Beyond Standard Shipping - February, 2009

Standard shipping on items is just the beginning. Allowing for different delivery methods can be a benefit to both you and your customers. We're talking about more than just faster shipping (though that's always a great option to include as well). We recommend you consider in-store pickup as well as on-site delivery depending on your customer base.

In its annual online retailer survey, e-tailing.com found that a growing number of online shopping outlets are offering free shipping to a store for pickup. In 2007, only 15 percent of retail stores selling online included such an option, while in 2008 that percentage had grown to almost 26. In-store pickup has benefits for both you and your customers. First it reduces the number of returns for wrong sizes or errors; customers can try it on before walking out the door with their order. It gives you a chance to pull a few suggested items as add-ons to what they've already ordered. Plus customers can take their time ordering from home or the office and know that their items will be in stock waiting for them if they are in a hurry. Just think of a nurse being able to pickup her scrubs on lunch break, or a police officer grabbing a replacement pair of pants on his way to work. They get their order faster than shipping it, and you get another chance to hone those customer service skills.

Another option that may suit your customers is site delivery. This may be impractical for individual customers, but if you handle group or department orders, this is an excellent opportunity to provide some value-added service. Your customers again will save on shipping individual orders, and it will encourage them to gather together for a group purchase (which equals larger orders for you). One of our UMSS users, American Wear, uses this option for delivering school uniform orders. They arrive at the school with parents' orders tagged by student name. It would also work for police departments, medical offices, security firms, hotels, restaurants and other industries. The pre-paid orders can be double checked by the customer, and you have another option to display additional accessories for on-the-spot purchase. Of course, include a catalog, postcard or flyer in each bag to promote your other products as well as your online store website.

Shipping options give the customer more control of their order, encouraging a more flexible shopping experience and increased shopping experience satisfaction. It works for both retailers and manufacturers (just send customers to a distributor of your merchandise). The UniformMarket StoreSystem is capable of handling both in-store pickup and site delivery shipping options with minimal labor involved. If you're ready to add these value-added options, call or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to request the functionality to be added to your UMSS.

We all know that in the uniform industry a product's price is determined by many factors. One criterion that often affects a price is the size of the garment. The ability to set how oversizes are priced is a key benefit to the UniformMarket Store System.

Here is a look at how to set your oversize prices so they can be different than your base price for a garment.

Go into to your UMSS Admin. Find a product you wish to edit and then select General SKUs. In this example, the 2X sizes are $2 more than the other sizes, and the oversize charges are locked in by checking the price lock box next to the price.

General SKUs are not the SKUs that are automatically displayed in the Public or Private Stores. Instead, the General SKUs are used to populate the Store-Specific SKUs. The General SKUs flow to the Store-Specific SKUs when the product is added to a Store. The Store-specific SKUs will be the same as the General SKUs unless they, the Store-specific SKUs, are overridden and have their price lock boxes checked.

Here is the product illustrated above when it has been added to a Store:

It is important to note that the 2XL SKUs in the Store have taken the higher price from the General SKUs and they do not have their price override box checked. That is because the General SKU prices flow from the General SKUs to the Store SKUs.

If a change is made to the General SKUs they will be reflected in the Store SKUs, if the price lock boxes in the Store SKUs are not checked.

If you want to disassociate one or many of the Store SKUs from the General SKUs (to prevent price changes to the General SKUs from affecting the prices of the Store SKUs), you need to check one or all of the price lock boxes in the Store SKUs as shown below:

In this example, we wanted to offer all sizes of this product at a $2 discount in this Store, so we disassociated the SKU prices in the Store from the General SKU prices and marked them all down $2.

And that's how you set oversize prices. Still confused? Look for this topic and more help at www.uniformmarket.com/help.

You can also schedule a training session with a UMSS production team member (included in your monthly licensing). Email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to schedule a training session