What do the Extended Batch Shipping Options mean?

Batch shipping allows photographers to hold all orders until a specified batch shipping deadline, when they then get transferred to the lab in a single batch. This allows photographers to offer free shipping as a financial incentive to the customer without taking a hit on the shipping fee for every order. Additionally, some photographers like to add custom frames or packaging to the orders, and since the batch is usually delivered to the photographer, they can easily do this before delivering it to the school. The Extended Batch Shipping options provides you with useful settings that can help you manage customer expectations as well as delivery options. These are available in your main photo job settings page under step 3) Important events, assuming you are using a lab that supports batch shipping. 

Customer Information

After the deadline, photos will be available in (days)... means this many days are added to the batch shipping deadline and customers will see an expected delivery date in the online shop. For example: batch shipping deadline is March 10 and ‘10’ is used in the extended settings here, therefore customers will see that the expected delivery date is March 20. 10-14 days is usually a good number to ensure there’s enough time to process and ship the orders.

Photos are always sent to Establishment. This cannot be changed.

Delivery Information

Pass names from names list… means that student data entered in the Photo Job Settings are automatically transferred to the order. This makes it super easy to see who the order needs to be delivered to.

Show available folders… means that customers can select who to hand the products to from a dropdown menu. Unchecked offers a free text field. Customers can enter the wrong information sometimes, so a dropdown menu is almost always preferred.

Ask for address information in checkout… means that customers will be asked to input their delivery address. This is unnecessary for batch shipping, so leave it unchecked except for special circumstances.