![]() Not only that, but PayPal’s merchant tools track the entire transaction in a simple dashboard. The shipper can fill out a template to specify shipping methods AND costs, for both domestic and international shipping. Their simple payment button allows each person placing an order to specify a quantity. It was then I discovered that PayPal actually prints shipping labels and postage. It didn’t, however, handle quantities and shipping costs by itself, so I gave up and went directly to PayPal to generate purchase buttons. I already have PayPal, so I upgraded to a Business account and proceeded to build a simple store. ![]() It also integrates with PayPal, so I figured I would use this to build a simple store to handle the transaction. ![]() The new website content management system I’m using, Expression Engine 1.6, has a “Simple E-Commerce” module in it that can handle items and so forth. Since I wasn’t too keen on doing this, I handed the Excel spreadsheet updating to volleyball buddy Brandy, and then asked The Ultra-Competent Erin to make Outlook talk to Word to talk to Excel to make all that other stuff happen. Generating the email blast to tell individual pre-orders where to pay, and reconfirm their address and # of pads. These shipping labels, I imagined, would be used by packers to tell how many pads to put in each box without having to look it up on another sheet, hopefully reducing errors. Generating shipping labels with name, address, and number of pads per order.I was maintaining an Excel document with all the addresses in it, to use as the data source for the following: I wasn’t looking forward to managing the email list. It also turns out that order management and shipping is a lot easier with today’s online tools. This still left the problem of automating the addressing of the boxes, so we planned on using a mail merge to create the shipping labels. So long as you’re using their official flat-rate envelope or flat-rate box (provided for free), you can put as much stuff as you can fit in the package. Thankfully, my buddy Scott figured out the postage options, so we’re using flat rate USPS Priority Mail. I wasn’t looking forward to doing this for a hundred boxes. Email the tracking numbers to the addressee.Drive to the nearest FedEx, or wait for a pickup.Double check the address for accuracy, redoing it if it’s unclear.Transcribe the address information correctly.Find a box, possibly purchase one somewhere. ![]() Personally I hate shipping stuff, primarily because it seems to take an hour and a half for me to ship a single package. One of the most daunting tasks to me was handling the receipt of monies and arranging for shipment. It turned out to not be such a big deal after all. Or more accurately, I wasn’t looking forward to all the manual labor and accounting. I was expecting the fulfillment process to be incredibly difficult and tedious. If you are having trouble with the form (the anti-spam measures are fairly harsh), you find my contact email address at the very bottom left of the page. If you had placed a pre-order by the original cutoff date and did NOT receive the instructions on where to go to make payment, contact me through the contact form. ![]() If you are interested in ordering a pad or three, leave a comment! I’m currently only handling the domestic US, but will be adding other countries as I figure out how it works. There will be about 100 of them not spoken for. After that we’ll open up the general ordering for the remaining unsold pads. A few hours ago an email notification sent from fulfillment * went out with instruction on how to pay and arrange for shipping of the pads. ![]()
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