Three Reasons to Consider USPS

Your Secret Weapon to Compete Against

The Amazons of the World

The more you ship with a major carrier, the more you save, right? Well, maybe, but that’s not the full story. Each major carrier structures its pricing to favor one or two modes of shipping while penalizing for others. For example, if you want to optimize small parcel shipping, consider a multi-carrier shipping strategy that leverages the power and experience of the USPS. Yes, USPS! 

Below are three reasons why including USPS this holiday season can help you offer the very best customer experience and enable your business to compete with the likes of Amazon and Walmart.

1. Postal’s Rate Card: USPS’ special rate card favors all those small, light packages you are likely shipping this time of year. Save an average of 20% and up to 41.2% on shipping rates when you use it. Explore the rate card’s benefits and make it easier for your business to truly compete with the rates and speeds of the Amazon’s of the world.
2. Best-in-class Delivery: So you can confidently manage customers’ expectations during the holiday stress. They also count transit times in actual days, not business days so you can ensure customers receive their packages in time for the big day. Did we mention USPS can deliver most packages within a 2-day window during peak season?
3. Delivery to all zip codes: USPS offers the unique ability to deliver to literally every single zip            code in the United States. What else would you expect from the organization that invented them?

National Day of Mourning Proclaimed Wednesday, Dec 5th, 2018 

In Remembrance of Former President George H.W. Bush 

USPS Announces Operations Plan

Our President, Donald J. Trump has proclaimed Wednesday, December 5th, 2018 a National Day of Mourning in remembrance of the vast contributions from former President, George H.W. Bush. The United States Postal Services (USPS) announced out of respect they will suspend regular deliveries, retail services, administrative activities and more on December 5th, 2018. 

Details released by the USPS for business mailers and shippers: 

• Delivery – Regular mail delivery will be suspended, however, there will be limited package delivery consistent with Peak Season Sunday schedule.

• Delivery Destination Units (DDU) – Will accept drop shipments.

• Priority Mail Express Mail – Will be delivered.

• Retail – All operations will be suspended. Post Offices will be closed. 

• Collections – Mail will be collected from boxes in front of Post Offices and high volume boxes that have a potential to overflow, while other collections will be suspended.

• Package Pickup – Will conduct scheduled package pickup requests.

• Transportation – Air and Surface transportation operate as scheduled and scheduled dispatches to Post Offices will occur.

• Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) – The BMEU/Detached Mail Unit (DMU) in plant locations will be open, while BMEU operations will be suspended at Post Office locations.

• Call Center – In operation but may have reduced staffing.

• Administrative Offices including Headquarters will be closed.

   

FedEx, UPS & USPS Holiday Peak Surcharges and December Shipping Deadlines

It’s hard to believe the holiday shopping and shipping season is in full force.  FedEx, UPS and USPS shared the 2018 holiday deadlines and peak surcharges.  Check out some important shipping notes and our December 2018 calendar below to get those goodies out the door on time! 

• From November 19^th- December 24^th FedEx will apply additional peak surcharges to shipments that qualify as over-sized, unauthorized or necessitate additional handling.

• StarShip utilizes FedEx web services so those surcharges will automatically be reflected in our rate quote as a part of the total quote provided.

• From November 18^th- December 22^nd  UPS will apply additional peak surcharges to each package that is delivered to a home, including business operating out of homes, large packages, over maximum limits or additional handling packages.

• USPS has no peak surcharges for the Holiday season but they do have a Holiday Workshop website to purchase stamps, ship from home and shipping tips!

10 Ways to Save On Pick, Pack and Ship

With QuickBooks, Acctivate and StarShip Integration   

We are excited to introduce one of our newest integrations, Acctivate, developed by Alterity.
Acctivate is a robust inventory management solution that also offers advanced order processing and business analytics. Our partnership with Alterity and integration to Acctivate helps businesses streamline supply chain management. Acctivate optimizes high volume order fulfillment for multiple channels then passes those details to StarShip to complete the shipping process, integrating to parcel & LTL for carriers, automating international documents and more. Together with Alterity, we are eager to help extend the QuickBooks investment, simplify supply chain management, eliminate duplicate data entry, increase accuracy and supercharge productivity.

Save on pick, pack and ship: 

1. Get more out of your QuickBooks investment
2. Streamline order entry - Acctivate automates processes
3. Improve accuracy - use real time integration to reduce data entry
4. Access Acctivate orders from StarShip 
5. Integrated shipping to automate small parcels and LTL carriers such as FedEx, Holland, UPS, USPS and YRC
6. Accurate dimensional weight - StarShip connects to CubiScan scales for faster, more reliable measurements resulting in accurate rate calculations
7. Discounted USPS rates - always available through StarShip - provides ultimate savings for packages < 20 lbs.
8. Send automatic email notifications that build brand awareness, provide item-level detail and drive traffic back to your site
9. Run a late deliveries report to proactively obtain refunds
10. Rate shop to find the most cost effective way to ship across carriers and modes 
    
    

 Video below to see our Acctivate and StarShip workflow:

StarShip shipping software update 18.0.3

Now with new eCommerce interfaces and more! 

We're happy to announce our most recent StarShip update, 18.0.3, now enhanced to offer more functionality in several areas:

        ♦  Continued expansion of eCommerce interfaces now includes: Shopify, WooCommerce,                        Volusion, BigCommerce, Magento, Etsy, Amazon & more* 

        ♦  Save time and money, eliminate logging into your eCommerce shopping cart or marketplace                every day to re-enter shipment details

        ♦  View potential savings with discounted USPS rates. Savings can be viewed as you ship or                  via a new dashboard widget 

        ♦  Improved speed & support for Windows 10 

        ♦  New Acumatica interface boasts lots of speed improvements

Customer’s current on software maintenance and the latest version of StarShip can take advantage of the new enhancements by simply running the web update. For customers running earlier versions, full download links are available from the My Account customer portal.

Acumatica & StarShip Shipping Software Integration  

Last year we were happy to announce our new Acumatica Cloud ERP interface. Our StarShip and Acumatica Cloud ERP integration is a bi-directional interface to streamline the entire workflow, gain immediate efficiencies in shipment processing, accounts receivable, and customer service!

5 Reasons Acumatica Customers Choose Us: 

1.  ERP & Amazon integration:  Streamline shipping, accounts receivable, and customer service. Plug-and-play interfaces provide the warehouse with instant access to orders and shipments. Simply scan the document number from your pick sheet to auto-populate the ship screen. Amazon orders can be accessed direct/in parallel OR updated as an extension to the standard Acumatica interface.