Conditional Shipping / Multi Warehouse

SWBP
Shopify Partner
4 0 0

I have already spoke with a few experts and I have not been able to get a clear answer. We want to migrate to Shopify, but we need to be sure there are apps conducive to our business setup. What we need is...

1. We ship from multiple warehouses (drop ship vendors). If a customer selects two products that ship from different warehouses, shipping needs to be combined to reflect that. 

2. So that customers can get an accurate rate from UPS/Fed Ex, we need to create conditions to where the box size will be chosen based on quantity and product volume (Size). Some of the customers order individual products, some order in bulk. As we all know, the weight alone is not enough to get accurate UPS/Fed Ex rates because of dimensional weight. 

3. Option for fixed shipping in addition to UPS/Fed ex rates for our customer. Fixed rate based on product quantity and destination zone. 

4. "Ship in separate box option" for products packaged in a master carton and do not need to be boxed. 

Can anyone advise if this is possible and what apps/add ons would be ideal for this. We are a small business, so many of these enterprise solutions that we see are just way out of our price range. Trying to find more cost-effective solutions if they exist. 

Replies 7 (7)

Ron-Anderson
Shopify Partner
191 13 33

Hi @SWBP,

You can use Intuitive Shipping to accomplish all of this.

1. Intuitive Shipping can combine live rates from multiple sites into a single rate at checkout. The catch with this is that all of your Shopify products need to be in one general Shipping Profile, and inventory needs to be in one Shopify Location. Due to how information is passed to our system by Shopify, multiple Shopify Locations and Profiles can cause issues with rate calculations. So, as long as you can manage your inventory in one general Shopify Location, you can use our system to create Combined Live Rate Shipping Methods with custom location settings -- and (or) you can set up a Multi-Vendor custom shipping rate Scenario.

2. Our SmartBoxing™ packing algorithm compares the weight and volume of all products in the cart and selects the best packing option from the packages saved to the Shipping Method to ensure accurate dimensional shipping.

3. With Intuitive Shipping, you can create either live rate or flat rate shipping methods, and use our Conditions system to determine when either type appears at checkout (product conditions, customer conditions, cart conditions, etc.).

4. Our system lets you determine if certain products are 'Packaged Separately'. When selected, Intuitive Shipping uses the product dimensions to create a custom package that is separate from the ones saved to the shipping method. The shipping method runs the custom package dims and product weight through the carrier system, then adds it to the final calculation.

Intuitive Shipping billing plans start at USD $29.99 per month for up to 600 orders (completed orders, not rate calculations). All Intuitive Shipping features are available with every pricing plan. We don't hide 'premium' features behind a higher-tier paywall.

Please note: when using any third-party rate calculator, including Intuitive Shipping, Shopify requires you to have their Carrier-calculated Rates feature enabled. If you're on either the 'Basic' or 'Shopify' plan, this feature costs USD $20/ month. If you switch to annual billing, Shopify will include the feature at no extra cost and give you 10% off the plan. If you're on the 'Advanced' plan or higher, the feature is already included.

If you'd like to learn more about Intuitive Shipping, please book a demo with one of our team members who would be happy to walk through the app with you.

 

Best regards,
Ron

Customer Experience Manager @ Intuitive Shipping Inc.
Intuitive Shipping | Automate Shipping Profiles
SWBP
Shopify Partner
4 0 0

Thank you so much for the reply Ron.

This sounds like what we need. The smartbox is a great function, because we have 2000 products and customers combine many of them into one shipment. The only problem, we have them in different warehouses. They ship from different locations, we don't have the ability to put them all under one roof. So that's our challenge. 

Is there possibly a workaround to where we can possibly assign blocks of products that can be shipped together , so if a custom chooses products that are not under the same roof, it will put that in a different box, thus calculating shipping for two boxes (even though the items would fit in one). If so, then perhaps that could be a workaround, especially if there is an option to markup up shipping based on destination zones. 

Sean 

Ron-Anderson
Shopify Partner
191 13 33

Hi Sean,

I just wanted to clarify the issue with Locations - the limitation is with Shopify's Locations feature. So within Shopify, if all of your inventory is listed in one Location, there shouldn't be an issue (regardless of where the physical inventory is). Meaning, if you can manage/track inventory (by location) outside of Shopify, it should work as you need it to. You can then create shipping methods in our system using custom-defined physical locations so that rates are calculated from each address as needed.

I would recommend setting up a demo with our team and we can walk through this process for you and answer any questions you might have to make sure we can achieve what you're looking for and to see if we are a good fit.

Best regards

Ron

Customer Experience Manager @ Intuitive Shipping Inc.
Intuitive Shipping | Automate Shipping Profiles
SWBP
Shopify Partner
4 0 0

Hi!

 

Covid set us back, but now we are ready to get moving again. What would we need to do to set up a meeting/demo?

 

Sean

Ron-Anderson
Shopify Partner
191 13 33

Hi Sean,

 

Great to hear you're ready to move forward. To set up a demo with one of our team members, please select a suitable day and time here.

 

If haven't installed Intuitive Shipping yet, and you'd like to give it a try now, I'm happy to inform you that we have a brand new version of the app that launched back in October. It can still do everything we discussed previously, but it's even easier to manage now. 

 

Just to once again clarify the inventory management part, our system cannot see inventory. Shopify doesn't pass any inventory-related information to us. If you can manage your inventory from one single Shopify 'Location' (regardless of the actual physical location), our system should work for what you need. If you have flat rates, you can use vendor conditions to determine which rates apply to each vendor location. For live carrier rates, you can set up multiple shipping origin location points in our system. You still have a to define the rules of when each location should be used, since our system can't do that dynamically.

 

For example, let's say you have 3 vendors. If each vendor has a different product mix, you can set up Scenarios with product conditions so that a customer ordering Vendor 1 and Vendor 3 products will get a shipping rate that is a combination of the 2 rates calculated for Vendor 1 and 3. For live rates, Smartboxing will pack products based on vendor, so that 'Vendor 1 products' and 'Vendor 3 products' aren't packed in the same box.

 

If you have the same products at multiple locations, that gets tricky, because our system only knows which rate to use based on pre-defined rules.

 

Here's an example of where it won't work: 

You have Product A at locations 1, 2, and 3.

You have Product B at location 3 only.

A customer orders both Products A and B.

You want the order to be packed and calculated based on Location 3, since both products are there, and it's cheaper to ship from one location. Our system doesn't know what inventory is at which location, and relies upon the static conditions you have applied to each Scenario.

 

If you have any specific questions about this, please feel free to bring them up in the demo so you're confident Intuitive Shipping can do everything you need it to do. 

 

Best regards,
Ron

 

Customer Experience Manager @ Intuitive Shipping Inc.
Intuitive Shipping | Automate Shipping Profiles
SWBP
Shopify Partner
4 0 0

The good news is that inventory will NOT be spread to multiple locations. I am a drop shipper, so each location is just my the warehouse that my supplier ships their own products. 

 

I do not have a shopify store yet. We are currently using xcart, but before I make the migration - I want to be sure your add on will work because that will be the key factor in switching to Shopify. We do individual orders and bulk orders, so need to create conditions based on quantity ordered so that our rates for shipping are accurate. Can I do a demo with you all without having a store set up?

 

 

 

 

Ron-Anderson
Shopify Partner
191 13 33

Yes, absolutely! During the demo, one of our team members will share their screen so you can see what the app looks like, and they can give you brief run-through of what the setup might look like. 

 

Intuitive Shipping has over 40 condition types, and using quantity-based conditions is very common. You can create multiple Scenarios per supplier too, so you could have a 'individual per supplier' and 'bulk per supplier' setup.

 

Best regards,

Ron

Customer Experience Manager @ Intuitive Shipping Inc.
Intuitive Shipping | Automate Shipping Profiles