store for your grocery shop, then Shopify will allow you to extend your sales strategies easily.

Popular choice:

Square POS

Square POS logo

Features
10/10

Ease of use
10/10

Pricing
9/10

Hardware
10/10

Try Square POS

Square POS Review

Square POS is one of the better-known tools for companies in need of POS technology. Not only is it easy to use, but it’s brimming with great features to help you enhance your store. There are even in-depth analytics and loyalty programs available.

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What are the Best POS Systems for Grocery Stores?

Shopify POS Lite: Our Pick for Multi-Channel Selling

shopify pos - Best POS for Grocery Stores

It’s fair to say the world is changing. These days, even grocery stores can make more money by shifting some of their business operations online. If you’re looking for a way to align your retail POS system with an online store, then Shopify POS Lite could be ideal for you. It even comes built into your existing Shopify ecommerce package.

Features

Ease of use: Most business owners find Shopify extremely easy to use, with an intuitive backend and plenty of customer service options available for extra help.

Omnichannel sales: You can automate synchronization between your online and offline sales, inventory management, and more, to align all kinds of sales.

Integrations: Shopify has a range of add-ons for customer relationship management tools, marketing apps, and more, so you can extend your feature set.

Versatility: You’ll be able to offer everything from online ordering, to click and collect, and customized reward program options.

Hardware

Shopify makes it easy to find all the hardware solutions you need, from simple card readers that will cost around $49, to powerful all-in-one retail system bundles, starting at around $149. There are also various receipt printers and other tools available.

Pricing

You will need to purchase a paid Shopify ecommerce plan to access Shopify POS Lite. The simplest option starts with Shopify Lite at $9 per month. There’s also basic Shopify at $29 per month, standard Shopify at $79 and Advanced at $299 per month. Payment processing starts at 2.2%.

Pros:

Excellent back-end management tools: Keep track of everything from employees to customer relationships in the same place.

Versatility: Shopify can evolve and flex with your grocery store, with a range of add-ons and plugins to choose from.

Ease of use: Most people find Shopify very convenient and easy to use.

Cons:

Requires a Shopify plan: You will need to have a Shopify monthly plan.

Best for

If you already have an online presence with Shopify, or you want to take your grocery store online, Shopify could be the ideal pick.

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Square POS – Popular choice

square pos - Best POS for Grocery Stores

Although there are plenty of POS hardware and software vendors out there, few have the same reputation as Square POS. This could be the right POS for you if you’re looking for an endless range of tools to enhance your business, from mobile POS apps to sales reports, and a wide range of payment options for customers.

Features

Ecommerce: Square allows users to sell online and offline at the same time with a free online store builder, and automatic inventory syncing.

Management: There are a range of management tools for tracking everything from refunds to customer profiles and employee performance.

Analytics: You’ll be able to keep a close eye on your grocery store’s growth with insightful reports and analytics.

Hardware

Square has no shortage of great hardware options to choose from, starting with simple Square readers, and extending to complex register systems costing around $799. You can also buy full packages of hardware which include front-facing screens, cash drawers and receipt printers.

Pricing

The good news is there’s no monthly cost for Square POS, unless you’re using one of the advanced packages like Square for Restaurants. However, there are extra fees for things like Loyalty Program access. Transaction fees start at around 1.75% for chip-and-pin payments, or you’ll pay around 2.5% for purchase orders.

Pros:

Specialization: There are specialist toolkits available for restaurants, retail stores, and other kinds of businesses.

Affordable: Square offers a wide range of hardware and software package options to suit a variety of budgets.

Management: It’s easy to manage all kinds of employee teams, and customer profiles in the same place, to keep your business running smoothly.

Cons:

Scalability: Square does have some limitations for larger companies.

Support: The customer support isn’t always reliable

Best for

Square is an excellent choice if you’re looking to build your entire online and offline presence from scratch.

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Clover POS – Best for Small Businesses

clover pos - Best POS for Grocery Stores

If you’re looking for a POS solution capable of offering a wide range of capabilities for a low budget, Clover POS could be ideal for you. This flexible and versatile tool can integrate with a range of existing systems in your tech stack, including QuickBooks for accounting.

Features

Omnichannel selling: Clover will allow you to sell offline and online, and sync your inventory and payment reports in the same place.

Unique features: There are various simple, but unique features in the Clover app, such as gratuity and tipping options.

Payment methods: You can take payments from customers in a range of ways, using everything from mobile wallets and NFTs, to gift cards.

Hardware

Hardware options are relatively straightforward with Clover, starting with a convenient handheld solution at $99 – the “Clover Go.” You can also access various bundle options, such as the Mini POS, for access to all the tools you need to run a grocery store at around $749.

Pricing

You’ll need to contact Clover’s service team to get an accurate price for your hardware and software needs. However, you can expect to pay a transaction fee of around 2.3% plus 10 cents. The amount of hardware and bonus features you need will determine how much you spend.

Pros:

Great for beginners: You don’t need a lot of prior knowledge to get started.

Integrations: You can easily integrate Clover with existing tools.

Reporting: Useful reports and insights help you grow your business.

Cons:

Setup: The initial setup can be a little complex

Pricing: The pricing can get quite high for some grocery stores.

Best for

Clover is custom-made for fast-paced service-based businesses, grocery stores, and smaller retail stores looking to grow.

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Lightspeed POS

Lightspeed POS - Best POS for Grocery Stores

One of the top small business POS solutions on the market, Lightspeed is brimming with useful features to help grocery stores succeed. This mobile-first solution to business operations will allow you to stay agile when you’re serving all kinds of customers. There’s also plenty of back-end insights available to help you make better business decisions.

Features

Reports and insights: Your point of sale software will make it easy to track performance, customer preferences and more, so you can make better business decisions.

Omnichannel selling: With access to a built-in ecommerce platform, you’ll be able to start an online store too.

Marketing: In-built marketing integrations for tools like Google Ads improve your chances of getting your grocery store in front of the right people.

Hardware

For POS hardware, Lightspeed offers an iPad and desktop kit, with a scanner, printer, and cash drawer. You can also purchase each device individually by reaching out to the team. Lightspeed doesn’t offer transparent pricing on its website.

Pricing

You should save a decent amount of money on your POS solution if you purchase Lightspeed subscriptions on an annual basis. To access Ecommerce, you’ll need at least the Standard plan for $99 per month. The Advanced plan is $169 per month, and the Pro plan is $229 per month.

Pros:

Customer service: Customer service and support from Lightspeed is great, with quick onboarding, guidance, and support for all kinds of users.

Insights: You can collect meaningful insights about your grocery store’s growth.

Flexibility: There are plenty of payment options and ways to grow your business.

Cons:

Operating system: You will need an Apple system to use Lightspeed

Pricing: Prices for hardware aren’t transparent

Best for

Lightspeed is great for business owners looking for advanced features to facilitate growth, but you will need an Apple system.

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Revel POS

Revel POS - Best POS for Grocery Stores

Revel POS is one of the top POS solutions available today. If you want to transform your iPad into a POS terminal, and access exceptional ease of use, this could be the product for you. From your iPad touchscreen, you’ll be able to streamline everything from inventory tracking to employee management in one place.

Features

Insights: A unified cloud-based system makes it easy to keep track of important information with your POS software, like employee productivity or hourly sales.

Management: You can manage your inventory and track customer relationships in the same place without the need for add-ons.

Self-service: Alongside standard hardware options like a barcode scanner, you can also turn your iPad into a front-facing contactless service portal.

Hardware

Revel POS offers access to a range of hardware options for cashiers. You can do everything from an iPad, minimizing the need for expensive additional tools. And there are options to integrate with other tools if necessary.

Pricing

You’ll pay a flat fee for payment processing with Revel POS, which you can find by contacting the company. There’s a monthly fee of $99 for POS software, and an onboarding and implementation fee of around $674.

Pros:

Insights: You’ll be able to track all kinds of employee information for boosting loyalty and improving your chances of repeat purchase.

User-friendly: Access everything you need from the comfort of an easy-to-use iPad

Management: lots of management tools are included for tracking inventory and employees.

Cons:

Monthly fee: The monthly cost can be expensive for some grocery stores

Best for

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to set up your POS solution with minimal hardware, this could be the tool for you.

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What to Look for in a Grocery Store POS

As mentioned above, grocers need a range of important features to run their grocery stores correctly. A good point of sale system should be intuitive and convenient, capable of taking multiple payments from credit cards, debit cards, and other transactional tools.

At the same time, it’s also worth looking for something that’s easy to use and convenient. Tools with their own iPad, iOS, or Android app are excellent for accessing useful features on the move. Just some of the points you’ll need to consider when choosing your POS include:

Payment processing: It’s worth making sure you can manage all kinds of payments, from contactless phone-based transactions, to swipe, and chip-and-pin payments.

Customer management: Customer management tools help you collect information about your target audience so you can build loyalty and relationships over time.

Ecommerce: An ecommerce connection means you can use your POS solution for online selling and offline transactions at the same time.

Inventory and employee management: Inventory and employee management tools will help business owners to keep track of what’s going on in the back office.

Hardware options: You’ll likely need a range of hardware options for the checkout process, including a cash drawer, card reader, cash register, and more.

Integrations: Make sure your POS can also integrate with other valuable tools like inventory tracking systems, and CRM technology.

Analytics: The more you can track about the checkout process, customer experience, and employee performance, the more you can make intelligent business decisions.

Security: Make sure the POS you choose keeps information secure, and that your point of sale software is compliant with local standards.

Keep in mind, your needs may evolve over time as your grocery store grows. Think about the features you’ll need from your point of sale software both now and in the future.

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Choosing the best grocery store POS systems

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to choosing the best grocery store POS system. The right option for you will depend on what you want to accomplish. For instance, if you want to align your online and offline sales, then Shopify is a great way to synchronize your grocery store business.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for amazing insights and marketing tools, Lightspeed can help you to scale your business faster. Good luck finding the POS that’s right for you.

The post The Best POS System for Grocery Store Selling in 2023 appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

Top Front-End Tools Of 2022

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Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2023/01/top-frontend-tools-2022/

Over the past 12 months, we continue to see new free and open-source projects shared around the developer community. In my newsletter, Web Tools Weekly, I feature more than two dozen tools every week. As I do every year, I’ve gone through the numbers and put together what were the most popular tools according to my readers.

Some of these tools are interesting in a curious kind of way, but almost all of them are practical tools you can use in your projects today. Enjoy!

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WebGi Camera Landing Page

WebGi Camera Landing Page is a landing page template that uses GSAP, ScrollTrigger, and WebGI engine to create beautiful animated, scrollable one-page sites. The example website is impressive! It’s a mock Canon camera website with big graphics and animation.

Due to the potential for performance problems, this is obviously not for every kind of website. But it’s an option to consider if you want something bold and eye-catching.

CSS Fingerprint

Over the past few years, the concept of tracking users via nothing but CSS has been covered a lot. You can search the web for various articles on the topic, but CSS Fingerprint is somewhat of an all-in-one resource on the subject.

You can agree to visit a test page where you can view your own “CSS fingerprint” and the associated GitHub repo has a little more technical info.

PostSrc Tailwind Components

Component libraries are always popular and anything associated with Tailwind tends to do well. PostSrc Tailwind Components includes more than 50 components divided into more than a dozen categories.

Includes components for UI elements like alerts, badges, buttons, breadcrumb navs, cards, CTAs, charts, forms, and more.

Almond.CSS

Almond.CSS is the first of three “class-less” CSS frameworks that made this year’s list. Even with the popularity of utility libraries like Tailwind, it’s interesting to see these kinds of projects do so well.

These libraries work similarly to a CSS reset or normalizer, but are a little more opinionated in terms of applied styles.

Piling.js

Piling.js is a JavaScript library that allows you to build interfaces where large amounts of items can be dragged and dropped into “piles”.

It’s built on top of PixiJS, a 2D WebGL renderer and the demos allow you to easily customize the number of items on a page along with a number of other settings and configurations.

Virgo

Virgo is a free HTML template from the folks at CodyHouse. It’s compatible with CodyHouse’s own framework and Tailwind and doesn’t have any third-party dependencies out-of-the-box.

Although it’s described as a “landing page template”, it includes six pages and can be used freely in any project with some minor restrictions.

Onion

Onion is a utility based on the most popular article on my personal blog. In that piece, I discuss a potential solution for animating “display: none” to “display:block” in CSS, which isn’t technically possible.

My solution uses a little bit of JavaScript to mimic the effect. This project, built by Parkle Lee, encapsulates the code from that article into an easy-to-use JavaScript utility.

MingCute

I probably come across at least 20 new icon libraries every year. MingCute is one of those and it seemed to gain traction due to its promise of simplicity and the sheer number of available icons.

It currently includes 1,800 icons in SVG or PNG formats and the website allows you to add icons to a live “collection” after which you can download all your selections at once.

Lightning Builder

Lightning Builder is a free website mockup and wireframes builder that includes galleries of common components you can choose from. It requires signing up if you want to save your project and design multiple pages.

The builder boasts hundreds of components that can be customized and the entire experience of the builder’s UI is fairly smooth.

Scroll Btween

Scroll Btween is sort of like a cross between an animation library and a parallax script. It allows you to ‘tween’ any CSS value for any element on the page relative to its position in the viewport.

There are lots of demos you can try out showing a diverse number of ways you can utilize it in your projects.

Text Cleaner

Text Cleaner is an all-in-one text formatting tool that lets you deal with whitespace and special characters using various settings.

Paste in your text, then choose what you’d like to do — remove leading and trailing space, replace tabs with spaces, convert multiple spaces to single, remove non-ASCII characters, strip emojis, and lots more.

uiverse

uiverse is a repository of community-built HTML and CSS components, free for personal and commercial use.

It currently includes more than 640 components in various categories including buttons, custom checkboxes, toggles, cards, loading animations, and inputs.

Fonoster

Fonoster is an open-source alternative to Twilio, the popular communication API platform.

Fonoster also has its own pricing plan, with a modest free tier, but because it’s open-source, you have the option to host it yourself with no extra cost outside of your own infrastructure.

Zag

Zag is a library of framework-agnostic UI components that currently houses 20+ interactive components including a popover, slider, accordion, combobox, and lots more.

Each of the components can be easily integrated with React, Vue, or Solid.js, with info in the docs on how you can deal with each framework.

Allinone.tools

Allinone.tools is probably one of the largest collections of online utilities that I’ve come across. This includes tools for image manipulation and conversion, PDF tools, various text and list formatting options, CSS and JS minifiers and beautifiers, and lots more.

It also includes tools for carrying out various encryption-related tasks like encoding, decoding, decrypting, and so forth.

Martian Mono

Martian Mono is the only font that made this list, and it’s a nice one. It’s a monospaced version of another font called Martian Grotesk, hence it’s useful for coders.

This one consists of a variable font and 28 styles ranging from condensed to semi-wide and thin to extra-bold.

AnimatiSS

AnimatiSS is a collection of unique CSS animations, similar to other popular animation libraries that allow you to add animations to elements on the page using a class name.

This library includes animations under 10 style categories and you even adjust the duration of each one directly on the page.

HTMLShell

HTMLShell is a simple tool you can use for generating a copy-and-paste customized HTML template for a landing page or other project. The tool includes a number of toggles that allow you to add or remove various elements in the <head> section.

For example, you can include or exclude a CSS reset, Twitter social cards, viewport meta tag, Google Analytics, and lots more.

Formation

Formation is a React and TypeScript-based library of 20+ components that feature accessible features like focus management and color contrast out-of-the-box.

The collection includes buttons, cards, modals, overlays, spinners, toast notifications, tooltips, and lots more.

Vanta.js

Vanta.js is a JavaScript library that produces WebGL-based effects that are cool to look at but should rarely be used, if ever, due to potential performance problems. This tool allows you to create custom animated backgrounds with a few lines of code.

The website allows you to customize different background effects directly on the page using an interactive sidebar, after which you can grab the code.

Kumiko Creator

Kumiko Creator made the list this year probably mostly due to curiosity clicks rather than practicality. This online generator allows you to upload your own photo to convert it to generate customized kumiko patterns.

As the site explains, the term “kumiko” refers to “an ancient Japanese woodworking technique, which involves slotting together many tiny pieces into a lattice.”

Atomico

Atomico is a micro-library for creating UI components, similar to projects like React and Vue, with a React-inspired syntax. It’s compatible with those libraries as well as Svelte and Angular.

The library has scored high on performance tests, uses virtual DOM, props, hooks, and more making it an easy solution to transition to if you’re already familiar with other popular solutions.

mmmotif

mmmotif is one of the many useful online generators created by Sébastien Noël. This one allows you to create and customize SVG-based 3D-like isomorphic patterns for use as backgrounds.

The generator allows you to select a base shape for the background, after which you can adjust angle, scale, skew, and the position of the repeated pattern.

DevToys

DevToys is a native offline Windows app that’s a “Swiss army knife” for developers. It includes 20+ tools are useful for various development-related tasks.

There are decoders, encoders, converters, hash generation, text diffing, and much more.

mediaquery.style

mediaquery.style is a simple little online code resource for quickly copying and pasting the most commonly used CSS media query snippets.

The website allows you to grab code for mobile first media queries, range queries, light/dark, reduced-motion, hover/pointer, orientation, and print.

Lyra

Lyra is an open-source, dependency-free, full-featured full-text search engine for your site that can run in any JavaScript runtime including the browser, server, React Native, and more. It’s written in TypeScript and boasts strong performance in comparison to its competitors.

You can try it out directly on the page, which has enabled movie search engine on the page that allows you to search for recent film titles.

W3.CSS

W3.CSS is one of the few tools on this list that isn’t actually new. Apparently it’s been around in some form since 2015 but I only discovered it this past year. It’s a modern, responsive, mobile-first CSS framework similar to Bootstrap, made by the team at W3Schools.

Although W3Schools has received criticism over the years, they remain a popular resource for web developers and everyone seems to love their easy-to-digest documentation. This framework is also well document and includes 50+ components and various tools and utilities.

Animatize

Animatize is a unique interactive animation builder that allows you to create simple CSS animations by dragging your mouse over a scene on the page.

Upload a background along with a character image, then drag the character over the background to define your animation. The site will generate the CSS code for you using data URIs for the images.

MetaliCSS

MetaliCSS is a JavaScript library that allows you to add a sleek CSS-based metallic look to elements on the page.

After adding the library, use the class metallicss after which you can make any customizations directly in the CSS using three custom properties.

Paper Prototype CSS

Paper Prototype CSS is CSS framework that mimics paper prototyping, sort of like a handdrawn look but a little more ransom-note-ish, with the help of two informal-looking free fonts.

It’s inspired by other hand-drawn CSS frameworks and the home page shows you all the HTML elements in the Paper Prototype style so you can see how they each look.

Ava Maker

Custom avatars always seem to be a popular trend. Ava Maker is an avatar generator that allows you to choose from a variety of styles to build your own custom avatar.

You can customize the hair, skin color, eyebrows, eyes, mouth, clothing, and more, before exporting the SVG or PNG file.

HopeUI

HopeUI is a production-ready open-source admin dashboard based on Bootstrap 5. You can choose a version for Vue, React, Laravel, Tailwind, Figma, and more.

It offers 400+ components, 60+ menu styles, 20+ special plugins, and includes light/dark modes and RTL support.

Amigo CSS

Amigo CSS is described as a “simple, custom-first and intuitive CSS framework” that’s tailored for beginners, building on some of the ideas present in other frameworks.

The framework encourages a custom class (which isn’t required) along with up to a maximum of seven utility classes per element. For the full details, check out the philosophy section of the website.

Hibiki HTML

Hibiki HTML is an HTML-friendly JavaScript framework geared towards all levels of JavaScript developers and doesn’t require any boilerplate setup, scaffolding, build tools, and so on.

The main website includes an interactive tutorial and playground you can use to get accustomed to the syntax. Hibiki’s features are based around the use of the HTML <template> element, with concepts similar to popular libraries like Turbo and Hotwire.

Stylo

Rich text editors that you can embed in a page or app are plenty and Stylo is the one in this category that made this year’s list. It has no dependencies, is framework agnostic, and can be customized to your app’s needs.

Try it out live on the page, it works smoothly and seems to be very user friendly.

CSS.GUI

CSS.GUI is a free visual tool that’s CSS-based, to help you build components that you can export as HTML/CSS code.

You can do just about anything you can do with raw CSS, including adding pseudo-elements, and you also get a tree view of the page’s HTML that allows you to easily select elements before customizing them.

Simple.css

Simple.css is yet another option for a classless CSS framework that provides an attractive starting point for your HTML elements.

Similar to other classless frameworks, this one’s goal is to go beyond merely a reset or normalizer. It makes your elements look good by default without adding any extra bloat associated with larger frameworks.

Reasonable Colors

Reasonable Colors is open-source color system for building color palettes that are both accessible and attractive. This means you get high-contrast combinations that are designer-friendly.

Select a color, after which you can choose your colors from the shades included for each. Choosing accessible colors is possible as long as there is a shade difference of 2 between the selections.

PlainAdmin

PlainAdmin is a Bootstrap 5 admin dashboard template that includes 100+ UI components and 15+ HTML pages.

There’s also a paid version with more components and features but the free version alone is a decent starting point for a solid dashboard template.

Meshy

Meshy is a “mesh” gradient generator that includes a gallery of predefined mesh gradients, along with the ability to customize any of the gradient options. You can also randomize the “meshing” effect for any of the selected gradients, each of which uses 4 colors.

Any of the gradients can be downloaded in PNG format and the file can be sized to up to 3000x3000px for high resolution exports.

Bunny Fonts

Bunny Fonts is a platform of open-source fonts that works as a drop-in replacement for Google Fonts. It has the same API format but with a focus on privacy and being GDPR-friendly.

The site works similarly to the Google Fonts UI and it currently includes over 1,400 fonts, about the same as the number available on Google Fonts.

Stylify

Stylify is a library that generates optimized CSS based on syntax that’s identical to real CSS.

The idea here is that your “classes” are actually CSS property/value pairs, then the library will generate the equivalent styles. This way you don’t have to learn the syntax of the framework, you simply use regular CSS.

Wanda

Wanda is a design system from the team at Wonderflow that includes 40+ components along with a gallery of 360+ vector symbols.

The Wanda system has a focus on accessibility and the concept of form follows function. Both of these contribute to a set of UI components that are usable and accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

Symbols to Copy

Symbols to Copy is a one-stop resource of copy/paste symbols to include in your websites, apps, or documentation.

Includes arrows, currency symbols, fractions, Latin and Greek letters, Math symbols, punctuation and more. I also like that you can click any symbol to get the full code info including Unicode, HTML entity, and more.

Open UI

Open UI isn’t exactly a framework but an industry standard set of guidelines to define how developers can style and extend built-in web UI controls, such as checkboxes, radio buttons, select dropdowns, and so on.

The idea behind the project is to create initiatives that help developers avoid having to reinvent the wheel in the library and framework space, but instead to encourage these components to move to universal standards that everyone can benefit from.

California Design System

The California Design System is a resource for developers and designers building digital products in the state of California, in the U.S.A.

The design system includes principles, style guides, and components with guidelines on use, all for the benefit of filling the needs of customer-facing state websites in California.

Bamboo CSS

Bamboo CSS is yet another option for a classless CSS framework. This one’s source code is written in SCSS and also borrows from a few CSS normalizers.

It includes support for light and dark themes based on user OS settings and includes a small set of CSS variables that you can use for theming, if needed.

IT Tools

IT Tools is another all-in-one resource that includes dozens of tools and utilities useful for web developers and programmers.

This one includes crypto-based tools, conversion tools, miscellaneous web tools, image tools, and text tools. All the tools in this one are well-designed and easy to use.

Qwik

Qwik is described as an “HTML-first” framework with performance at its core due to a small JavaScript footprint and on-demand component loading.

The docs include links to production sites built with the framework that have high page performance scores, demonstrating the real-world benefits.

Siimple

Siimple is a CSS toolkit, or framework, that includes lots of modules, components, and helpers. The components come with a default minimal design that can easily be customized.

The name is based on its simplicity of use by means of official presets and the ability to easily customize colors, fonts, sizes, design accents, and lots more.

Lorem Faces

Lorem Faces is a gallery of free AI-generated photos of people that you can use for mockups and as design placeholders.

You can choose square, rounded, or circular photos and color, greyscale, or sepia for the image’s tone.

HTTP Status Dogs

HTTP Status Dogs is a gallery of HTTP status codes each matched with an appropriate dog photo. You can use these for your own site or apps status messages if you like.

There have been similar projects like this one in the past, but this one includes a few more status codes and many of the matching photos are quite humourous!

Clay.css

Clay.css is a CSS utility for adding a claymorphism style to page elements. This is definitely not going to be used on many projects, but the effect is nice and might come in handy in a children’s project or something else that requires a fun and informal look.

You can include and customize the styles using a utility class, CSS variables, or by means of a Sass mixin.

john-doe

john-doe is a concept for a one-page website that was first put out in late 2020, but I only came across it this past year. The idea behind this one is the use of CSS’s :target pseudo-class, which allows you to display different page content based on hash URLs (e.g. #home, #about, #contact, etc) and IDs on page elements.

The only drawback to this method is the fact that search engines generally don’t recognize hash-based URL changes as separate pages. So this is a novelty-type thing that you probably wouldn’t use on anything important.

Mdash

Mdash is a UI library of components that’s 100% standards-based. The components are all based on HTML and Custom Elements and thus can work along with any web framework.

Many of the components are simply pure HTML with some sensible defaults, while others are a little more interactive depending on the component.

Preline UI

Preline UI is an open-source set of ready-to-use components built on Tailwind CSS. It’s a huge collection of more than 250 components compatible with React and Vue or a plain HTML + Tailwind project.

All components include dark mode and there are base components (buttons, lists, etc.), navigation components, form components, overlays, and tables. All components are beautifully designed and the docs are quite extensive in demonstrating the different ways the components can be used.

UI Buttons

UI Buttons is a unique collection of 100 buttons that feature styles and hover effects you may not have seen elsewhere.

The CSS for each button is easy to grab and you can easily customize the colors and overall look while maintaining the interactive effects.

AgnosticUI

AgnosticUI is a set of framework-agnostic UI components that work in React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and vanilla JavaScript.

The components allow customization and theming via CSS custom properties and include about 30 common UI patterns along with guidelines for use in the different frameworks or as pure CSS.

TimelineJS

TimelineJS is an open-source JavaScript library and spreadsheet tool that allows you to embed an interactive timeline component on a web page.

You can build the timeline based on data from a Google Sheet template that the site provides, then you can generate the timeline by entering the URL to your sheet. There’s also the option to use JSON as the data source, which would be more privacy-friendly.

JSON Crack

And finally, JSON Crack was the most popular tool of year according to the unique click stats in my newsletter. This was originally referred to as “JSON Visio” and it’s a visualization tool and formatter for your JSON data.

Paste your data into the editor and the tool will display it in an easy-to-read flowchart format that you can customize or even embed on your own pages. There’s a search feature to find data in large files and there’s an associated VS Code extension.

What Was Your Favourite Tool of 2022?

I hope you enjoyed this list of the most popular tools of the past year! While you may not be able to use all of these in your projects today, maybe these will inspire you to build something yourself in 2023. This certainly gives us a good idea of the kinds of things developers today are looking for.

I’m always on the lookout for the latest in tools for front-end developers, so feel free to post your favourites in the comments and you can subscribe to my newsletter if you want to keep up with the latest every week!

An In-Depth ShippingEasy Review: What This Shipping Solution Has to Offer

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Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/ecommerce-selling-advice/shippingeasy-review

Have you come across ShippingEasy before? If not, never fear because you’re in the right place. This ShippingEasy review will explain everything you need about this platform. So, hopefully, by the end of this blog post, you’ll have a better idea of whether this solution meets the shipping needs of your business.

Does that sound good to you? Fab. Let’s dive straight in!

ShippingEasy Review: What is ShippingEasy?

shippingeasy review

If you haven’t gathered from ShippingEasy’s name, ShippingEasy is a shipping platform (Duh!). Their mission is to make your order fulfillment process more manageable by automating as much of the procedure as possible.

ShippingEasy is an all-one order management and fulfillment solution. Since 2016, they’ve been a subsidiary of Stamps.com, one of the leading online postage services. This solution is a software-as-a-service delivered as a web-based app. Headquartered in Austin, TX, ShippingEasy truly excels in streamlining your shipping operations.

The software automatically downloads orders from your store and maps out your shipping preferences, rates, and delivery options using real-time rates from well-known couriers. Moreover, since ShippingEasy partners with USPS, FedEx, and other shipping providers, you benefit from cheaper pre-negotiated rates at as much as a 86% discount!

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So, How Does ShippingEasy Work?

Setting Up

Once you’ve connected your store with ShippingEasy, ShippingEasy automatically downloads your orders and recommends the best carrier service based on the weight of the package and destination. At this point, it will also validate the shipping address and alert you of any issues.

You can also have ShipingEasy automate carrier selection based on shipping rules you’ve set or your “previous selection:”

Shipping rules: This is the primary way to automate your orders with ShippingEasy. You can create a shipping rule from scratch by defining conditions for processing your orders. These rules generally const of two parts – IF and THEN statements. You can create multiple rules of varying complexity that decide how orders are imported, labeled, and shipped. 

Shipping Presets: You can also use shipping rules to apply pre-defined configurations and carrier options to your orders automatically. ShippingEasy has 13 pre-configured shipping presets that cover international and domestic shipping. These process orders by weight, packaging, and service class (i.e., first class or priority mail)

Previous Selection: Alternatively, if you had a similar order before, ShippingEasy will remember what settings you used in the past and automatically use the same carrier.

Ready to Ship

Once you’ve selected your preferred carrier and programmed your shipping settings, you can use a bulk filter tool called ‘rate quote’ to generate a quote for all your order labels. Then, if you’re happy with the quote, you can buy your shipping labels. These are ready to print from the get-go. Then, once you’ve purchased these labels, it triggers the corresponding outstanding orders to move to the ready-to-ship page. 

Alternatively, you can use barcode scanning to generate and print your labels. To do this, go into your ShippingEasy settings and change your picklist format into barcodes. This will convert any order variables (like your store, shipment, or recipient info) into a scannable barcode. Then you can manually send orders to the ready-to-ship page by hitting ‘create shipments’ on the orders page tab. You can also bundle similar orders and send them to ready-to-ship as one batch.

Before processing your orders, you’ll have a chance to make any changes to the ready-to-ship page. For example, you can add insurance, add return options, and save settings for future orders. Once saved, you can send the labels directly to your printer or select ‘print later.’ This will automatically move your order from the ready-to-ship page to the ready-to-print page.

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ShippingEasy Review: Pros and Cons

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Top-notch customer service – several users complement ShippingEasy’s customer support representatives, describing them as helpful, friendly, and very fast to get back to you.
You only need access to a web browser and an internet connection to access ShippingEasy’s platform.
It’s intuitive to use
ShippingEasy’s automation functionality saves you tons of time, reduces the likelihood of human error, and speeds up the entire shipping process.
The access to Commercial rates with USPS is a huge perk!
ShippingEasy boasts excellent reporting features.

Cons 👎

ShippingEasy’s interface doesn’t adapt to the size of all browser windows.
There are a few reports of billing after cancellation: Some users who canceled their ShippingEasy subscription were still billed monthly.
Some customers say that a few of ShippingEasy’s features need improvement. Namely, speeding up the data entry process and that they could improve the customization of their packing slips.

But to be fair to ShippingEasy, they pride themselves on having a very active feature requests page. This allows them to tackle issues before they become more significant problems.

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Features Overview

ShippingEasy has an easy-to-use dashboard with helpful instructions that pop up when you hover over different buttons and features. You can manage your product catalog, reporting, and analytics from here. 

But before we get into these, here’s a brief overview of the features included in all of ShippingEasy’s paid-for plans:

Alexa Skill: If you own an Amazon Echo device, you can use Amazon Skill to play your order info aloud, send shipping labels to the printer, find out how many orders need to be fulfilled, ask for shipping insights, etc., all via voice command.

A free Stamps.com account

Multi-channel synchronization: You can manage orders from all sales channels in real-time.

Automatic and branded confirmation emails (complete with tracking info).

A shipping calculator: View real-time rates and services from multiple carriers

Batch-print shipping labels

Custom forms for international shipments

You can send scan-based return labels and/or send return labels upon request.

Access to discounted shipping insurance

When an order’s placed, you can print shipping labels automatically.

Create custom integrations with an API.

Integration with ConnectEasy to print labels, packaging slips, and pickup lists directly from your printer.

Easily upload orders via a CSV file.

Create custom shipping rules to automate order management.

Access to the ShippingEasy marketing add-on.

Product Catalog 

It used to be the case that users could access ShippingEasy’s inventory management software as part of their subscription package. This allowed users to manage the stock levels of individual products. For example, you could keep your inventory up to date based on customer orders and incoming products and create purchase order slips in advance.

However, at the time of writing, inventory management features are no longer open to new subscribers. Instead, you can now use their product catalog page. This dashboard section provides a comprehensive overview of all the products you sell, which have been added, synced, and updated from your selling platform. More specifically, ShippingEasy compiles the following product data:

The item name

SKU

Product weight

Image

Declared value,

But you can also manually update the product data information to ensure you apply the best shipping rules.

Tracking and Returns

ShippingEasy pulls tracking information for you and your customers directly from the carrier. This usually means you’ll receive automated real-time delivery status updates that tell you if your package is early, late, in transit, etc.

You can also program your return settings. For example, most shipping providers offer pay-on-use return labels that you can attach to outbound orders, so customers can return them if needed. But you can also generate post-shipping return labels and send them to customers at your discretion.

Customer Marketing Add-On

Previously, users needed a separate subscription to use ShippingEasy’s marketing tools. However, they’ve since changed this so that you can access marketing features as standard (up to a certain point):

Email campaigns: ShippingEasy has a drag-and-drop editor for creating and customizing emails. You can use pre-built templates designed to welcome, recommend products, request reviews, send newsletters, and more. You can personalize these emails with your brand’s logo, colors, and style in just a few clicks.

Segmentation: You can divide your contact list to target users with specific emails based on their location, purchase history, device, and more. 

Branded customer portal: You can set up a branded tracking page with your logo, colors, and style. Here customers can check their order status while still feeling connected to your brand.

Signup forms: This feature provides a dedicated and fully hosted signup page that can be inserted directly onto your storefront or shared via social media. The form is automatically branded with your logo and users who signup get immediately added to your contact list.

The number of emails you can send is limited by the number of credits allotted to your chosen pricing plan (more on these below). For instance, the free and Starter programs let you send 50,000 emails a month. However, you can buy more credits starting at $14 a month. Each credit counts for one attempted email sent. 

However, while ShippingEasy users can access the customer marketing tools listed here, you can’t send a campaign to their contacts unless you actually purchase the Customer Marketing add-on. 

Analytics and Reporting

ShippingEasy offers advanced insights and real-time data about your customers, shipping, and orders. You can create custom shipping reports based on the following:

Shipping locations

Carriers 

Order total

Date

Order status

…And much more.

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ShippingEasy Review: Integrations

shippingeasy review

One of the overwhelming benefits of ShippingEasy is its massive range of integrations. For starters, you can connect with all the major online marketplaces and eCommerce platforms to synchronize and manage your orders seamlessly. There are also integrations for accounting, inventory, and enterprise-level resource management. 

Below we’ve listed some of ShippingEasy’s most popular integrations:

For eCommerce – Shopify, WooComemrce, Magento, BigCommerce, Squarespace.

For accounting – Xero, Webgility, ADS

Marketplaces – Etsy,eBay, Amazon, Walmart, Sears

This is a condensed list. There are tons of other ShippingEasy integrations, but we won’t bore you with them here. In addition, ShippingEasy also provides an API, so you can build customized integrations to connect with whatever other software you use to run your business.

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ShippingEasy Review: Customer Service

shippingeasy review

ShippingEasy‘s customer support is second to none – there’s quite a lot to cover here, so we’ve given it its own section.

As you’ll soon see when we start talking about pricing, the level of support you’re entitled to vary. This hinges on the paid-for plan you’ve opted for. With the free program, you only get access to the knowledge base and community forum. As such, you can’t access any form of personal support (Email, live chat, etc.)

But never fear; the amount and the quality of their online documentation are astounding. More often than not, once you’ve consulted with this resource, you won’t need to contact the support staff. But, if you do, and you’ve subscribed to a paid-for subscription, users say ShippingEasy provides timely and helpful responses.

Other than ShippingEasy’s support center, here’s a list of their other customer service channels:

Shipping resources: This does what it says on the tin. You’ll find all the info you need about shipping rate changes, tables, international shipping, etc.

Community forum: Here, you can post your questions or browse through issues already posted and solved by other users.

Share feedback: Click this to report a bug or request a feature.

Blog: This is where ShippingEasy posts about its product updates. You’ll also find many articles with handy hacks on conducting efficient and cost-effective shipping.

Contact customer support agents: You can connect with their customer support staff Monday through Friday, from 8 AM to 6 PM CST, via phone, email, or live chat.

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ShippingEasy Review: Pricing 

shippingeasy review

Though ShippingEasy has a 30-day free trial, you can just as easily make use of their free plan as listed below:

Free (Starter) – $0 a month for up to 25 shipments/per month

This plan is ideal for new merchants and small businesses that want access to reasonable shipping rates. You’ll get access to the following:

Discounted USPS and UPS shipping rates and exclusive flat rates

Automatic order imports from three stores or marketplaces

Access to a ConnectEasy integration

You can set shipping rules and trigger automations

Support via help center, blog, and community forum

Growth – $19.99 a month for up to 200 shipments/per month

With this paid plan you get everything above, plus: 

Automatic order imports from an unlimited number of marketplaces and online stores

CSV uploads

The ability to put your brand’s logo on shipping labels and brand your customer portal

Access to support via phone, email, or live chat

Business analytics and reporting

The next few plans are essentially the same as the Growth plan; the only salient difference is the number of orders you can process per month:

Basic – $29 a month for up to 500 shipments/per month

Plus – $49 a month for up to 1500 shipments/per month

Select – $69 a month for up to 3000 shipments/per month

Premium – $99 a month for up to 6000 shipments/per month

Enterprise – $159 a month for up to 10’000 shipments/per month

It’s only when we hit the enterprise plan that you unlock extra features, such as:

You can add unlimited users, workstations, and printers to your account

Custom setup from a ShippingEasy expert

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ShippingEasy Review: Are You Ready to Start Using ShippingEasy?

Having done our research and weighed everything up in this ShippingEasy review, it appears ShippingEasy.com is an excellent all-around shipping software that’s going from strength to strength. Users love that the interface is incredibly easy to get to grips with, the software’s smooth-running, and the customer support is impeccable. We also like that the ShippingEasy team continually works to improve the software so we predict only bigger and better things later down the line.

Of course, as with any software-as-a-service platform, ShippingEasy has flaws. But, from what we can tell, there don’t appear to be any major red flags. 

Have you ever used ShippingEasy before? Or are you about to use it for the first time? If so, we would love to hear your thoughts, concerns, and opinions in the comments box below. So let’s kickstart the conversation. Speak soon!

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Object-oriented Programming in Python: An Introduction

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Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/python-oop/?utm_source=rss

Object-oriented Programming in Python

Learn the basics of object-oriented programming in Python: inheritance, polymorphism, creating classes, attributes and methods, and more.

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Object-oriented Programming in Python: An Introduction
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6 Predictions for Web Design in 2023

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Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2023/01/6-predictions-for-web-design-in-2023/

Welcome to our annual guessing game of what the next twelve months will bring.

As ever, the design world isn’t isolated from the world in which it exists, so when events shape our lives, they impact our work, the work clients ask for, and the work that inspires us. According to Collins Dictionary, the word of the year for 2022 was permacrisis. And frankly, 2023 doesn’t look any less turbulent, with some good and some bad things already on the horizon.

Russia seems all but certain to retreat to Crimea and claim its objectives in Ukraine have been achieved; Ukraine may not accept that end, but it will probably be enough to end sanctions against Russia, which will significantly impact the economy worldwide. Brazil may have been forced to watch Argentina lift the FIFA World Cup, but it has a new (old) president and fresh hope for the survival of the Amazon rainforest. Crypto has weathered a series of storms (although there may be more to come), and historical precedence suggests the bear market has run its course; 2023 will see stagnation, with an upward trend taking hold toward the end of the year. The former Pope has died, potentially paving the way for the retirement of the current Pope and the election of a new Pope, bringing with it either renewed liberalism or renewed conservatism to the world’s largest religion. Oh, and the IMF thinks a third of the world will be in recession at some point in 2023; the UK and Russia already are, and policymakers in the US are looking nervous.

And that’s just the obvious. Of course, there will be surprises, too, because there always are.

Against this backdrop, designers must not only navigate a problematic jobs market but produce designs that respond to the needs and desires of their clients’ users.

How Did I Do in 2022?

Before diving into this year’s predictions, let’s take a look at how I thought 2022 would play out.

I predicted that 2022 would be the year of blockchain, with decentralized data storage taking over. Well, I got the decentralized part right, but not so much the blockchain aspect (feel free to tell me I’m wrong on Mastodon because I’m not checking Twitter anymore). I’ll call that half a point.

I said design would be positive, playful, and accessible. I think design did emerge from its obsession with corporate minimalism, but positive and playful? Unfortunately, I’m calling that a miss.

I said everything would be green. Again, that’s a miss. If there was a color for 2022, it was a pink-purple gradient.

I predicted hero text would replace hero images, and in the third quarter of 2022, that’s exactly the trend we saw; tick.

Finally, I suggested that illustration would adopt a grainy texture. Well, some designers did, but it was hardly a dominant trend, so I’m going to have to call that a miss.

So for my 2022 predictions, I scored 30%. Way worse than last year’s clean sweep. Let’s see if we can’t beat that in 2023…

1. We’ll Stop Freaking Out Over AI

By now, you’ve probably tried AI, freaked out, and Googled how to start a small holding in the mountains.

The truth is that AI is just a tool. And a good one at that. AI is really good at derivative work. But it’s entirely incapable of improvising, holding opinions, having an agenda, or thinking outside the box.

AI will not replace your job — unless your job is deleting the background from photos, in which case it already has. Since when did Stephen King get replaced by a spellchecker?

If you haven’t tried an AI tool yet, I’d encourage you to try it. It does the small repetitive tasks well.

2. We’ll Embrace the Real World

One of the reasons AI can’t be creative is that it doesn’t have the same number of input sensors we have. We can smell, hear, feel, and experience the world in a multitude of different ways.

Most of us spent a year in lockdown working remotely. Then rushed back to the office, only to discover that our teamwork didn’t actually improve. With the worsening economic outlook, big companies are looking to budget, and the simplest way to cut costs is to ask staff to work remotely.

When your commute is a five-second walk to the spare bedroom, you find yourself with more free time. Sure, you could probably learn Python, but wouldn’t you be happier learning to paddleboard?

As we open ourselves to new experiences, our design work will inevitably become more diverse and natural.

3. We’ll Reject Brutalism

It had a good run, but Brutalism isn’t a good fit for most UI projects. The trend of 2021–22 will vanish as quickly and as unexpectedly as it arrived.

4. We’ll Reject Darkmode

It has had a good run, and dark mode is a perfect fit for most UI projects. But we’re all kinda sick of it.

I hope I’m wrong about this one; not only is dark mode genuinely better for both your eyes and the environment, but the rich, warm blackness is the perfect antidote to sterile white corpo-minimalism.

Dark mode options are built into our OS, so it’s doubtful that it’s going to vanish anytime soon. However, dark mode as a design trend for its own sake is probably on the wane.

Typically trends come and go in symmetrical waves. Dark mode has been a dominant trend for years, so it should take as long to vanish completely.

5. We’ll Embrace Personal Retro

Every year we get the exciting job of guessing which decade the zeitgeist will rip off next. Will 2023 be the year of ’80s retro, ’90s retro, ’00s retro, or maybe (somebody shoot me) ’10s retro?

The retro trends we’ve seen over the last few years have been poor pastiches of their associated decades. If last year’s ’90s retro was inspired by the ’90s, it was a ’90s someone else was living.

In 2023 we’ll move beyond someone else’s ideas of what the past was like, to a personal vision of what came before. One in which the sunbleached colors of eternal Summers in the suburbs dominate.

6. We’ll Fall For Borecore

We’re all guilty of designing with our egos from time to time, and there is a tendency to hit users between the eyes with the biggest type, the loudest gradient, and the flashiest animation.

If you truly want to impress users in 2023, stop inserting pop-ups, adverts, cookie notices, and the other extraneous detritus that stops them from doing whatever it is they arrived on your site for. Impressing users in 2023 means clean typography, low-distraction art direction, and helpful content. Boring design just isn’t as boring as it used to be.

In 2023, the best thing designers can do for their users is get out of the way.

Happy New year! We hope it’s a good one.

 

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ShipNetwork Review: Is This Fulfillment Service for You?

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Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/shipnetwork-review

If you’ve been around the block of ecommerce, you likely know just how vital shipping is. After all, it’s inextricably linked with customer satisfaction – and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Amazon Prime has set the standard of convenience. So, now customers expect shipping times of just a few days and often expect low-cost or even free shipping.

So, with that in mind, it’s no wonder that in 2022, 70% of online retailers were working to improve their tracking information to provide a better customer experience, and 38% worry about meeting their customer’s delivery expectations.

This is where fulfillment solutions for smoother, faster, and easier shipping come into their own. 

One such option is ShipNetwork. So, here we’ll cover what services ShipNetwork provides, how much it costs, and what to consider before partnering with them.

There’s lots to sink our teeth into, so let’s get to it!

What is ShipNetwork?

shipnetwork review

ShipNetwork was formerly known as Rakuten Super Logistics before new ownership changed its name in the summer of 2022.

So what does ShipNetwork do?

In short, it handles everything to do with order fulfillment, including warehousing, kitting and packing, supply route optimization, warehouse technology, returns, and shipping. So, by partnering with a fulfillment service like ShipNetwork, you can focus on other aspects of your business, like marketing and customer service, and lean back whenever an order comes in.

Overall, ShipNetwork has over 20 years of experience in the fulfillment industry. During this time, it has established an impressive network of shipping and warehousing partners across the US. This ensures you benefit from 1-day fulfillment and that your customers enjoy 1-2 day delivery times.

On top of this, ShipNetwork offers US-based support and a 100% accuracy guarantee. So if anything goes wrong with product fulfillment on their end, rest assured you’re covered.

ShipNetwork’s setup process is simple. You start by integrating your shopping cart or ecommerce platform with ShipNetwork’s API. There’s no coding needed to do this – ShipNetwork comes with native integrations for major eCommerce platforms, which you can activate in just a few clicks. 

Next, you’ll ship your inventory to ShipNetwork’s fulfillment center network. The smart software wires each order placed on your store to the most appropriate fulfillment center for processing.

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Shipnetwork Review: ShipNetwork’s Key Services

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a closer look at how Shipnetwork sets out to help with your fulfillment:

Order Fulfillment

As we’ve already hinted, ShipNetwork offers speedy fulfillment services with a 100% order accuracy guarantee. In addition, the company also promises 100% order turnaround by the next business day. This might put your mind at ease where upholding your good reputation is concerned! 

ShipNetwork stores your products in one of its many US warehouses. From there, your products are easily located, picked, and packed when an order comes through. 

Incidentally, your order details are automatically routed through ShipNetwork’s SmartFill fulfillment management platform. This lets ShipNetwork’s team know which items to include in the order and where to locate them in the warehouse. Then, every order is carefully packed and receives a shipping label. This is then scanned, and automatically your inventory levels are updated accordingly.

ShipNetwork’s fulfillment centers reach over 98% of the US within two days with ground shipping. Their warehouses are located in key locations across the West Coast, East Coast, Southcentral states, and the midwest. Notable locations include Chicago, Las Vegas, Reno, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, and Salt Lake City.

Xparcel

As we’ve just said, ShipNetwork boasts a two-day delivery network, which, as you’ve probably guessed, means all ground orders across the US can reach their destination within 1-2 days. 

ShipNetwork’s Xparcel service helps you pick shipping carriers that can cut transit time and shipping costs. Carriers include FedEx, USPS, UPS, and DHL but regional and local carriers are also available. On top of this, all Xparcel carriers offer parcel tracking, so you can keep customers posted about their delivery status.

If orders have to travel further afield, Xparcel offers a range of shipping speeds. Standard ground shipping is usually completed within 3-8 days. Expedited shipping takes 2-5 days, and premium shipping takes 1-3 days. Faster shipping costs a premium, but you’ll need to contact the team for a quote. 

Returns Management

Despite ShipNetwork offering 100% accuracy on their orders (meaning that no wrong or broken items will be packed and shipped), there will still be customers who want to return an item because it wasn’t quite what they were hoping for.

Fortunately, ShipNetwork also offers return management services, which include restocking returned items to your inventory when appropriate. Otherwise, damaged items will be discarded as instructed. 

It’s also worth noting that ShipNetwork collects the returns and sends them to specific locations on a schedule to minimize transit costs. 

Lastly, you can work with the Shipnetwork team to plan your eCommerce return management to suit your needs. The team can give you a quote for the specific services you require.

Kitting

Implementing product kits can be an excellent way to improve sales and make smart shipping decisions. 

For the uninitiated, kitting allows you to bundle multiple items into a unique SKU to treat them as one shippable item. I.e., the products are packed and shipped together.

Kitting items can also increase order value. In terms of marketing, you need to demonstrate how certain products complement each other. This helps to justify to the customer why they should pay a little more for said extra items.

You can kit bundles virtually from your eCommerce platform. The ShipNetwork team can assemble the kits in the warehouse whenever a bundle is ordered. Or you can have ShipNetwork physically pre-package a ready-made kit to reduce human error and fulfillment times.

Subscription Boxes

Another way to secure regular sales and revenue is to sell subscription boxes. These might ship out once every month or at another pre-defined interval. ShipNetwork makes this easier by offering subscription fulfillment services. They’ll assemble and pack all the required elements of your subscription boxes and ship them at the right time.

Freight

ShipNetwork also offers assistance if you need to procure or move products from across the country or outside the US. Their SmartFreight service can handle the entire process from pick-up to drop-off and comes with door-to-door tracking.

ShipNetwork shops around for competitive rates for shipments of different sizes, like less-than-truckload (LTL) or full truckload (FTL), so you can pick the most cost-effective transportation for your freight needs.

ShipNetwork takes care of the following:

Preparing shipping rate quotes so you can pick the best carrier

Creating the bill of lading (This is crucial paperwork in ensuring international exporters receive payment and importers receive merchandise)

Booking the carrier

Scheduling pick-up

Alerting the shipper or consignee of estimated delivery dates

Providing customers with proof of delivery.

Additional Services

Finally, what do you do if your products have special requirements? For example, if items have to be kept at a specific temperature?

Fortunately, ShipNetwork offers essential additional services such as:

Lot tracking: You can track and fulfill products by expiration and freshness date. You can also recall products along the supply chain if they surpass their freshness or if any concerns arise.

Temperature control: Many products benefit from temperature control besides food and drink. For example, paper products, products with adhesives, musical instruments, electronics, and more. ShipNetwork has temperature-controlled order fulfillment center locations in the US. 

Custom projects: ShipNetwork is willing to partner with eCommerce merchants to meet their unique business needs.

As before, you’ll need to discuss your business needs with ShipNetwork to create a fulfillment plan and receive an accurate quote.

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ShipNetwork Review: ShipNetwork’s Integrations

shipnetwork review

First, you should check that ShipNetwork integrates with your ecommerce platform for a smooth and straightforward setup. This allows orders to automatically transfer to your fulfillment solution.

Ecommerce integrations include:

Shopify

WooCommerce

eBay

Walmart Marketplace

CartRover

Volusion

BigCommerce

Channeladvisor

Magento

Amazon

Shipnetwork also integrates with various shipping platforms and carriers To streamline the shipping process and afford you special shipping discounts. It’s worth checking whether these carriers deliver in the regions you’re actively selling to.

Notable shipping integrations include:

DHL

First Mile

United States Postal Service

UPS

Shipstation

ShipNetwork Review: Pricing

ShipNetwork offers customized pricing as they believe no two businesses are identical, so no pricing structure will fit all. You’ll have to get in touch with ShipNetwork for a quote and discuss your unique needs.

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ShipNetwork Review: Customer Support

shipnetwork review

https://ecommerce-platforms.com/go/TryShipNetworkShipNetwork’s sales team can be contacted via phone. However, what support options they offer once you become a customer is a little less clear. With in-house representatives available on the East and West coasts, however, you should get quick responses from one of ShipNetwork’s industry professionals, no matter where you’re based. 

On top of this, ShipNetwork has warehouse liaisons whose job is to ensure prompt communication between warehousing and fulfillment.

Additionally, ShipNetwork provides a wide range of resources to help you learn more about shipping and fulfillment. Resources include eBooks, case studies, webinars, and podcasts. There’s also a ShipNetwork blog covering eCommerce, fulfillment, and shipping topics.

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ShipNetwork Review: Pros and Cons

Before we wrap up, here’s a quick summary of the key pros and cons we’ve noticed about ShipNetwork:

Pros 👍
Cons 👎

Pros 👍

Many custom services are available, such as kitting, subscription fulfillment, lot tracking, and temperature control.
With the Xparcel service, you can optimize delivery time and costs and track your parcels.
100% accuracy guarantee
Provides complete return management, including restocking your inventory
Integrates with many popular ecommerce platforms
You can get shipping discounts on major carriers like DHL, USP, and USPS.
Based wholly in the US with a wide range of warehouse locations, ensuring faster delivery times.

Cons 👎

Pricing isn’t transparent.
There isn’t a help center dedicated to answering more specific FAQs or resources that speak in depth about any feature.
We couldn’t find an exact definition of their 100% accuracy guarantee.
It’s unclear how they enable customers to contact them for support queries, as online resources are primarily geared toward sales.

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ShipNetwork Review: Our Final Verdict

ShipNetwork promises reliable, accurate, and fast fulfillment services for ecommerce merchants in the US. This is possible thanks to their extensive network of warehouses and shipping carriers. In addition, they guarantee fast ground shipping, parcel tracking, fully managed returns, and a range of custom services.

If you’re a US merchant, getting a quote directly from ShipNetwork might be a good idea to understand their pricing. 

The big downside to ShipNetwork is that there’s little information out there at the moment to fully comprehend their services. It looks good on paper. But as they’ve taken over from Rakuten Super Logistics, it’s yet to be seen whether they’ll turn the poor reviews the company received under previous ownership around.

At the moment, it’s obvious the website design is finding its feet. Unfortunately, there’s insufficient transparency on their website concerning customer support, what’s included in their pricing, and who bears the costs of returns or shipment mistakes.

That brings us to the end of this ShipNetwork review. Let us know what you think in the comments below!

The post ShipNetwork Review: Is This Fulfillment Service for You? appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

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