FineArtStore.com is the online channel for Rochester Art Supply, a second generation family-owned business celebrating more than 60 years of service to the Rochester, NY community. The online store has been in operation for nearly 20 years. It features more than 30,000 products and ships packages to thousands of customers all over the world every year. The company also sells products on Amazon.com and GoBuyRochester.com.

Problem – Order Processing is Too Complicated and Time Consuming

Several years ago, equaTEK Interactive built the company’s current flagship store – FineArtStore.com – using AspDotNetStorefront. At that time, the order fulfillment process demanded the attention of four full-time employees. Their work included downloading the shipping service requests for each order from three different online stores (FineArtStore.com, Amazon.com, GoBuyRochester.com), logging in to and retrieving information from several shipping provider systems (UPS, USPS, FedEx, etc.), printing the shipping labels, and then manually entering the processing status and tracking information for each order into the corresponding storefront’s admin system. The entry of information back into the storefronts was done in bulk once per day, so buyer sometimes had to wait as long as 24 hours to receive order status and tracking information. The average processing time per order was between 10 and 15 minutes.

Solution – The ShipWorks Connector

equaTEK’s software engineers developed the ShipWorks Connector, a software bridge to connect AspDotNetStorefront to ShipWorks. ShipWorks is a powerful desktop application developed by Interactive, Inc. which enables two-way synchronization of order details between online storefronts and shipping providers. ShipWorks is connected to all of the major shipping carriers and can process every type of shipping service available from ground freight to air express. This makes it fast and easy to retrieve shipping rates and print labels. When order processing is complete, ShipWorks automatically and immediately uploads order status and tracking information back into the storefront so that buyers and store owners can track packages. The software also enables easy processing of return packages.

Results – Thousands of Dollars in Savings and Happy Customers

Soon after the ShipWorks Connector was installed, FineArtStore.com was able to reduce the staffing required for order processing from four employees to just one employee. The three remaining employees were reassigned to other areas of the store. The speed, efficiency and accuracy of order processing improved dramatically and the end result was a remarkable improvement in customer service.