How To Combine Multiple Orders Into One or More Shipments

[bloodyrosebtq]

Problem: We had a situation where a customer made 3 purchases within our shipping window. We wanted to make for a better customer experience and ship the items in as few shipments as possible.

Shopify support and the boards all recommended creating a draft order that contained the contents of each package. There are several problems with this approach: draft orders pulls from your inventory, and then it charges for the items in the order, and messes up your analytics and reporting (and possibly your taxes). You have to give a 100% discount on the order before purchasing the shipping label, and then after you create the label and the order is fulfilled you have to fix your inventory.

I think I came up with a decent way to do this without drafts or paying for an add-on.

Solution: Partially fulfill each order using Shopify Shipping and then fulfill each remaining order manually.

Example:

I have 3 orders shipping in 2 boxes. Items are sorted by best fit for each box.

• Several items in order 1 go in box 1, the remaining items go in box 2.
• Several items in order 2 go in box 1, the remaining items go in box 2.
• Several items in order 3 go in box 1, the remaining items go in box 2.

We will use order 1 to manage box 1 and order 2 to manage box 2.

Steps:

1. Open each unfulfilled order in a different browser tab and print the packing lists for each order.
2. Pack the orders and on each packing list mark which box the item is in.
3. Order 1: Open the order and click Create Shipping Label
4. Order 1: Remove any items that are not in box 1.
5. Order 1: Add the package, set size and weight of box 1 and purchase the label.
6. Order 2: Open the order and click Create Shipping Label
7. Order 2: Remove any items that are not in box 2.
8. Order 2: Add the package, set size and weight of box 2 and purchase the label.
9. Now you have the tracking numbers for box 1 and box 2 to use to manually fulfill the rest of the orders.
10. Order 2: In the Unfulfilled section click on Fulfill.
11. Order 2: The unfulfilled items that are in box 1 will be displayed. Enter the tracking number and carrier for box 1.
12. Order 1: In the Unfulfilled section click on Mark as fulfilled.
13. Order 1: The unfulfilled items that are in box 2 will be displayed.
14. Enter the tracking number and carrier for box 2 and click Fulfill Items.
15. Order 3: In the Unfulfilled section click Mark as fulfilled.
16. Order 3: Remove any items that are not in box 1.
17. Enter the tracking number and carrier for box 2 and click Fulfill Items.
18. Order 3: In the Unfulfilled section click Mark as fulfilled.
19. Order 3: Remove any items that are not in box 1.
20. Enter the tracking number and carrier for box 1 and click Fulfill Items.
21. Order 3: The unfulfilled items that are in box 2 will be displayed. Enter the tracking number and carrier for box 2.
22. Print your labels and ship

More Info

This method should be a decent workaround for combining customer orders in any way you need to without creating draft orders and without having to pay a monthly fee for something you might only do once a month or less frequently.

[BestApper]

Hi Bloodyrosebtq;

It's a great solution. It is admirable you have spent time solving your customer's problem!

However, we developed the Shopify app which merges orders, and resolves this problem automatically much faster; it's Mergify.

Mergify doesn't recharge items and change the inventory list of your store, unlike draft orders that pull from your inventory and then charge for them.

After merging, Mergify creates a test order instead of using the draft order, so it does not affect the store's sales statistics.

In Mergify the merchant only ships the final order (order after merging) to the customer and can refund the extra shipping costs to the customer.

You can try Mergify to see how convenient and cost-effective it is for your store!

Mergify | https://apps.shopify.com/bestapper-mergify

Merge & combine orders to save on shipping costs

[bloodyrosebtq]

$10/month or more for something Shopify should be doing natively? Yeah... not happening. 

[HotTropiks]

Thanks for this.