Auto-Routing Currently in Beta
Shipping orders from multiple locations? If yes, we invite you to join our Auto-Routing Beta Program. Auto-Routing splits orders based on product location and assigns the closest shipping locations automatically!
Complete this form to request access to the Auto-Routing Beta Program and one of our team members will reach out to you.
Auto-Routing is a feature that determines how to best fulfill orders based on which warehouses stock the order items and which warehouses are closest to the recipient’s address. For orders with multiple items that need to be shipped from multiple locations, Auto-Routing will split the order and route each shipment from the proper warehouse.
Additionally, Auto-Routing allows you to:
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Prioritize shipping from the closest Ship From Location(s) to the customer using as many individual shipments as needed.
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Prioritize the fewest number of Ship From Locations that can fulfill the most order items and are closest to the customer. This will avoid splitting the order unless necessary, even if the Ship From is further away.
When Auto-Routing cannot determine the correct course of action, it moves the order to the Planning status so that any issues can be reviewed and fixed. Once resolved, the order can be moved to the Awaiting Shipment or On Hold status.
Reasons an order cannot be routed include:
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The Ship To address could not be verified
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There are items in the order that do not have a Ship From Location assigned
Learn more about the Planning Status in the Configure Auto-Routing help article.
This article discusses the benefits of Auto-Routing, explores a few examples of how orders can be routed, and takes an in-depth look at the logic used by the Auto-Routing feature. To learn how to assign Ship From Locations to your products and enable Auto-Routing, review our Configure Auto-Routing help article.
Available on the High Volume Plan
Currently, the Auto-Routing feature is available to accounts on the High Volume subscription plan.
Let's explore a few use cases and examine the logic used to auto-route orders in each scenario.
The use cases found below are represented in the following flow chart:
In this scenario, there are multiple Ship From Locations that stock only some of the items, but there is only one Ship From Location that stocks all of the items in an order.
The logic that Auto-Routing uses works like this:
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Does the order have a valid Ship To address?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are all items in the order assigned to a Ship From Location?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are any items in the order available from more than one Ship From Location?
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NO → Route the order from the only Ship From Location that can fulfill the order.
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In this scenario, Auto-Routing is configured to ship from the closest Ship From Location(s), geographically, to the customer - no matter how many shipments need to be created - so that the customer receives the order as quickly as possible.
The logic that Auto-Routing uses works like this:
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Does the order have a valid Ship To address?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are all items in the order assigned to a Ship From Location?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are any items in the order available from more than one Ship From Location?
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YES → Route each item in the order from the closest Ship From Location that can ship the item.
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In this scenario, Auto-Routing is configured to ship orders from the fewest number of Ship From Locations to save on the total shipping cost, even when the items are not shipped from the closest warehouse to the customer.
The logic that Auto-Routing uses works like this:
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Does the order have a valid Ship To address?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are all items in the order assigned to a Ship From Location?
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NO → Place the order into the Planning status for review.
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YES → Are any items in the order available from more than one Ship From Location?
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YES → Route the order from the closest Ship From Location(s) that can fulfill the most items on the order.
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If an order can be fulfilled from multiple Ship From Locations that are located the same distance from the customer, Auto-Routing will assign the Ship From alphabetically based on the Ship From Location names.
For example: Both the North St. Louis and the South St. Louis Ship From Locations have all of the items for an order and are located the same distance from the customer. The order will be assigned the North St. Louis Ship From Location.
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Auto-Routing will not apply to orders manually created in ShipStation.
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Marketplace updates will not apply to orders that have been split into multiple shipments by Auto-Routing.
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Shopify orders containing items with a zero quantity will not be auto-routed. This is so that quantity updates sent from Shopify will be applied to the order in ShipStation.