We recently wanted to get a better handle on shipping packages for YumDrop via USPS. Ecometry has support for USPS, but only using what they call an Indicia Permit stamp. The problem with this is the minimums the USPS requires you to meet in order to use this. You have to ship at least 50lbs or 200 pieces to even qualify to ship this way. You also have to go through a lengthy verification process and drop the packages off yourself. Not ideal.

So some reps from USPS came down to visit and suggested we use Endicia to ship via USPS. Its a low cost, easy to use solution. It’s a monthly subscription program starting at $9.95 and topping out at $34.95 per month. There are no meters to rent and it can run on any computer. All of the software is included with the monthly fee.

Cool! Next step, Ecometry integration. Well, no surprise, there isn’t one from Ecometry directly. So I called our USPS rep and talked to him about solutions. He said he’d call Endicia and see what we could do. Turns out Endicia has an import/export product called Endicia Galaxy that can pull data into Endicia and push it back out to Ecometry. Even better, you can use a bar code scanner to basically scan the barcode on a collate and it will auto-populate the shipping address fields in the Endicia DAZzle postage printing software.

It all basically works through and ODBC connection that you set up as part of the Endicia Galaxy installation program. Galaxy can pull the order and shipment information straight from Ecometry when you scan the package so that it can print the label automatically for you. Really cool!

The one gotcha here is that Galaxy can’t read from multiple tables, which is how Ecometry stores its data. What you can do is set up a SQL View to pull the data from. I found this document in the Ecometry Google Group thread on how to set this stuff up. It’s from Scott Lohmann of republicoftea.com, so I want to give him credit there. You can basically follow this to the T, however…

I did encounter one problem. Scott’s example view SQL code only pulls information from the CUSTOMER’s table. The issue here is if your order has a different ship-to address than bill-to address, then the wrong address gets printed on the label. Laura Smith from swell.com pointed me in the right direction. After you ship confirm a package, it will show up in the MANIFESTENTRIES table. In here will be all of the information regarding the package and where its going. So you can pull the information right from there! You can download a copy of the SQL code for this view here.

Now I’m left with a couple of issues to sort out. First, I want to post the actual shipping cost and any tracking information back to Ecometry. I think you can do this through a SQL view as well, I just haven’t figured it out. Also, it looks like ESM keeps a connection to the shipping scale open, so Galaxy can’t pull the package weight in directly. I have to enter it manually. And lastly, when you scan the package barcode, you have to remove the last digit. Its not part of the order number, but some flag Ecometry puts on the end there. A little annoying, but workable.

All in all, I’d say this works great. Way better than doing it by hand through usps.com or printing postage from a postage meter. You can just generate the labels as you ship confirm packages.