An integral part of a publisher’s business, shipping is rarely as simple as mailing a product. In this post, we’re sharing how Multipub handles the complexities that come with a wide-variety of offerings.

Multipub’s shipping capabilities were designed to automate time-consuming and often manual tasks. From the shipping screen, users can complete jobs, such as producing shipping logs, packing slips, shipping labels, or electronic files all the way to shipping completion. In fact, inventory is checked and reduced automatically when something is shipped. Because it interfaces with external systems, like UPS and FedEx, it can even pull in tracking numbers, store hyperlinks and reveal when a delivery was made.

When it comes to subscription products, the system knows future orders for that issue must be shipped individually as a back issue after it has been fulfilled. Then, shipping records are automatically created for these back issues. New products that are not yet available can be set-up to automatically ship, as soon as they come in stock. Shipping can also be used for digital products, if an email is to be sent to the recipient.

Premiums or add-ons can be shipped upon order or payment. Companies can specify when an item should ship, as they establish the corresponding premium or promotion code. Then, shipping records are created for each item based on that pre-determined criteria.

Products that don’t ship out in a traditional way can also be tracked through Multipub. At the product level, you can indicate if an offering, like an event, won’t ship. However, some users like to create shipping records for events, so they can defer payment until after it occurs.