Farmivore review for PGC Scan and Ship

Nov. 27, 2020

Update to original review: I still can't recommend Scan and Ship highly enough. I could not imagine fulfilling orders without it. It continues to solve multiple problems we encounter in the fulfillment process. We just implemented the "check address" function which ensures not only do we have the right items, but we double check at the end of the order that the box is going to the right house. This is especially important for us since we actually use the app to scan a barcode on the shipping label and eliminate the need to print packing slips, because the items can be viewed in the app. In the occasional situation of a scanner mis-read (which has happened several times, hardware problem) the wrong order would be packed, but now we catch it with the "check address" function by re-scanning the order number on the shipping label AFTER the order is packed. Paul recently gave us a setting that applies a separate "checked by xxx" tag to each checked order according to which device it was fulfilled from. So we can now track who packed each order, in case we have to address a problem. We also just enabled the "fulfill items" function and "Allow Partial Shipments" function to automatically fulfill items straight from the app. It's amazing because we don't use a third-party carrier, we do our own deliveries. In the past, we had to manually mark every order as fulfilled, and it was prone to error. Now, the second a box is packed, the app automatically fulfills all shipped items, and triggers the shipping confirmation email to our customers which we modified to let them know their box is about to go on the delivery van. I can easily now scan through the shopify dashboard and look for "fulfilled" orders which are reflected in real time, and track my crew's progress on the day's orders. I can also look for "partially fulfilled" order, and see in real time which boxes have missing items, and need attention for a refund or otherwise. And we modified the confirmation email to show the customer not only what items were shipped, but also which items were out of stock and need to be refunded. As a partial solution to Al-Noor.de problem noted in the review, you can see a date and time stamp in the order timeline IF you have Scan and Ship set to automatically fulfill orders. We have tried several different scanners and devices, and have found that the Inateck Bluetooth scanner is the best one. It's $70, but you get what you pay for. We currently use 10 Inateck scanners with 10 Samsung tablets, and use the shopify app to access Scan and Ship. We had some problems until we realized that you need to permanently marry one scanner to one tablet. Once we did that, everything worked better. Occasionally if there is a delay, the scanner will go to sleep which seems to close out a partially completed order, requiring us to start the order over. But that does not happen often. Original Review: We've been using scan and ship for about 5 months now. We run a 2x per week fulfillment line that boxes 150-300 orders in a morning. Using Scan and Ship, we have eliminated the need to print out a packing slip for the packer fulfilling the order. The packer simply scans the barcode on the delivery label, and the appropriate order is pulled up on their tablet. We needed the items to be sorted by SKU because we sell produce, and heavy items go in the box first. We line them up according to SKU, so it's essential for us to order items that on the list. Paul made that change at our request! We are still working out some hardware issues trying to find a reliable set of scanners and tablets to work with the app, but the app seems to be working very well and I anticipate we will continue using it indefinitely. It also GREATLY reduces the likelihood of human error when fulfilling orders. Most of our items don't have barcodes on them, so we just put the case of apples (or whatever) on the packing line, and print a large barcode which gets attached right in front of the box. When a packer takes a lb of apples from the box, they scan the barcode and move on. If they grab from the wrong box, the app catches it. Highly recommended, I would be devastated if we had to go back to packing from a piece of paper, with all the human error that comes with it.