Empower Your Shipping Operations with airSlate SignNow's Sales Order Management System for Shipping

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hello and welcome everyone I am Ajay Aditi RC and today we are going to be looking at the three order fulfillment methods that are available within Soho inventory this webinar is the second in line in the series of webinars that we are hosting this holiday season it's designed for retailers wholesalers and product based SMEs who may or may not have adopted a digital order management system so please feel free to ask questions using the chat interface and either I or one of the panelists from my team will answer them for you after the session I will be uploading the recorded version to YouTube along with links to the related materials so please check the video description when you get to see the recording if you have questions related to fulfillment at a later point in time then you can email them to support at the rate Zoho - inventory comm with that out of the way let's begin the session oral cycle before we talk about fulfillment one must first understand a typical sales cycle within Zoho inventory so let's pull up a flow diagram to see how this works in zou inventory the sales process starts when a user drafts a sales order by associating a customer to a list of items needed and calculates the money owed by the customer the draft sales order gets confirmed when it's email to the customer alternatively it can also be manually confirmed by the user once this is done the user can do a couple of things they can convert it into an invoice create package slips for the items in stock and ship them either by themselves or via an integrated shipping carrier the sale cycle gets completed when three things happen number one when the payment comes in and number two when all the goods get delivered safely and lastly when there are no product returns that need to be processed for this order when all these three criterion have been met the sales cycle is complete when fulfilling an order if there are some items that have insufficient stock then you still have a couple of more options to choose from depending on how much time you have on your hands you can either convert the sales order into an unlinked purchase order you can also place the unavailable items on back order and then fulfill them or you can have a preferred vendor dropship them for you drafting and processing a sales order now that we have an idea of the options at hand let's quickly draft a sales order with three different items of varying quantities and prices you once this is done let's quickly email the order to the customer and get this confirmed I'm going to invoice this order with the help of an option the order is now ready for further processing I'm going to quickly create three packages to house all the items that belong to this order using the create button on the top right corner now we are ready for fulfilment order fulfillment in Zoho inventory is broadly classified into two types manual shipments and courier shipments manual shipments to ship the package let us navigate to one of the desired package slips and press the ship button this gives us the following two options we can either shift manually or we can ship via an integrated shipping carrier let's ship the first package manually by selecting ship manually in the window that follows fill up the shipment order number carrier and other fields if the shipment is already delivered then check the option that reads shipment already delivered if you wish to notify the customer about the shipment then click on the send notification to customer option if you are ready with the shipment order draft then you can just click on the Save button to successfully record the shipment a packing slip with the tracking ID and the shipment details is created now that you have hit the Save button if you have integrated your Zoho inventory account with after ship a third party service then you can track the status of your manual shipments as long as there is a tracking ID manual shipments are useful when you have your own fleet of trucks or messengers when the customer is responsible for collecting the goods from you and when you are shipping goods through a shipping carrier outside of the list of available shipping integrations with Enzo inventory shipment by our carrier the other standard option on the menu is shipped by our carrier to do this we'll need to first integrate a shipping carrier to Soho inventory today I'm going to show you how you can integrate your USPS and UPS accounts with Zoro inventory and after that I will tell you how you can generate shipment labels for them let's start with USPS one of the largest shipment carriers in the world USPS carries more than 47 percent of the world's mails if you are interested you can go look up this information on fax dot usps.com with such a track record calling it a mere postal service would be a huge understatement because to you the online seller USPS is one of the more safer cheaper and faster options for sending products to your customers who may be living just about anywhere so let's see how we can make the most of this carrier inside of zero inventory if you are setting up the USPS integration for the very first time then you will need to create an account with Pitney Bowes our partner in shipping integrations so let's see how we can integrate zero inventory and USPS to begin login to your Zoho inventory account navigate to integrations and select shipping channels once you're inside shipping channels click on the setup Now button adjacent to USPS in the following window start by creating a Pitney Bowes account click on the create account link in the setup page and subscribe to one of their plans before you do please read the Terms & Conditions carefully the account created through this link will be registered and resolved after signing up enter your Pitney Bowes login credentials such as the registered email and password once you're ready click connect to complete the integration now that we have integrated USPS with zoar inventory let's see how we can generate a shipping label quickly generating an usps shipping label now I'm going to ship one of the yet to be shipped packages on this particular sales order to begin navigate to the preferred package and click on the ship button choose the ship via carrier option in the drop-down that follows in the next page select the carrier as USPS now every carrier shipments have three stages or phases as I would like to call them so the first phase or the first step would be validating addresses the built in address verification system will verify whether the addresses are real places and this process will determine the shipping options available to you in step two or phase two please note that this system currently works only in select countries and locations and if there are any mistakes in the addresses you will have to correct them before you can proceed step 2 configuring the shipment this is the place where you specify what's in the shipment and how you have packed it it includes details like when do you want to ship it what are the package dimensions what is its weight and so on after that the system will show you various shipment options along with the rates from USPS choose the one that suits the needs of either you or your customer and hit the create shipment button now we are moving on to step 3 generate the label here you will find the shipping label being generated for you based on your preferences in the previous two steps USPS will automatically keep track of the shipments you make through them and update their statuses in Zoho inventory UPS the rise of e-commerce has made order fulfillment an inseparable part of sales and it means that shipping carriers now play an essential role in your customers shopping satisfaction they are now an integral part of purchase and have a direct impact on how good and online customers buying experience is so it is important to choose a reliable shipping carrier to help you deliver your promises to your clients if you ps is your choice and if you send out a lot of shipments every day then you don't need the hassle of duplicating data between your order management system and UPS and there is also some room for human error and miscommunication during data entry but what if you could simplify the process and manage your shipments from a single app oh you can I'll show you how you can integrate an order management system and a shipping carrier specifically Zoho inventory and UPS there are three things you need in order to do this you need a UPS account Zoho inventory organization and a computer with internet access to begin this integration open your Zoho inventory and navigate to shipping carriers and their integrations via the sidebar click on the setup now' button below the UPS logo to access a setup screen enter your UPS account number as for the UPS invoice details or these four fields between the UPS account number and address they are only necessary if you have any delivery services invoices within the last 90 days and if you do have any such invoices pick one of the last three invoices and record its information here enter your address and hit the save and continue button to finish the integration setup now that have seen how to connect your UPS account with Zoe's little dory let's see how it works by having some products shipped for this demonstration I am going to be using a sandbox UPS account to generate a sample shipping label okay so I am inside the sales order right here as you can see from the particular package entry all the items have been packed and are ready to shift now I am going to ship the items by clicking on the create button from the top right corner and selecting the shipments option and then I am going to select the ship via courier option to initiate the shipping sequence just like USPS there are three steps involved in creating a UPS shipment level step 1 validating addresses the built in address verification system will verify whether the addresses are real places and in this process will determine the shipping options available to you in step 2 please note that the system currently works for select locations and countries and if there are any mistakes in the addresses you will have to correct them before you can proceed step 2 configuring the shipment this is the place where you specify what's in the shipment and how you have packed it it includes details like when do you want to ship it what are the package dimensions what is its weight and so on after that the shipment will show you various shipment options along with the rates from UPS choose the one that's appropriate to this particular order and hit the create shipment button step 3 generate the label here you will find the shipping label being generated based on whatever you have selected during the past two steps you have a choice to either have the system send out a notification automatically to your customers or you can manually notify your customers UPS will automatically keep track of the shipments you make through them and update their statuses in Xero inventory also you can use you yes for domestic shipments in many countries unlike before so this carrier is no longer limited to just US and Canada so please feel free to integrate ups and zone inventory and try shipping goods to your customers using this integration with that we have covered the regular methods of order fulfillment now let us see how we can fulfill a similar order under a low stock or a stock out situation and to do that we are going to employ these two methods namely back ordering and drop shipment back ordering back ordering is a method where a vendor can purchase goods from the suppliers to fulfill an order after confirming the order to the customer this is primarily done for non time-sensitive orders or advance orders where the vendor has at least a week or two to fulfill a particular order in such an arrangement the customer is generally notified in advance regarding the need to back order the items that they have purchased so let's see how this works Enzo inventory to start with you have a confirmed sales order with items that have insufficient stock to fulfill this particular order now you can back order items either fully or partially depending on the missing stock if you have some stock available and wish to ship them right before you put the rest on back order then now is the time to do so this is because the moment you move a sales order into backorder it will be frozen until your supplier delivers the goods to you so please keep that in mind upon opting to backorder you will be asked to draft and email one or more purchase orders to your suppliers the sales order will be kept on hold until the goods arrive the arrival of Indira's is captured using the purchase receive document as well as the vendor bill that you record against the Associated purchase orders and then you can pack and ship the now available goods back ordering goods so let's see how we can do this within Zoho inventory you know I have a confirmed sales order right here that has items of insufficient quantity so you can now place these items on backorder by either clicking on the background or Now link within the banner you see here or by clicking on the mode button from the top right corner and selecting the backorder option from the drop-down in the window that follows select the items and the quantities that you wish to backorder once you are ready with everything hit back order to finish the sales order and question will be moved to an on hold status and you will see the purchase order form in front of you select the preferred vendor on the purchase order and fill out important information like the warehouse to be delivered as well as the quantity of items that you need and hit save to finish email the draft purchase order or you can also manually mark it as issued if you are personally delivering the purchase order to your vendor once the goods reach your designated vows navigate to the purchase order and create a purchase receive which is similar to a typical grn or a Goods recept note once you are done convert the purchase receive document into a vendor bill using the convert to bill option that can be found below the purchase received tab doing this will complete the purchase cycle for the most part of course you will have to pay your vendors and got your bill payments as well but then for the backorder this would unfreeze the sales order and your team members will be notified why are the bell icon on the top right corner and as I said before the sales order will no longer stay on hold you can then create packing slips and record shipment orders or generate levels by an integrated carrier to fulfill this particular sales order drop shipments now we have come to the final method of the day and that is drop shipment drop shipments are most useful to those who maintain two things a strong network of vendors and a virtual inventory this method allows you to act as a link between customers and vendors without actually connecting the two several online sellers and influencers often use this method to cater to their niche they have a strong follower or customer base the Trust's the sellers domain knowledge and the seller while not having a warehouse or a physical stock of the items has instead a good network of suppliers both locally as well as internationally that can pack and ship goods directly to his or her customers on behalf of our seller in question the customers will be invoiced by our seller and whenever they get paid the seller pays for the goods at negotiated rate to the good supplier this is a good way of making money with less capital investment if you have a respectable follower base or audience now let's see how we can handle drop shipments with ins over inventory we begin this exercise by drafting a sales order for a customer that ins our inventory as you can see the items added to this order have nil stock we are going to save the order first and then confirm it next I'm going to go back to the sales order and then click on the mode button and in the drop-down that follows I am going to select the dropship option doing so will take us to a purchase order creation page where all the items as well as the customers delivery name and address will be present select the desired vendor and specify the expected shipping date once you are ready hit save to finish drafting the purchase order next we'll need to email this order to the vendor in order to confirm the drop shipment upon doing so the associated sales order will be considered as a special dropship order and will now be available under a dedicated filter within the sales orders module the package and shipment options for the associated sales order will now be disabled now I am going to convert the order into an invoice quickly within two clicks you can then move on to record the payment made by your customer against the invoice once done you can proceed to pay the vendor by converting the associated purchase order into a vendor bill and that completes the dropship cycle drop shipments do not affect your stock levels since they are not tracked as a part of the FIFO lot tracking algorithm which is the core essence observe inventory and so you can use this whenever a low stock situation appears and you are confident that your vendor will fulfill such orders on time on your behalf that concludes the three order fulfillment methods available within Zoho inventory to summarize we saw how to ship goods manually following which we integrated so her inventory with USPS and UPS to see how we generate shipping levels for both of these carriers we then saw a low stock scenario wherein we put the items on a sales order and back order and then we fulfill them once they were made available we then saw how to drop ship a sales order and run a virtual inventory business inside of Zorah inventory hope you found this session useful I will be adding the help resources for all of these topics under the youtube description of the webinar recording later if you have questions please email them to support at the rate 0 - inventory com signing off this is your host a die at the TLC and I'll see you guys next time take care