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Platform Recap Q1 2019
April 25, 2019
Q1 was a very busy month following peak holiday season here at Ingram Micro Commerce and Lifecycle Services! See below for a detailed re-cap of product updates and newsworthy things to keep you up to date:
- New Business Report: Order Details This report provides details on orders over a 6-month period at the SKU level by warehouse and status. This information can be helpful for inventory management and planning. Learn more here.
- Updated Receiving Guide
We’ve recently revised our Inbound Receiving Guide to optimize and streamline the receiving process. We encourage you to review the revised Receiving Guide as you plan your inbound inventory to avoid any unnecessary delays or additional labor charges.
What’s changed?
- Delivery personnel identification requirements, page 18
- Loma, CA scheduling hours and instructions, page 19
- New Lenox, IL updated scheduling email address, page 19
- Daventry, UK new scheduling address, page 20
- Custom Commercial Invoices To ensure Commercial Invoice compliance, we’ve removed the ability to upload custom commercial invoices to the Shipwire Platform. Existing custom commercial invoices are now obsolete and the $7.50 fee/upload no longer applies. Requests for slight customizations to a standard template can be processed through our Customer Care Team or the assigned Account Manager.
- Reminder – Lithium Battery Shipping Effective January 2019, there is an additional $0.20/order outbound handling fee for any order containing a lithium battery to cover additional carrier labeling and compliance requirements. The charge is visible in the Shipwire UI and billing CSV details file. On the billing statement, the fee is rolled up into Outbound Handling Charges.
- Reminder – Acceptable Use Policy Please be sure to review our Acceptable Use Policy to verify your products are in compliance with our shipping policies. The list contains, but is not limited to ammunition & firearms, explosive or hazardous products, products related to illegal activities, etc.
- New Third Party Carrier Hold Logic New logic was deployed on April 17th to help mitigate failing third party carrier (TPC) order errors and provide greater visibility to all parties when an order encounters an issue. When a TPC-related error occurs, new logic will attempt to resolve the issue automatically so that the order can submit to the warehouse successfully, relieving the order of any shipping delays. If the error cannot be resolved, the order will be placed on hold. This is in an effort to resolve order issues in the Shipwire Platform before they are received by our Operations teams.
- API Improvements We have made several improvements to our APIs, including the ability to cache Stock API responses for Shopify and improving the performance of Order & Fulfillment APIs.
- Action Required – Tilburg (Netherlands) and Daventry & Laughton Lewes (UK) Facilities Only Please contact your account manager or customer care team to provide your European Union Registration and Identification number (EORI) and Value Added Tax identification number (VAT) number as soon as possible. Orders without this information are subject to delays and holds.
- Reminder – Export Orders All product SKUs intended for export in your Shipwire Product Catalog need to include the Country of Origin and a Harmonized System code. All export orders require this information; failure to provide these details for all products on an export order will result in order holds and delays. When shipping internationally from the U.S., please also include a valid ECCN and HTS code.
- Reminder – TNT/Spring Routing to Asendia in Laughton-Lewes, GBR Facility
Effective Friday, March 29th, all orders fulfilled with Spring Global Mail/TNT Post from our Laughton-Lewes, GBR facility will be routed through Asendia. The carrier code and in the Shipwire Platform will remain unchanged, however, tracking will reflect Asendia moving forward. Carrier rates remain the same. The Spring Global Mail/TNT Post services impacted are:
- TNT PTH – TNT Pakket 30kg
- PTW – TNT Pakket 20kg
- Reminder – Shipping to P.O. Box Addresses – Eastern Creek, Australia We’ve updated our systems to support changes to Australian postal regulations. As a result, we no longer have the ability to ship to Australian P.O. box addresses from our Eastern Creek, Australia facility. All shipments to customers within Australia must now specify a recognized, deliverable street address based on the Australia Post mail delivery database.
- Reminder General Rate Increases for Tilburg, Netherlands Facility This change is in response to increased carrier contract rates, which have risen steadily since 2016. The average increase across carriers is approximately 6%, and was implemented in the Shipwire Platform on April 1, 2019.
- Reminder – General Rate Increases for DHL Global Mail, FedEx, USPS and UPS
The following changes were updated in the Shipwire Platform in January 2019.
- FedEx Changes: Average increase of average of 4.9%.
- UPS Changes: Average increase of average of 4.9%.
- USPS Changes: Average increase of average of 4.1%.
- DHL Global Mail: Average increase of average of 4.9%.
- Reminder – Rate Changes for Canada Post and Purolator
Changes affecting Canada Post and Purolator shipments were implemented through the Shipwire Platform on January 13, 2019.
- Canada Post Changes: Canada Post Premium, Standard and Per Item rates increased by an overall weighted average of 4.4%.
- Purolator Changes: Purolator General List rates increased by an average of 4.9%.
- Reminder – Hong Kong Post & FedEx Hong Kong General Rate Increases
These general rate increases were implemented in the Shipwire Platform on February 1, 2019.
- Hong Kong Post Changes: Only Hong Kong Post Speedpost service were subject to the 2019 general rate increase. Speedpost rates increased 5.6%. In addition, all shipments via Hong Kong Post are now subject to a $1.00 USD per package service fee to cover transportation from the Shenzhen, CHN warehouse to the Hong Kong Post hub and associated Hong Kong Post processing fees.
- FedEx Hong Kong Post Changes: FedEx International Economy rates increased by an average of 2.1%.
- See our latest blog posts for insider industry information:
- Brexit – How it Might Impact Your Fulfillment & Logistics
- What to Look for When Searching for a Third-Party Logistics Provider (3PL) in Canada
- Ingram Micro Services at Shoptalk 2019
- Other Publications:
- Case Study: Best Buy Canada
- Ingram Micro and Zalando Officially Open First Fulfilment Centre in the Nordics
- eCommerce & Logistics in Germany
- Fulfillment from Daventry, UK
- Infographic: eCommerce in the Canadian Apparel Industry
- 3PL Behind the Scenes: Fulfillment During Peak Season Video
- Transport Topics Top 50 3PLs 2019 – Ingram Micro #13!
- Fulfillment Center Schedule Be sure to stay up to date with warehouse closures and holidays.