Shipping

Delivering the products your customers have ordered is one of the crucial processes in your business. To ensure this process runs smoothly, you can easily ship your orders from our Afosto platform. If something is not correct, you can still change the method and address while shipping. Below we explain each step in the shipping process.

Edit shipping address

It sometimes happens that the customer has made a mistake in entering the address. Therefore, before you start shipping, you can edit the address in the deliveries widget by clicking "Edit" next to the address.

Change shipping method

You can also adjust the shipping method before you start shipping. You can do this under the '⋮' menu next to the shipping method. In this menu, you can choose "Change shipping method".

When you click this, a window will open where you can select a different shipping method. Choose the method you want to use for shipping and click "Confirm".

If you choose a method with pick-up points in the previous window (bottom method in the previous image), you will need to select a pick-up point. You can filter the pick-up points by postal code by adjusting the postal code in the search field.

If you have changed the method to or the order was placed with a pick-up point, it will be displayed with the location icon instead of the home icon. The shipping address will also be changed to the address of the pick-up point.

Shipping products

There are two ways to start shipping from an order. As with a few other actions for orders, you can start shipping from the actions widget.

In addition to the actions widget, there is also a deliveries widget on the orders page. In this widget, you can see the shipping address, the selected method, and, when created, the deliveries. Here you can also start shipping the ordered products.

Select products

When you start shipping in the actions widget or deliveries widget, the window where we can create the shipments will open. Here you will see the shipping address and the products you can ship to this address. You can also change the shipping address here if there is still an error.

Create multiple packages

A large order may not fit in one box. For these orders, you can create multiple packages. You can do this at the bottom of the product list by clicking 'Add extra package'. An empty package will then be added where you can move packages to.

All products are by default in the first package. Using the arrows on the right, you can move the products to another package.

If you accidentally added a package or no longer need it, you can remove the package.

Shipping with

Below the product list you can also choose how you will ship the products. Here you have the choice between 'Shipping with a provider method', 'Manually entering shipping information' or 'Add to an existing shipment'. The first option is selected by default. If the shipping method is incorrect, you can also edit it here.

Shipping with a provider method

When you have set up shipping connections, we get a number of options back from the provider linked to the method. These are the methods by which the provider registers them with, for example, PostNL. This usually involves weight classification, registered shipping or requiring identification. One is pre-selected by default, but you can always change it to the one that best fits your shipment.

Manually entering shipping information

If you don't have a connection with a shipping provider, you can always enter the information manually. Here you can enter the track & trace number and the URL where the customer can track their order. You need to do this for each package created. For these packages, you will need to create a label from your own platform.

Add to an existing shipment

If you have already created packages for an order, you can also add products to an existing package afterwards. This third option is only visible if you already have packages for the same address.

Process settings

Before shipping, you can adjust two process settings. The first setting, 'Create shipping labels immediately', allows you to automatically create the shipping labels with your shipping provider. If you turn this off, creating the labels becomes a manual action that you can do later.

With the second option, 'Set package status to in transit', you can automatically mark the package as in transit after creating the labels. If you turn this off, you can manually change the status later, e.g., when you hand it over to the shipping provider's driver. For some integrations, such as MyParcel, we also receive this feedback when the package is scanned at the sorting center.

Both settings are enabled by default. If you uncheck 'Create shipping labels immediately', the 'Set package status to in transit' option becomes unavailable.

When everything is set up correctly, you can create the shipment and package by clicking 'Ship' at the top right. The window will close, and the created packages will become visible in the delivery widget.

Print or download packing slip

For each package, you can print or download a packing slip. The packing slip is created from a standard template managed by Afosto. If the packing slip does not meet your requirements, you can contact support@afosto.com for a custom-made packing slip.

Below is an example of the standard packing slip.

Manually create a shipping label

When you have turned off the setting to create labels automatically in previous steps, you can manually create the label when the package is ready to be shipped. In the delivery widget, you will see a link with the text 'Create shipping label'. By clicking this, the package will be registered with the provider, and we will receive the track & trace information.

Once the package is registered and the label is created, the link changes to the track & trace number. By clicking on the number, the shipping provider's track & trace page will open, where the customer can follow the package. Next to the link is also a copy button to copy the number.

Print or download shipping label

The created label must, of course, be affixed to the box. For this, you can download or print the label for each package.

Remove shipment

If you have made a mistake while packing or selecting the correct method, you can still remove the shipment. This is only possible for packages that are not yet in transit or delivered.

Manually set package to in transit

After creating the shipping label and attaching it to the package, you can manually set the package status to in transit by clicking 'Send package' in the menu. For shipping providers that automatically provide this feedback when scanned at the sorting center, such as MyParcel, you do not need to do this.

Manually set package to delivered

A package with the status 'In transit' can then be manually marked as delivered. You can do this per package.

Once all the packages of your order have been delivered, the order will be completed automatically and will have the status "Closed". You are now completely finished sending your order.