I have a question. So, I offer a multitude of delivery options to my customers to give them an array of price ranges. Royal Mail in the UK has both a 1st and 2nd class service, my customers often chose 2nd class which is more affordable but takes a few days longer to arrive, if it’s not urgent. However… Royal Mail 1st & 2nd Class Small Parcel standard service doesn’t offer tracking, however not once has a part never reached its destination since using Royal Mail, the wording of the text in the orange box below, especially the “make sure” part has stumped me and made me now question whether you take tracking in to account when ranking hubs, or are planning to?
Some customers don’t have a budget to pay for tracked delivery and in fact in most cases (if the part is small) a standard A5 padded envelope sent 1st or 2nd class Royal Mail is just fine. The customer should decide what service they’d like and I don’t think hubs have to “make sure” we use tracking wherever possible, that is for the customer to decide.
Could someone at 3D Hubs confirm that tracking is not used in your ranking algorithm or if you’re planning to, please can you explain your reasoning behind it?
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Since nature abhors a vacuum, I will try to explain how I THINK it works. You might contact support@3dhubs to get a direct answer, but if you do, please share it here.
3dhubs does not require tracking for shipping. And of course, a customer ordering a $50 part (sorry, dollars) would rather not pay an extra 10% for tracking when they do not need it. In the US, our postal service is very reliable, so some postage stamps is still a good way to mail.
I like tracking, so I do not ship without it, but it may be something that some customers may simply not want to pay for in some geographic areas.
Also, tracking does not work for many countries that have hubs, although 3dhubs has done a great job of covering a lot of them.
So it is my belief that while you do in fact get ranked on how long it takes you to go from Customer Paid → Shipped, you do not lose in the rankings if you send prints without tracking. This is MY BELIEF.
HOWEVER, your hub is not considered COMPLETED in your settings unless you offer pre-determined standard shipping rates for all your options. This, I BELIEVE, does affect your ranking. I dont do it, so my hub is “INCOMPLETE”. It is impossible in the states to do so with overnight shipping, where one change in zip code can affect overnight by 100%. This was something we discussed with 3dhubs that never got listened too, I’m afraid.
By the way: In 5 years of printing, it never occurred to me to do this: Talk Manufacturing | Hubs
Brilliant idea!
BTW, nice prints.
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@Filemon
@Robin3D
could you guys at Amsterdam HQ answer this one?
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Hi Josef,
this doesn’t affect your ranking. Tracked orders are just a better experience for your customers (Automated messages), so we wanna make sure Hubs provide a tracking code when it’s available.
Adam, 3D Hubs
Note that if you buy postage on-line via https://parcel.royalmail.com/ (a) it’s a bit cheaper and (b) the emailed receipt will include an “Indicia ID” which you can use as a tracking code. This doesn’t work perfectly - last time I looked the status URL didn’t work - but (a) you’ll get an emailed delivery notification from 3dhubs and (b) the user can check https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item to see when a delivery attempt has been made, though there’s no tracking before that.
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Thanks Roger, this is a very useful tip! I’ll look out for it next time I purchase online. Do you use Click and Drop Service or the Online Postage option of Royal Mail?
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In which case, you can check the tracking at the link, and paste the link into your customers order’s comment for scenarios where tracking is not available through the current tracking system 3dhubs uses.
One note to US hubs. You can save on postage at stamps.com vrs what it costs at the post office for USPS. I THINK this is true if you buy postage through paypal as well, and there is no monthly fee like there is at stamps.com. (I still use stamps.com because it is just so fast and easy.)
Sorry about the delay! (Does this system have a way of telling me when there’s been a follow-up to a topic I’m interested in?)
I’m using Click and Drop.
