Quick and efficient delivery is crucial for an ecommerce retailer. One simple manner to enhance the packing course of and improve customer service is to easily add a packing slip to every order.
A packing slip takes just some minutes to create, however it will possibly prevent effort and time by making certain correct supply of your merchandise. Study extra about when to incorporate a packing slip, and obtain Shopify’s free packing slip template to get began.
What’s a packing slip?
A packing slip is a doc containing particulars concerning the gadgets included in a package deal. Packing slips are helpful for each the vendor and the shopper. A packing slip helps the shopper rapidly determine the gadgets included of their order and streamlines the shipping process for the vendor.
A packing slip has two essential features. It serves as a guidelines for the individual packing the order, permitting them to evaluate the packing slip to make sure they included all the things he buyer ordered. After the order has been delivered, the shopper can use the packing slip to examine for lacking gadgets and to assist with returns or exchanges.
What’s a digital packing slip?
Some companies go for a digital packing slip to scale back paper waste. A digital packing slip comprises the identical data as a print packing slip however is distributed through electronic mail or hyperlink.
Britt Martin, the top of partnerships on the sustainable packaging firm Arka, says a digital packing slip “not solely minimizes waste but in addition enhances the shopper’s potential to entry and handle their transaction information.” Sending a digital packing slip ensures you’ve got an simply searchable backlog of all shipped orders and their contents.
What’s the distinction between a packing slip and a delivery label?
Though each assist streamline delivery processes, there are a couple of key variations between packing slips and shipping labels.
For one factor, a packing slip goes inside a package deal, whereas the delivery label goes on the skin. Whereas packing slips assist sellers and prospects, delivery labels are principally for the advantage of shipping carriers, who use them to move packages from one place to a different.
Among the data on a packing slip is identical as what you’ll discover on a delivery label, such because the delivery and supply addresses. However packing slips additionally include details about the package deal’s contents, which you received’t sometimes discover on a delivery label.
Transport labels additionally normally have a bar code that permits the delivery service to rapidly get details about the package deal.
Is a packing slip a receipt?
A packing slip is completely different from a receipt however comprises a few of the similar data. A receipt is a authorized doc confirming that the shopper has obtained items or providers in change for fee.
A packing slip doesn’t affirm that the shopper has obtained their package deal, for the reason that vendor creates the packing slip earlier than delivery.
Who sends a packing slip?
Ecommerce companies that promote bodily items usually ship packing slips as a part of their achievement course of. Companies with excessive return charges—similar to ecommerce style retailers—and people with giant wholesale orders—usually tend to ship packing slips.
Companies that promote items from a number of warehouses or which have a number of events concerned in order fulfillment usually tend to ship packing slips than companies that do all the things in-house. Nevertheless, any ecommerce enterprise can profit from utilizing packing slips for delivery and achievement.
Not all packages want a packing slip. You solely want to make use of a packing slip if it makes the delivery and returns course of simpler for you and your prospects. There are a couple of instances when a packing slip is especially useful, similar to when a number of gadgets in an order are shipped individually.
Advantages of utilizing a packing slip
If most packages don’t require a packing slip, why use one? There are a couple of clear benefits:
Cut back packing errors
The primary purpose ecommerce companies use packing slips is to scale back packing and delivery errors. A print packing slip serves as a guidelines when packing an order and will be particularly useful for orders that include gadgets from completely different warehouses or are despatched in a number of shipments.
For those who’re packing a number of orders without delay, a packing slip permits you to simply match packages to their delivery labels, for the reason that packing slip consists of the shopper’s deal with.
Streamline returns
Packing slips make returns, replacements, and exchanges simpler as a result of the shopper has all the data they want—together with SKU or merchandise numbers—to start out a return. In fact, they’ll examine their order affirmation, however print packing slips make issues simpler for the shopper—particularly in the event that they obtain plenty of packages or in the event that they unintentionally deleted the order affirmation electronic mail.
💡Study extra: How To Write a Return Policy (+ Free Template)
Enhance customer support
A packing slip is an additional service you possibly can present your prospects, permitting them to rapidly and simply confirm they obtained all the things of their order. It’s additionally a chance so as to add slightly one thing additional, similar to customized branding or a fast hand-written thank-you note.
“Even the smallest components, like packing slips, supply a chance to strengthen model id,” Britt says.
Guarantee protected supply
A packing slip can come in useful if a delivery label will get broken. If the service can’t learn the label, they’ll open the package deal and see the shopper’s deal with, the return deal with, and call data for each events.
What to incorporate in a packing slip
Each packing slip ought to embrace:
- The order quantity and order date
- An itemized record of all the things within the order, together with every merchandise’s amount, SKU quantity, UPC quantity, and/or product quantity
- Contact data for the shopper, together with: buyer title, delivery deal with, billing deal with, and telephone quantity and/or electronic mail deal with
- Contact data for the vendor, together with: your organization title, return deal with, web site, telephone quantity, and/or electronic mail deal with
- Transport service and delivery technique
Relying on the order, you might also wish to embrace:
- A short product description for every merchandise
- The situation of every merchandise in your warehouse
- The load and quantity of every package deal and the full weight of the cargo
- Variety of packages or pallets within the order
- Directions for how you can return merchandise and what to do if there’s an issue with the order
- Directions from the shopper, similar to requests for present wrapping or diminished packaging
How do I make my very own packing slip?
For those who use Shopify, you possibly can create packing slips from the Orders web page of your Shopify Admin. If not, no worries—it’s simple to make your personal packing slip. Right here’s how:
1. Select your template
The simplest approach to create a packing slip is to start out with a free packing slip template that already consists of all of the fields you want. Obtain the packing slip templates beneath, so that you don’t have to start out from scratch. It consists of directions on how you can use it, and you may customise it to your personal enterprise wants and necessities.
2. Customise your template
Customise your template by including your emblem, your model colours, your organization title, and different data that can keep the identical for all orders, similar to a return deal with or a thank-you message. You now have a customized template that you should use to create packing slips for all future orders.
3. Fill out the template
Now that you’ve got your personalized template able to go, you possibly can merely plug within the particulars for every order, together with the order quantity, delivery deal with, and record of things.
4. Print your packing slip
Use the printed packing slip as a guidelines when packing the order, after which embrace it within the package deal for the shopper’s reference.
Packing slip FAQ
Why do you want a packing slip?
A packing slip allows you to hold observe of all the things you place into an order and ensures you ship the order to the proper place. It additionally offers a helpful reference for the shopper.
What’s the distinction between a packing slip and a purchase order order?
A purchase order order could appear like a packing slip, however they’re two various things. A purchase order order is a authorized doc; a packing slip just isn’t. Moreover, packing slips are created by sellers, whereas buy orders are created by patrons. A purchase order order will even embrace particulars about fee technique, whereas a packing slip is not going to.
What data will be discovered on a packing slip?
At minimal, a packing slip wants a listing of every merchandise within the order, with portions (to make sure the proper gadgets find yourself within the package deal) and the shopper’s delivery deal with (so you possibly can match the package deal to the delivery label).
What’s the distinction between a packing slip and an bill?
Invoices go to the individual or enterprise that paid for the acquisition, whereas packing slips go to the delivery deal with (typically these are the identical). Invoices are sometimes despatched earlier than receiving fee, each to request fee and for the client and vendor’s monetary information. Invoices are extra frequent when promoting wholesale or offering providers; packing slips will be present in each wholesale and direct-to-consumer packages.
Do you want a packing slip for worldwide shipments?
For worldwide shipments, you’ll have to fill out a customs declaration type, also referred to as a industrial bill. The customs type comprises a lot of the identical data because the packing slip, so it is sensible to create them on the similar time. The distinction between a customs type and a packing slip is that the customs type goes on the skin of the package deal and features a Harmonized System code.
