In this guide 6 sections
Buy an add-on when every recipient gets the same hamper and one printed line, and test it with your messiest real file before paying. Build when each person needs a different card, packing slips must hide prices, or a sold-out component needs a pre-approved swap.
What the upload must do after it reads the file
The buyer sends one spreadsheet. Each row holds a recipient, an address, a hamper choice and a card line, and the store must turn the sheet into one paid order that splits into parcels. Each parcel needs a label and slip.
Most add-ons stop at reading rows. They create the shipments, then hand everything else to your packing bench, where a missing card or a priced slip gets caught late and fixed by hand. Judge an add-on by what happens after the import. The import is the easy part.
Check the courier side as well. Labels should come out as a PDF at your printer’s size, or as a manifest file your courier accepts. Each one must tie back to the recipient row it came from.
Address file checks that prevent the reship
Staff files arrive with merged cells, two addresses squeezed into one column and phone numbers stored as plain numbers, so the leading zero vanishes. A sound import reads CSV and XLSX. It shows a review screen first. Nothing is charged until the buyer approves.
Rows that fail go to a hold list, not the bin, and the buyer fixes them in a browser and re-uploads only those lines. Duplicates need a rule too, because one person often appears twice, once under a nickname and once under a full name.
- Postcode that matches the city and region
- Apartment, floor and street in separate columns
- Phone number with a country code for the courier’s delivery text
- Duplicate recipients flagged by name and address
- Destinations you do not ship to rejected at upload
- A delivery week on each row for time-bound gifts
One card per recipient and slips without prices
Test the card first. The message column must print at the right size on your stock, even for the longest note you expect, a surname with accents or an emoji. Many add-ons print one order note.
The packing slip is the other trap. A priced slip tells the recipient what the company paid, which embarrasses everyone, so the gift slip should list items and the sender’s name only. The invoice goes to the buyer alone.
Ask for two templates tied to one order. If the add-on cannot split a gift slip from a buyer invoice, your team will print slips and black out prices by hand, one parcel at a time.
Substitutions when a hamper component runs out
A tin of tea, a ceramic mug or a seasonal chocolate bar sells out in the week before dispatch. The order is paid. The boxes are half packed. Somebody must fill the gap.
Settle the rule before the sale. Print it on the quote, so that when stock runs short the pick list offers the approved swap and writes it against the order. Later complaints find an answer on file.
Check whether an add-on stores the swap against each recipient or only edits the shared product record, because only the first leaves a trail for a later query. Ask to see it done.
- Component and its approved substitute
- Whether the buyer must agree to the swap
- Value ceiling for any replacement
- Who may override at the packing bench
Buy, extend or build: how to decide
Buy when every name gets the same hamper. Install the add-on, push a messy file through its trial, and count the rows it wrongly rejects or wrongly accepts before you pay for a year.
Extend when the add-on handles the upload but not the slips or swaps, since a small script or a connected packing sheet may close that gap. Build when three needs arrive together, a card per name, price-free slips and swaps by rule, because by then you are bending a tool made for single shoppers.
Before the next season, take your last real recipient file, strip the names and run it through each candidate. Keep a list of every row that failed. That list is your requirement.
Bulk upload trial sheet
A one-page worksheet for testing any add-on. Each row is one test, such as a bad postcode, a duplicate name, a very long card message or a sold-out component. Add a gift slip test and a split delivery. The columns are test, sample row used, what happened, pass or fail, and the manual step left over for your packing bench.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can a standard store plugin ship one order to many addresses?
Some can, through a multiple-address feature. Most are built for a shopper sending a few gifts, not a file of names from a company, so test with a file of your usual size.
How do I hide prices on the gift slip?
Use a separate packing slip template that lists item names, quantities and the sender’s message, with the price fields left out. The invoice goes to the buyer.
Who should check the uploaded addresses?
The buyer fixes their own rows. Your system should show each error beside its row, then accept a corrected file that holds only the failed lines and nothing already accepted.
What if a component runs out after the order is paid?
Apply the rule from the quote. Record the swap against each affected recipient, and tell the buyer before dispatch if the rule says they must approve it first.