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How much time do you spend shipping jewelry in a given week?
Even if it doesn't seem like that much at first, consider all of the ancillary tasks it takes to successfully complete a single shipment:
- Looking up the address for the destination you're shipping to
- Selecting packaging options to get a quote
- Comparing quotes across carriers for the best rates
- Verifying your insurance
- Preparing the merchandise to ship safely
This is just a small sample of every day procedures that most jewelers go through, but your business may have additional checks and balances to guarantee shipments arrive on time, on budget, and securely.
Add it all up and a single package could take a good portion of an hour to send off. You can cut that down to only a few minutes by using an online platform that automates parts of the process for you.
Online platforms and software have probably made your business more productive in many other facets like managing your inventory, transacting at the point of sale, and communicating with your customers. Now it's time to become more productive shipping jewelry.
Before you ship your next package, think about how a platform like JM™ Shipping Solution can put time back on your calendar with features like these.
How to Save Time Shipping Jewelry
1. Keep an address book of common destinations
Chances are that if you're going to send jewelry to a customer or client, you'll probably ship to them again in the future. Why would waste a couple minutes looking up and entering their address to get a quote every time you ship something to them?
JM Shipping Solution lets you save each address that you ship to so you can easily reference again and again. Plus, it validates addresses for you. That way you'll know that the destination you intend to ship to is in fact a valid address.
2. Save your shipping preferences
Much like sending to the same address multiple times, you probably use similar carriers, service types, and packaging options when you ship to them. Unlike entering a street, city, state, zip code, your shipping preferences are probably much more complex.
Repeating these details for every shipment gets especially burdensome, but pre-defining these preferences for different scenarios can turn a 10-minute process into a 10-second process. You could save yourself hours over the course of a month, let alone a week!
Now you can use all your extra time to research different options to see if there are better prices if you change parts of your shipping process. The great part about JM Shipping Solution is that saving these preferences gives you the flexibility to change without disruption.
3. Compare options in one place
Now that you've saved your addresses and set your preferences for shipment details, it's time to choose a quote. Finding one that fits your needs and budget can involve searching in many different places, taking notes by hand, and then comparing your notes only to find that prices have changed or options are now unavailable.
RELATED: 4 Tips to Lower the Cost of Shipping Jewelry
For those who suffer from "paralysis by analysis," this is often the most time-consuming shipping activity.
Thankfully, JM Shipping Solution brings the same concept of booking travel online to shipping jewelry. You can easily tweak your shipment details and quickly see how those changes impact prices across the board.
The best option when you started may now be less attractive after you start altering things like your delivery date or the size of your package.
4. Track your packages
After your package has been shipped, the last thing you want to do is spend extra time chasing it down and worrying that it has been lost or stolen. If you thought choosing a quote was a lengthy process, this is definitely not something you want to experience.
If you're shipping with different carriers and not using a platform like JM Shipping Solution, it can be frustrating trying to locate the details of how multiple shipments are progressing towards their different destinations.
The advantage of using the platform here is that you can track packages out with multiple carriers using a single dashboard and view your shipment history in the same way.
Plus, if worst comes to worst, JM Shipping Solution can be used to file a claim.
5. Manage return shipments wisely
Suppose you've managed to send your package quickly and ensure that it arrived safe and sound only to have your customer or client want to return it.
Now you have to rely on another party to coordinate logistics, which is not only time-consuming and potentially more expensive, but also extremely frustrating.
There's a better way than working out details after the fact - JM Shipping Solution allows you to create a return label for the other party involved and you can change the shipping options by carrier, service type, and other details like insurance. You control the details and won’t be charged until the other party prints the label you have designated.
Put the whole jewelry industry at your fingertips.
In addition to JM Shipping Solution, the Zing™ platform features other core products from Jewelers Mutual Group, such as a Diamond Marketplace powered by IDEX, a Jewelry Appraisal Solution leveraging the expertise of Gemworld and much more.
