Many of our clients create Shipping Rules to specify the correct shipping method to use on each order. By completely automating the selection of shipping methods, they open the possibility of printing labels in bulk through SolidShip. Printing stacks of labels with just two clicks can be an extremely fast and efficient way to process orders.
Many people find that using a combination of printing methods works best for their needs. We recommend reviewing The Three Most Common Methods of Printing Shipping Labels before deciding on a workflow.
What we'll cover:
- Setting Up Solid Commerce to Print Labels in Bulk
- Before You Begin Printing Labels
- How to Print Labels in Bulk
- Picking Your Products
- Related Articles
Setting Up Solid Commerce to Print Labels in Bulk
Before you can print labels in bulk, you need to:
1) Install and configure SolidShip. See Setting Up the SolidShip Shipping Tool for instructions.
2) Create Shipping Rules to specify the shipping methods SolidShip should use when printing your labels. Shipping Rules make bulk printing possible. See Creating Shipping Rules to Automate Your Shipping for assistance.
3) Ensure all of your products have the Product Weight field populated. You should also make sure the weights can be used as shipping weights. SolidShip uses the Product Weight to determine which Shipping Rule to apply to each order.
Before You Begin Printing Labels
When you print labels in bulk, Solid Commerce prints a label for every order that has a status of Paid.
NOTE: If you are using custom order statuses, SolidShip will print labels for any orders that are a sub-status of Paid.
Before hitting print, you should perform any necessary order updates, such as:
- Cancelling orders
- Revising Ship To addresses
- Adding items to orders, or cancelling items from orders
- Changing the status of any order you're not ready to ship (many clients change the status from Paid to Waiting for Seller).
Generally, people that print labels in bulk prefer to process their multiple item orders before bulk printing the remaining single item orders. This makes it easier to pick the products. It also allows them to control the shipping weights on their multiple item orders.
You can search for your multiple-item orders on the Manage Orders page by selecting Orders with Multiple Items in the Filter by drop-down menu under More Search Options.
How to Print Labels in Bulk
1) In SolidShip, select Print All Pending Shipments from the drop-down menu in the upper left-hand corner.
Make sure none of the weight and shipping method Overrides are selected.
2) Click the Go button.
3) In the Filter printing by order status pop-up window, select which order status you would like to print.
The All statuses option will print all Paid orders, including orders with a custom status that is a sub-status of Paid.
The specific statuses listed in the drop-down menu are all custom statuses that are sub-statuses of Paid.
4) Select the order you want your labels to print in: Order Date, Storage Location, or Warehouse ID.
NOTE: Sorting orders by Storage Location or by Warehouse ID makes picking your products easier. See the Picking Your Products section for details.
5) If a buyer added shipping or checkout instructions to their order, a pop-up window will appear with their notes when SolidShip prints their label. This causes label printing to pause until you click Yes in the buyer instructions window to continue printing. If you do not want these pop-up windows to appear, check the box next to Ignore buyer order comments.
6) If you don't want to print all of your labels in one batch, enter a Batch Size.
The orders that don't print in the current batch will remain in Paid status so that you can ship them later.
If you want to print labels for all Paid orders, leave the Batch Size field empty.
7) Click the Print button.
8) In the Batch printing confirmation pop-up window, click OK or Cancel.
As labels print, Solid Commerce will automatically mark the orders as Shipped and report the tracking information to the marketplace.
Picking Your Products
Most people who print shipping labels in bulk, print their labels first, and then pick their products. There are two techniques you can use to make picking your ordered items easier. These techniques can be used separately or together.
- Adding Custom Label References: Adding custom Label References to your labels allows you to identify which items the labels belong to. Most people add the SKU, Storage Location, and/or Item Title. For instructions, see Adding References and Rubber Stamps to Shipping Labels.
When shipping multiple item orders, the SKU, Storage Location, and Item Title references on your label will display the words Multiple Items instead of displaying each item's details. You will need to print packing slips with your labels in order to see the information about each item. If you prefer, you can sort and process multiple item orders before bulk printing your remaining single item orders.
- Printing Packing Slips: If you choose to print packing slips as you bulk print shipping labels, the packing slips will print in the same order as the labels. You can include the Storage Location on your packing slip template to make picking your items easy. See Adding Packing Slips and Invoices to Your Solid Commerce Account for information on setting up packing slips.
To print packing slips while bulk printing labels, check the Print Packing Slip box in the SolidShip interface before clicking the Go button:
Related Articles
- Three Methods For Printing Shipping Labels Through SolidShip
- Printing Labels Through SolidShip Using Order Numbers or SKUs
- Printing Labels Through SolidShip Using a Barcode Scanner
- Setting up the SolidShip Shipping Tool
- Creating Shipping Rules to Automate Your Shipping
- Getting Started With Order Management - An Overview of the Manage Orders Page
- Order Returns, Refunds, and Cancellations on All Marketplaces
- Adding Packing Slips and Invoices to Your Solid Commerce Account
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