Perform Bulk Actions to Make the Shipping Process Seamless

Overview

Keeping a tab over outstanding payments and awaiting shipments is imperative to keep your business in a pole position. And if you're an established brand, you must try hard to win the race against time so that core business activities get the due attention.

By letting you perform bulk actions, AfterShip Shipping helps you save you a significant amount of time and effort.

How to perform bulk actions

Go to your AfterShip Shipping account's Order section. This is where you can manage and track all your shipments and their statuses.
Navigate to any of the dashboards. In AfterShip Shipping, there are various dashboards that categorize orders based on their current status. These are:

Dashboard	Definition
Pending payment	This dashboard shows orders where the payment has not yet been completed. You can monitor payments that are still in progress.
Awaiting shipment	This dashboard displays orders that have been paid but are yet to be shipped. It's a place to see which orders are waiting to be processed and dispatched.
Label generated	Here you’ll find orders for which shipping labels have been created but have not yet been shipped. This means the order is ready for shipment, but it hasn't physically left yet.
Shipped	This dashboard tracks orders that have been shipped and are currently in transit. It provides an overview of completed shipments.
All orders	This shows a comprehensive list of all your orders, regardless of their status. You can view all orders from any of the above categories in this dashboard.

For each dashboard, there are multiple bulk-actions supported to facilitate a smoother and error free shipping process that comes handy when you are handling a large volume of orders.
Bulk actions are especially useful when shipping products of the same category or type, as they allow you to apply similar settings across shipments, such as carrier, service type, packaging, customs, and warehouse.
Instead of manually filling in the information for each, you can add information for all in one go depending on the current status of the package.

If you've opted for the Awaiting shipment option, select those shipments on which you want to perform a bulk action. These will be your choices under the Actions tab.

Bulk Action	Description	Additional information
Create label	Generate shipping labels for multiple orders at once.	You will get the preview of all the labels on a single window to print all of them at once.
Set carrier/service/package	Assign a specific carrier, shipping service, and package type to multiple orders.	This action is helpful when you are shipping the same type or the same product that follows the same shipping process.
Set package size	Define the size of the package (e.g., small, medium, large) for all selected shipments.
Set total package weight	Enter the total weight for the entire package, applied to all selected shipments.
Add additional package weight	Add extra weight (e.g., for packaging materials) to the total package weight.
Set ship from locations	Specify the location (warehouse or fulfillment center) where items are being shipped from.	This action is helpful when you are shipping the same type or products and they are being shipped from the same warehouse location.
Set items info	Input or update the item details (e.g., origin, HS code, weight) for multiple orders. You can also select whether the information added will Apply to all SKUs or Apply to same SKU.	Apply to all SKUs: The same information (like origin, HS code, or weight) will be applied to every product (SKU) in the selected orders, regardless of whether they are the same or different items.
		Apply to same SKU: The information will only be applied to the same type of item (SKU) across different orders.
Set customs	Add or update customs information for international shipments.	This includes setting the Purpose of the package like Merchandise, Gift, Sample, Return, Repair, or Personal. Simultaneously, select the type of Duty and Tax that will be applied to these packages.
Print packing slip	Print packing slips for all selected orders in bulk.
Split order	Divide an order into multiple shipments, either by item or other criteria.
Create returns	Generate return requests for multiple shipments at once.
Print return labels	Print return labels for the selected shipments in bulk.
Print return invoices	Print invoices for the returns associated with selected shipments.

In case you go for the Pending payment option, you'll get all the choices shown above. The only difference is you get one additional option of Move to awaiting shipment, so select it when required. This action means that orders have been paid for but not yet shipped.

If you've selected the Label generated option, you'll get these choices for the bulk action: Mark as shipped, Print labels, and Print invoice.



For shipments under Shipped and All orders dashboard, you can create labels, and print labels, invoices, packing slips, return labels, and return invoices all at once.

Updated on: 14/01/2025