Provides 4 example automation rules: Assign a service by order weight, by residential address, or by order tag, and one using multiple criteria and actions.
Automation rules can seem a bit abstract until you actually create a few.
Below are several common automation rules you can use to help you get started.
One of the most popular uses for automation rules is to apply a specific service based on the weight of the order.
Here is an example of how such a rule would look:
Figure 29. Example Rule: Weight
IF the Country Equals United States AND the Total Weight is less than 16 oz THEN set Shipping Service / Package to USPS First Class Mail / Package.
Some shipping carriers, like FedEx, offer different rates and services based on whether an address is residential or commercial, so you may find it helpful to automatically switch to a service based on address classification.
For example, you may want any FedEx orders to use FedEx Home Delivery if the address is residential.
Here is an example of how such a rule would look:
Figure 30. Example Rule: Residential Orders
IF the address is verified as Residential AND the Carrier is FedEx THEN set Shipping Service / Package to FedEx Home Delivery® / Package
Order tags applied to products or customers apply to orders automatically before automation rules run, which means you can use tags as rule criteria.
For example, you selling clothing and want to upgrade shipping to USPS Priority Mail for any order of a shirt or pants where the buyer also purchased a hat, but not if they ordered shoes (because orders with shoes are heavy and must be shipped via a different service).
Assuming the products are already tagged based on the type of product - shirt, pants, hat, shoes - here is how such a rule would look:
Figure 31. Example Rule: Order Tags
IF the Order Tags INCLUDE pants OR shirt AND the Order Tags INCLUDE hat AND the Order Tags DO NOT INCLUDE shoes THEN set Shipping Service / Package to USPS Priority Mail / Package.
In this example, the merchant is located in Pflugerville, TX and wants to send a special gift to their nearby customers who buy from their Magento or Shopify stores and have spent over $50 on their order.
To identify those orders, the merchant has decided to apply an tag to the orders so they're easy to locate in ShipStation, and then print a special packing slip so their staff knows to include the gift in the package.
An example automation rule that could achieve this would look as follows:
Figure 32. Example Rule: Multiple Criteria & Actions
IF the Order Total IS GREATER THAN 50 AND the Marketplace EQUALS Magento OR Shopify AND the State EQUALS Texas (TX) AND the City EQUALS Austin OR Pflugerville OR Round Rock THEN add the GIFT tag AND use the Gift Packing Slip template.
Tip
For this example, if the additional gift means a different package type or shipping service needs to be used, just add that as another action in this rule. Alternately, a subsequent rule could use the GIFT tag as the criteria to set the new service and package type.