How to Configure ShipStation to Save More Than 90 Seconds Fulfilling Each Order

Fulfilling an order by hand means choosing a service, choosing a box, finding the items and packing them. ShipStation can take most of that off a person, but the settings that do it sit across several screens and are easy to leave half-finished.

It comes down to three things.

1. Configuring shipping labels for orders

2. Picking orders.

3. Packing orders

Each one below, in the order I would configure them.

Optimizing shipping label configuration

Start here, because the label is the largest per-order cost you have.

Two settings do most of it.

Step 1: Configure automation rules to auto-select the cheapest carrier

Setting a Rate Shopper strategy with a rule covers the rule that does this, and the static pricing model to fall back on.

Keep in mind that ShipStation doesn’t check the rates of shipping services in real-time so automation rules don’t guarantee that you always get the lowest cost shipping method for every order.

If you want the service chosen per order against live rates rather than against a model you maintain, that is what Rate Shopper is for, and it is the first thing to set up. Where the box and the service have to be decided together, we build that logic alongside ShipStation.

Step 2: Configure automation rules to auto-select a package

This guide walks you through how to set up automation rules that will auto-select a package for your shipments.

Keep in mind that automation rules cannot work out the right box from the contents of an order. That calculation is cartonization, and ShipStation’s own beta feature for it, Packing Recommendations in ShipStation Labs, runs per order rather than across every order at import. With rules you create a limited set that applies a package based on some conditions.

While this works well for low SKU and package count businesses, if you have a high volume of either it can break down quickly.

If you want the right size package applied to every order automatically, that needs a cartonization algorithm running at import and the rate chosen against the package it produces. We build that logic alongside ShipStation.

With those two in place the label is configured before anyone opens the order. In the operations I have timed, doing it by hand runs 30 to 45 seconds an order.

Optimizing picking

Picking is usually the most time-intensive part, because it is the one where somebody walks the floor.

Step 1: Create an order batching system

The usual answer is to batch orders together. There are several methods and the right one depends on your floor rather than on any general rule.

You can have a single picker batch pick all items and deliver them to a common location for packers to grab from.

Or several batches, one per person, each handled end to end. ShipStation has a walkthrough of batching and bulk label printing.

Step 2: Use ShipStation pick lists

Use ShipStation’s Pick List feature to give a picker one list of everything a batch needs.

In the operations I have set this up in, batching takes more than a minute per order off the picking step.

Optimizing packing

The last of the three is a packing slip carrying everything the packer needs, so nobody has to go and look something up.

Specifically, the packing slip should contain details about the product, what package to use for the order, and what (if any) marketing collateral should be included in the package. This guide shows you how to set up a packing slip in ShipStation to make your team more efficient.

Do all three and, in the operations I have set this up in, it takes upwards of 90 seconds per order out of the process, on top of what the label configuration saves on the rate itself.