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?

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

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‘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 

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!

The post An In-Depth ShippingEasy Review: What This Shipping Solution Has to Offer appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

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.

 

Featured image by myriammira on Freepik

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The post 6 Predictions for Web Design in 2023 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Original Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/buying-guides/best-trail-cameras

Find the best trail cameras for unbeatable wildlife photos and video.

Original Source: https://designrfix.com/tutorials/unveiling-process-playing-videos-html5

Since years videos have been considered to be the best means of communicating with the website visitors. Whether you’ve a business website or run an informative website, placing videos on web pages can act as a convenient tool for gathering the attention of maximum web users residing in different parts of the world. Nowadays, a majority […]

Original Source: https://1stwebdesigner.com/shared-vs-managed-vs-vps-hosting-which-is-right-for-you/

There are a lot of different options out there when it comes to hosting your website. And it can be tough to decide which one is right for you, but don’t worry – we’re here to help!

In this article, we’ll compare three popular hosting options: shared, managed, and VPS. And by the end, you should have a good idea of which solution is right for your needs.

We’ll break down each host type into a few key areas, including a broad description of how it works, key features, benefits, who the type would best serve, and rough pricing estimates.

Now, let’s get down to the comparisons.

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Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is an excellent option for most people because it is budget-friendly and easy to set up – no technical skills needed! With a shared host, your website will be on the same server as other websites. This means that features like bandwidth and storage are divided between all of the sites on the server.

It works well for small enterprises and personal websites that receive minimal traffic. It’s also a smart option if you’re just getting started and don’t want to spend money on a more expensive web host.

Key Features

Affordable
Easy to set up
Can be used for small businesses or personal websites
Shared resources between all websites on the server

Benefits

The biggest benefit of a shared web host is the cost – it’s much cheaper than other types of plans. Shared hosting is also very easy to set up, which is great for people who are new to web design and not all that technically-oriented.

Who is it Best For?

Small businesses, personal websites, and anyone who is just starting out with web design would find a shared host to be suitable. It’s also a good option if your site doesn’t receive a lot of traffic yet.

Pricing

Shared host plans start at around $5 per month.

Managed Hosting

Managed hosting is a step up from shared, and it’s designed for businesses that are ready to invest in a more premium solution. With a managed web host, you still share a server with other websites. But, you also get a dedicated team of experts who proactively manage your website and can help you with any technical issues that come up.

Managed hosting is a great option for businesses that want peace of mind knowing that their website is in good hands. It’s also a good option for those who have outgrown a shared host and need a more robust solution.

Key Features

Dedicated team of support experts
Proactively manage your website
Can help with any technical issues that come up
More expensive than shared plans

Benefits

The biggest benefit of a managed web host is the dedicated team of experts who will proactively manage your website, perform backups, pay attention to security, and perform regular updates. This can be a great peace of mind for businesses that want to make sure their website is always running smoothly.

Who is it Best For?

Anyone that’s ready to invest in a more premium web host solution, businesses that have outgrown shared servers, and those that want peace of mind knowing their website is well-supported will find managed hosting to be a good fit.

Pricing

Managed web host plans start at around $25 per month.

VPS Hosting

VPS hosting is a type of web host that gives you your own virtual server. This means that you don’t share any resources with other websites – everything on your server is just for you.

It’s also a great option for businesses that need more control over their host environment. Businesses that get a lot of traffic or have very specific requirements will find it beneficial, too.

Key Features

Your own virtual server
Dedicated resources
More expensive than shared and managed plans

Benefits

The most significant advantage of VPS hosting is that it gives you your own virtual server. This means you won’t have to share any resources with other websites, and you’ll be able to customize your server to meet your site’s specific requirements.

Who is it Best For?

Businesses that require more control over their hosting environment, those with a lot of traffic, and those with very specific hosting requirements are those best suited for using VPS hosting.

Pricing

VPS hosting plans start at around $50 per month.

Assess Your Situation to Pick the Right Hosting Option

Now that you know a little bit more about the different types of hosting, it’s time to decide which one is right for you. If you’re just starting out, shared hosting is a great option. If you’re ready to invest in a more premium solution, managed hosting might be a better fit. And if you need complete control over your hosting environment, VPS hosting is the way to go.

Which you choose will depend on your site’s needs, your technical acumen, and your budget. But you hopefully now have a better sense of what’s available. Good luck!