Three Ways to Send: Picking the Right IEX Send Method
Creating a send in IEX starts with a choice. Three methods, each built for a different situation.
Sending welcome kits to twelve new hires is a different job than getting four cases of product to a tradeshow booth, and both operate differently than dropping a claim link in a Slack channel and letting people grab what they want.
Each of those needs different information from you. A shipment to a booth doesn’t need a claim page. A Slack link doesn’t need a recipient list. So rather than asking every question every time, the portal asks you which job you’re doing first, then only asks for what that job requires.
If you’ve been using IEX for a while, this replaces something you’ll recognize. The dashboard used to give you four separate starting points: Create Send, Create Bulk Send, Create One Link, and Create Direct Send. You had to know which one you needed before you started.
Now there’s one. Create Send opens a single door and asks what kind of send you’re making. Bulk isn’t a separate button anymore, it’s a CSV upload inside the recipient flow or just adding a few people at a time. One Link became Share via link. Direct Send became Ship to location. Same capabilities, one entry point, and the portal does the sorting for you.
Most of the time you’ll know which one you need within a second or two. But the difference between them isn’t always obvious the first time, and picking the wrong one means backing out and starting over. Here’s how to choose.
The three methods
They all end the same way, with product in someone’s hands. What separates them is how much you know about who’s receiving it and how they get it.
Send to recipients. Use this when you know exactly who’s getting something. You add people individually or upload a CSV, and each one gets an email with a link to claim their gift. This is the path for onboarding, milestones, anniversaries, and anything where you have a list of names in front of you.
Share via link. Use this when you want a single URL you can hand out without collecting recipient details upfront. Drop it in Slack, send it in a DM, post it, put it on a slide. People claim through the link and enter their own information. This is also the method with the most control built in: you can set a redemption cap, add password protection, limit claims to specific email domains, or require two-factor verification.
Ship to location. Use this when you’re sending to a place, not to people. Tradeshow booths, event venues, a regional office. No claim page, no recipient email, no back and forth. The boxes just get there.
The quickest way to decide: do you have a list of people, a list of nobody, or an address?
What’s the same no matter which you pick
The three paths diverge, but they share a foundation. Knowing it once means you’re oriented in all three.
Items work the same way. Every send starts at the catalog. Choose a pre-built kit or assemble one from your own inventory, adjusting quantities as you go. A running summary of what’s in the send stays visible on the right side of the screen.
Settings live in one place. Notifications, timing, and record-keeping sit in a panel alongside your work rather than behind a separate screen.
Address Book is available throughout. Save destinations once and pull them in later. You can also restrict recipients to a pre-approved list of locations instead of letting them enter any address.
Business reasons and internal notes. Every send asks what it’s for and gives you space for notes your team can see. This is what makes your Delivery Reports worth reading three months from now.
Scheduling and grouping. Place an order now and hold it for a future release date. Or combine multiple orders headed to the same Address Book location into a single shipment instead of a stream of separate boxes.
Step by step
Full walkthroughs for each method live in the knowledge base:
Questions about any of it: support@imprintengine.com.