Tech Update #23: Platform Updates

#23

Hey there,

From more international shipping updates to better pallet and SKU reports, let's dive in.

PORTALS

Shipping cost estimate feature

Non-credit card portals will now display an estimated shipping cost at checkout. It’s currently available for domestic shipments. When enabled, users will see an estimated shipping cost range labeled as approximate and subject to change. Estimates won’t display when an accurate cost calculation isn't possible (e.g. orders with hazmat items or an invalid address).

SHIPPING

Express DDP shipping option

We’ve added Express DDP as a shipping method option when placing orders through Inventory Management. This international option compares UPS and FedEx rates to select the most cost-effective delivered-duty-paid method, with delivery in 2-6 business days. We’ve also introduced a new “Recommended” setting for the “International Shipping Methods” selector, which surfaces our most commonly used options and is selected by default for new programs. Express DDP will appear in Inventory Management whenever “Recommended” or “All” is selected.

REPORTS

More accurate excess SKU and pallet billing

We’ve improved how we calculate excess SKUs and pallets in the Fulfillment Report to better reflect actual usage. Instead of relying solely on end-of-quarter SKU and pallet counts, we now use month-end counts for each month in the quarter and sum them. This ensures we bill more accurately. To make this clear, the Fulfillment Report now shows monthly subtotals under the “Excess SKUs” and “Excess Pallets” line items, making it easy to see how each month’s counts contributed to the quarterly total.

ORDERS

Email addresses shown for authorized user portals

For orders placed through portals that use an authorized user list, we no longer obfuscate the orderer’s email address. Because program/portal admins and Kotis employees can already see these emails on the Users page, we now display them in full on the internal order details page and in reports. This change is intended to strategically reduce friction from our PII controls.

Other updates

Portal‑specific carts: Carts are now tied to each portal rather than the user, preventing cross‑portal confusion by displaying an empty cart when switching portals.

Approvals - Customer value displayed on $0 items: For listings without a price or listed at $0, we’ve added the SKU’s “customer value” to the approvals page so approvers can quickly see the value of items in an order, even when no price is listed on the portal.

PROGRAMS

New SKU and pallet limit alerts

We’ve added clearer visibility into each program’s SKU and pallet limits on the Fulfillment Report and the Customer Area page so it's easier to make more informed warehousing decisions and avoid end-of-quarter surprises. The limits are shown next to current usage, along with guidance on what to do if limits are exceeded.

Fee notification email: To be proactive about helping reduce your fees, there's now an automated email to notify when your program is on track to incur platform or excess SKU/pallet fees.

The email is sent to all program admins with Owner or Accounting roles (if none, then all Manager roles). To change who gets the email, reach out to your programs team.

Coming Soon

Client editing of category details: Program and portal admins will soon be able to edit portal category details—including updating category images—directly within the platform, reducing reliance on Kotis and supporting faster updates for teams that refresh categories often.
Edit existing discount codes: Discount codes will soon be editable after creation, allowing changes to the value, free‑shipping toggle, expiration date, or code text itself, making promotion management more flexible and reducing the need to create new codes for small updates.
Hide add‑ons from end users: Add‑on items can now be hidden from customer‑facing views while remaining visible internally (order details, commercial invoices), enabling flexible use cases like free stickers, packaging indicators, or surprise gifts that shouldn’t be revealed before the package is opened.
Bulk action updates: New bulk admin tools will allow faster management of discount codes and gift cards, including updating multiple gift cards at once (expiration dates, balances, clearing) and bulk‑hiding discount codes.