Tips & Tricks for Black Friday Cyber Monday 2024 Success

It’s nearly that time of year again - Black Friday Cyber Monday 2024 is now only three weeks away, and EasyRoutes is here to help streamline all your deliveries on Shopify. Take advantage of EasyRoutes’ advanced route planning & scheduling, driver tracking, and customer-facing features to delight with every delivery - and leave the stress out of route planning.

We've added lots of new and improved features since last year's BFCM - read on to find out how to take advantage of everything EasyRoutes has to offer this holiday season.

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Customize your EasyRoutes Settings

Fine-tuning your route planning workflows and customer experience has never been easier!  Enable your most-used Route Options and filter views for one-click route creation, or customize your tracking links and order notifications to ensure customers stay informed with every delivery status update:

• Route Options (including maximum route duration, time spent per stop, or avoiding U-turns and toll roads) can be configured from the Add/Edit options button below the map on the Orders or Route pages, or by clicking any route option that's already enabled for a route.
  
  💡 Pro tip: Click the star icon on any enabled Route Option to add it as a favourite and access it directly from your Select Orders page.

• Apply Filters from your Orders page to fine-tune which orders are available for route planning - for example, only orders that are unfulfilled, or those with specific order dates or postal codes.  
  
  💡 Pro tip: Once filters are applied, you can create a Saved View to quickly apply the same set of filters when planning any future route.
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• Customize your Delivery Notifications - via both SMS and email - to match your store's branding and allow customers to monitor the status of their deliveries every step of the way.
  
  New for 2024: Don't forget to configure your Scheduled and Rescheduled notification templates to provide extra touch points with your customers as their delivery is prepared. Different templates are available for Pickup and Task stop types for maximum flexibility, no matter your delivery workflows.
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• Configure Route Scheduling to automatically generate ETAs for all stops on a route, and include them on your Customer Tracking Links - which can also be customized to match your store's branding, or to include real-time driver location tracking!
  
  New for 2024: Routes can now be scheduled for a relative date rather than a fixed calendar date, providing additional flexibility for merchants who frequently deliver on a consistent schedule. Find out how to streamline your recurring route planning with example workflows from this support article.

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Plan routes like a pro

EasyRoutes offers a number of tools to streamline planning for routes of all sizes.  From creating multiple optimized routes at the same time to incorporating Driver Breaks and Tasks, level up your route planning with these tips:

• Use EasyRoutes’ “How many routes?” feature to quickly generate multiple routes, splitting orders between drivers to equally balance routes, or to ensure maximum item count or weight criteria are met for each route.
  Use "Create the minimal number of routes needed to deliver" and let EasyRoutes plan routes for all your orders while using the minimum number of drivers possible.
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  💡 Pro tip: Routes planned as a group can be simultaneously tracked live from a single Tracking tab!‍

• Access the EasyRoutes Address Book to import and save customer information for stops your drivers visit frequently.  
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  💡 Pro tip: Stop notes, time window preferences, and time spent per stop settings can also be retained for any stop saved to the Address Book.
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• Give your drivers a break!  Configure EasyRoutes’ Driver Breaks feature to specify time windows for drivers to take a break between stops on busy routes.
  
  New for 2024: Use EasyRoutes' Driver Tasks route option to assign additional steps and reminders for your drivers before they can mark a stop complete, including checklists, text & number input tasks, or barcode scanning tasks.

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Monitor all your deliveries & pickups in real time

EasyRoutes provides all the tools you need to monitor the status of your deliveries once they’re on the move, share that information with your customers in real time, and use historic route data to improve your local delivery workflows:

• Your EasyRoutes Dashboard provides at-a-glance information of recently planned and completed routes, as well as real-time updates of a driver’s progress on any active routes. Configure how many items to display, their sort order, and how far back to fetch routes from via your EasyRoutes Settings > General tab, within the Dashboard page options section.
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  New for 2024: Stops that have recently been marked as Attempted will display as a standalone card in the Dashboard, providing quick access to any recent stops that may require re-delivery.
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• Keep an eye on Proof of Delivery photos, notes, eSignatures and GPS delivery locations - they’ll be available to view in the Proof column of an active route's Tracking tab as soon as they’re uploaded by your drivers.
  
  New for 2024: Any barcodes scanned using the Proof of Delivery note or Driver Tasks feature are now also accessible via any route's tracking tab for quick reference.

• Use EasyRoutes’ export feature to download a spreadsheet containing all route and stop data for advanced route analysis and record keeping.
  
  New for 2024: Access your EasyRoutes Analytics tab for detailed information on all of your drivers and deliveries, including success rates, distance driven, drive time and more.

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Questions or issues?  We’re here to help!

The EasyRoutes support team is here to answer any questions you may have, both throughout the Black Friday Cyber Monday long weekend, and in the days to come as your holiday orders hit the road.  We’ll be closely monitoring everything EasyRoutes to ensure all your deliveries go off without a hitch.  If you run into any issues or have questions along the way, contact our team at any time - we’ll be happy to provide guidance and support to get your deliveries on the move as quickly as possible.  The EasyRoutes support portal is open 24/7 and provides answers to frequently asked questions and detailed information on all EasyRoutes features and functionality.

Happy BFCM 2024 from all of us at EasyRoutes! 🛒🚗✨