A lot of us sitting in our houses in quarantine decided that our time will be well spent being productive. Some people decided to hone their craft or made time to learn a new skill, but more often than not, a lot of us came to the conclusion to start our very own online business.
During the quarantine a lot of the brick and mortar businesses have had trouble staying open. This is why they had no choice but to shift tactics and start offering their businesses online.
And these online businesses are booming too! There is no reason why you should be denied a portion of that pie!
So if you have already opened up an online business or are planning to open up your online business and have no idea how to process an order – from getting an order to delivering it to your customer, this guide might be exactly the thing you are looking for!
Learn What to do after you receive an online order?
So You might already have created an online store with one of the many e-commerce platforms out there. Or if you want to forgo the trouble of making a website, then you can also set up a Seller account with online e-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm Marketplace and many other ecommerce sites.
Let us look at what are the steps to get your order packed and out of the door! It is really easy once you get the hang of it.
- Check for the order on your seller account
- Packaging the Order
- Update your ecommerce site
- Request for delivery pick up
1. Check for the order on your seller account
The order details and specifications would be mentioned in your ‘Order’ tab in your seller account.
In the case of Amazon, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to ship the order through Self Ship or Easy Ship. But If you own the platform like If you’ve create a store using e-commerce platforms like Woo-commerce, Shopify, Wix, or any other platform then you have only one option that is self-ship.
Let us first check out the difference between Easy Ship and Self Ship.
| Self Ship | Easy Ship |
|---|---|
| 1. You will have to provide the courier service of your choice. 2. You will have to get your package shipped by the shipment date by yourself. 3. After shipping off the package you will have to provide the tracking number and courier service details to Amazon. 4. You will be responsible for everything from Packing the order to shipping the order. | 1. It is a courier option provided by Amazon. 2. Amazon Logistics centre provides people who will come pick up the order from your home or place of business. 3. Amazon takes all responsibility for delivering the package to your customer. 4. You will have to package the product and provide the shipping label |
2. Packaging the Order
Once you receive the order, there are several things you need to keep in mind while packing your order. First of all, is your order fragile? If it is then you might need to secure the product with bubble packing to make sure that the transit doesn’t damage the product.
Second of all you need to check and see if your product comes with a primary packaging already, if it does, then you don’t have to worry too much about giving it additional protection. Though a light covering of bubble wrap does make the customer feel that extra care has been given to their package, this makes them feel valued.
After packing your order snuggly, you will need to secure your Shipping Label. Now, the shipping label will be provided by you, so make sure you check out the list we will be providing shortly to make sure you get this product. You will also need to be providing the customer with their invoice. So make sure to print out an invoice and add it inside the package!
3. Update your ecommerce site
After packing your order and taking all the trouble of putting up the label and securing the goods, the last thing left to do is to let your ecommerce site know that you have shipped your package.
More often than not, the site will ask you to specify the dimensions and the weight of the package. So it’s important to make sure that you have the means to do that!
4. Request for delivery pick up
The last thing left to do is to request your delivery partner to pickup the order.
Let us now look at the essentials you would need to process the orders from your online business!
Things Required To Pack Received Orders.
- Corrugated Packaging Box or Polybags For Shipping
- Corrugated Paper Rolls or Bubble Packing Roll
- Bopp Packaging Tape
- Manual Tape Dispenser (optional)
- Multipurpose Scissors (optional)
- A4 Size Paper
- Pen Knife or Bubble Wrap Cutter (optional)
- Measuring Tape
- Weighing Machine
- Thermal Shipping Labels and Thermal Barcode Label Printer or LaserJet Multifunction Laser Printer
1. Corrugated Packaging Box
Of course to pack your orders, you would need the trademark Corrugated boxes. Like we mentioned above, primary packaging or not, it is always important to provide an unboxing experience to the customer so that they feel special and wanted. This increases your chance of getting a reorder too!
While getting corrugated boxes, it is also important to keep the general size of your products in mind. For example, if you are a business that deals primarily in stationery items, then small corrugated boxes might work out perfectly for you.
These corrugated boxes are perfect for creating the best unboxing experience for your customer. Select the sizes of these boxes according to your requirements.
2. Polybags For Shipping
Sometimes, the order you are packaging is so small that it makes no sense to use a full box to deal with it’s packaging. It would be wasteful and just end up being expensive.
The best way to circumvent this is by using polybag mailers! Polybags are flexible, and very easy to use! They are perfect to mail clothes and cloth items- things that can’t be bent or broken!
We found out that Bvslf’s brand of polybags also have pouches to put your invoices in! This feature is extremely helpful as it becomes hard sometimes to properly secure an invoice.
You are also getting a hundred polybag mailers at a very reasonable price!
3. Corrugated Paper Rolls
An eco friendly alternative to the bubble wrap are corrugated paper rolls. Corrugated paper rolls are usually used to wrap up goods that are flat. Things like books and ceramic goods could benefit hugely from using Corrugated Paper Rolls.
The corrugated paper rolls also have the added advantage of looking better than plain old bubble wrap. This makes the packaging look way more attractive! These brown corrugated paper roll is made from high gsm paper. And has a high strength rate and is easy to handle.
4. Bubble Packing Roll
Previously we have talked about the importance of Bubble packing to help secure a fragile good.
Bubble wraps have almost become synonymous with online sellers these days, bubble wraps are a necessity to running any successful online business.
Bubble wraps also give the added benefit of ensuring that the product inside remains safe!
The material is of 30 gsm and guarantees that the bubble wrap will snuggle your product nicely and keep it safe!
5. Bopp Packaging Tape
The full form of BOPP is Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene. This means that these types of tapes are easy to slit off when needed. This is important while packaging goods because you want to tape up the boxes so that the goods don’t get damaged in transit, but you also want to ensure that it’s easy for your customers to open the package once they get the package!
The 3M brand is renowned worldwide. The company claims that the Scotch packing tapes have excellent packing power, and can withstand a wide range of temperatures. They also claim to work well on slightly irregular surfaces!
When it comes to packaging your orders, packing tapes play a very important role, and you can’t really go wrong with the 3M brand!
6. Manual Tape Dispenser
Imagine you are swamped with a lot of orders, all these boxes to deal with, and you are dealing with the scissors method of cutting up pieces of tape. This could end up taking a lot of time and a lot of unnecessary effort.
A manual tape dispenser is an absolute essential while processing orders. A manual tape dispenser eliminates the need for you to cut up pieces of tape by hand and hence saving a lot of precious time.
We’ve provided the link below for the Kangaroo brand of manual Tape dispenser. This product is capable of dispensing heavy duty tapes and is extremely durable. They claim to be the best tape dispenser available in the market!
7. Multipurpose Scissors
Believe us, while dealing with packaging orders you will find out pretty soon that scissors are very essential to the process of packing orders.
That’s why we will suggest that you invest in a pair of high quality scissors.
We have found out that the scotch brand’s 6 inch multipurpose scissors are extremely versatile and can be a huge asset to your business, these scissors are made of high quality stainless steel and their blades stay sharp for the longest time.
8. A4 Size Paper
In this digital age, it is becoming increasingly common to forego the use of paper in a lot of spheres of our lives.
Ironically in an online business that sells goods, paper is an extremely important commodity.
Paper is used to print the invoices that are sent to the customers, to print the manifesto that keeps inventory in check, and even helps create physical checkboxes to help ease the process of dealing with the huge number of orders.
A4 printing blank paper is a pack of 500 A4 size papers that are usable in all standard printers and can be used in a wide array of ways!
9. Pen Knife or Bubble Wrap Cutter
Another absolute essential that one needs while dealing with the corrugated papers and bubble wrap cutters are penknives.
You might never know when you have botched the tape on an order, and might have to redo it. Having a penknife handy will help you out in these kinds of situations.
Given below is the Solimo Brand’s retractable Knife with an extra blade. This blade is long lasting and is of the best quality! It would definitely be an investment to your business.
10. Measuring Tape
While handing off the package to logistics (delivery) partners, you are required to mention the dimension and weight of the package. This helps to figure out the delivery charges that need to be levied on the delivery of the package.
11. Weighing Machine
To make sure that you weigh the package properly, you will need to buy a basic weighing machine.
Courier services will usually weigh out the packages for you, but if you opt out for the Easy Ship option by Amazon, then you will be responsible for mentioning the accurate weight of your package on your seller account.
The Glun Multipurpose Portable Electronic Digital Weighing Scale Weight Machine is an elegant and beautiful device that can weigh upto ten kilograms of packages. The product is cheap and appropriate for first time business owners.
12. Thermal Shipping Labels
Regardless of whether or not you choose to ship your package yourself or not, you will still need to provide your very own shipping labels.
The best way to do this is by either outsourcing the printing of the labels to an outside vendor or to do it yourself.
Thermal printing is relatively cheap after the cost of initially purchasing the Thermal printer and the Thermal Shipping Labels.
The thermal shipping labels however are not versatile, and can only be used in conjunction with a thermal printer.
13. Thermal Barcode Label Printer
The general consensus is, if you are a first time shop owner and are new to the business then you can hold off on buying the printer right now as the printer is really costly, and you might want to start turning over a profit before you invest in something like this!
The thermal printer that we have linked down below is from the brand TSC. Their TSC DA310 Direct Thermal Printer 4 IPS & 300 DPI Barcode Shipping Label Printer is cheaper than a lot of the market alternatives out there and can withstand a lot of pressure! Perfect for when you have a lot of orders and need to get them labelled in a moment’s notice!
14. LaserJet Multifunction Laser Printer
If you are not that keen on investing on a thermal printer right away, then we wuld suggest you go for a cheaper and more versatile option.
The HP laserjet printer Pro M1136 is a multifunction monochrome laser printer that has a three in one function that might help you outside of business! The printer also has the option of scanning and copying paper.
This printer doesn’t require ink cartridges and instead prints with the help of toner ink.
This can help you print invoices in black and white and also help you print labels provided that you have sticker papers.
Conclusion: Now that we have looked into everything that goes into packing your orders and couriering them, you are now ready to open an online shop of your own!
Remember that hard work and persistence always pays off, so even if the orders don’t come pouring in right away, there will come a time when you will be swamped by orders!
And when that time comes, the exhaustive list provided above will help ensure that your online business runs smoothly and successfully.