Use ShipStation’s Split Ship option to split an order into multiple shipments so that you can ship items separately. Using the Split Ship feature you can:
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Split orders into multiple shipments: Create and print a label for each shipment containing the items you specify.
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Create empty shipments: Use an empty shipment to create and print additional shipping labels for the order when items do not necessarily need to be associated with the shipment.
Each shipment created by either method has its own shipment details, tags, notes, packing slip, and unique customer notification emails.
Only shipments in the Awaiting Shipments status can be split.
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Expand the Shipment drop-down menu for the item and select the shipment to which you would like to split it.
What does (creates new) and (new) next to a shipment mean?
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(creates new): Indicates that this shipment will be created and the items added to the new shipment when you save your changes.
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(new) : Indicates that this shipment will be created when you save your changes and that there are other items in the Split Ship pop-up already associated with this shipment
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Repeat the process for each order item you wish to split.
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Click the Save button to confirm your changes and split the shipments.
Clicking cancel or closing the Split Ship pop-up will not save any changes and your updates will be lost.
The items will be split into multiple shipments. Select the shipment you wish to view on the Order Details screen. You can edit the details of each shipment as you would for a single shipment.
The orders are also updated in the Orders Grid to display the multiple shipments associated with the order. Each shipment will be indicated in the Orders Grid as (1 of 2), (2 of 2), and so on.
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Hover over the order item row and select Split.
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Enter the Quantity and select the shipment to which the quantity should be split from the Shipment drop-down menu.
What does (creates new) and (new) next to a shipment mean?
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(creates new): Indicates that this shipment will be created and the items added to the new shipment when you save your changes.
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(new) : Indicates that this shipment will be created when you save your changes and that there are other items in the Split Ship pop-up already associated with this shipment
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Choose Apply.
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Click Save to confirm your changes and split the shipments.
Clicking cancel or closing the Split Ship pop-up will not save any changes and your updates will be lost.
The items will be split into multiple shipments. Select the Shipment tab for the shipment you wish to view on Order Details screen.
The orders will be updated in the Orders Grid to display the multiple shipments associated with the order. Each shipment will be indicated in the Orders Grid as (1 of 2), (2 of 2), and so on.
The Split Ship Pop-Up
Did you know you can...
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Click an item name to open the Product Details for the item.
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Sort the items (ascending/descending order) in the Split Ship pop-up by clicking on the column header.
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Check if your marketplace supports partial fulfillment statuses.
We recommend you verify that your marketplace supports the partial fulfillment status before splitting orders in ShipStation.
This confirmation is especially important for customer notifications because some marketplaces may notify customers that the entire order is fulfilled when only the first shipment has been created. We suggest using ShipStation’s customer email notifications in this case so ShipStation can send notifications per shipment.
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Split shipments cannot use the Branded Returns feature in ShipStation.
If you offer your customers self-service returns with ShipStation's Branded Returns feature, they will not be able to complete their return request if the order has been split into multiple shipments.
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Orders with split shipments are no longer updated with changes from the marketplace.
Orders containing split shipments will no longer be updated by the marketplace.
Create another shipment when you need more than one shipping label for an order, but items do not necessarily need to be associated with the shipment record.
For example, a single line item on an order may need to be packaged into more than one box for shipping. Creating another shipment allows you to configure the additional shipment, then create and print the shipping label.
To create another shipment for an order:
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Click the order number on the Orders Grid to open the Order Details screen.
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Select the Create Shipment (
) button in the Shipments left-side panel.
A new shipment is created in the order and displayed in the Order Details screen.
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Configure the shipment, create, and print the shipping label as you would for any other shipment.
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Delete a shipment by clicking the Remove Shipment button (
) to the right of the shipment in the left-side Shipments menu.
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It is possible to split items into the other shipments during the Split Ship process.
If you are using ShipStation's Legacy Layout and need to ship only part of an order or ship the items in the order as separate shipments, ShipStation allows you to split an order into multiple orders so you can create separate labels for each shipment.
You may receive a single order with multiple items that need to be shipped separately. Or one item on the order may be fulfilled by a third-party fulfillment service (like FBA) while the other item is shipped from your own warehouse. In this case, ShipStation allows you to split the order into multiple orders so you can create separate shipments for them.
Before You Split Orders!
Not all selling channels support the shipment update we send after an order has been split.
At this time, orders split in ShipStation for Amazon, OpenSky, SellerActive, or TradeGecko will not update correctly on the selling channel, and so we do not recommend splitting orders from these selling channels in ShipStation. If you have done so, you will need to manually update the selling channel with your shipment information. See our Integrations Guide for more information.
To split an order in ShipStation Legacy:
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Select the order to split from the order grid.
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Click the Other Actions menu and select Split Order.
In the pop-up window, there will be a new order number with a suffix (such as -1 or -2) and a list of products in the order.
New Order # Suffix
For BigCommerce or Magento orders, remove the -# suffix and retain the original order number. These selling channels (as well as others that support partial shipments) will only recognize the original order number when we let them know an order has partially shipped.
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Enter the quantity of each item you’d like in the new order into the New Order field.
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Enter the Amount Paid, Shipping Paid, and Tax Paid you want reflected on the new order, if you would like to split the totals.
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Click Confirm.
Try ShipStation's New Layout
ShipStation's new layout allows you to split an order's items into separate shipments within the order instead of splitting the order into multiple orders. This ensures the order records in ShipStation always match what you have in your selling channel and produces more accurate order and shipment reports.
If you are using ShipStation Legacy, please be aware of the following when splitting orders:
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Whenever possible, split (or combine) orders directly in the selling channel before they import into ShipStation, rather than in ShipStation directly.
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You can apply tags to the split order in the Split Order pop-up (for example, add a Backorder tag to the split order so the warehouse staff knows not to process the order yet).
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Not all selling channels will accept a shipment notification for the split order. Those that do often require the order number to be exactly the same. In these cases, be sure to remove the -# suffix before confirming the split process.
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The split action will be logged in the order's Order Activity section, but the activity prior to the split will not be copied to the new order.
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We do not recommend attempting to recombine orders after a split. This can cause unexpected results when notifying the selling channel once the order has shipped.
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Once you split an order, ShipStation will no longer import the marketplace status for that order. You will need to manually update the status of the ShipStation orders if the original order is shipped or cancelled on the marketplace side.
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If you split or combine orders often, ShipStation's new layout may be a better option for your workflow. Review the Split Items Into Multiple Shipments section of this article for details on the process.