If you use multiple warehouses, setting them up correctly in ShipHero is key to ensuring accurate inventory counts, smooth order fulfillment and peace of mind. Here are the three main ways you can set up multiple warehouses or multi-warehouse allocation in ShipHero, whether you are a brand or a 3PL.
Adding Multiple Warehouses for 3PL Account
Basic Multi-Warehouse Set-Up
There are three basic ways you can structure multiple warehouses:
- Set a Primary Warehouse: All orders are assigned to the primary warehouse, and products are only created in the primary warehouse. You manually add products and assign orders to the other warehouses as needed.
- Assign by Priority: Orders are assigned by Priority. Orders go to the highest priority warehouse that has the stock needed to ship your order.
- Assign by Closest: Orders go to the closest warehouse that has the stock needed to ship the order.
You can specify whether or not to Allow Split on an account-wide basis. You can override per order or by using automation rules.
The warehouse will show as System Will Assign, which means the system will follow the rules. You can choose a particular warehouse if you want to override the system rules.
On the Pending Shipments screen, you can see what shipments are ready to ship from a particular warehouse.
Note: To enable multi-warehouse functionality, contact ShipHero support.
Multi-Warehouse Allocation
If you have more complex warehouse rules, warehouse allocation is best. You would need warehouse allocation if:
- You have multiple warehouses and also need advanced rules to determine where items should be shipped from.
- You have multiple warehouses and a 3PL account.
Similar to automation rules, multi-warehouse rules have Conditions and Actions. The Conditions define which orders will get processed by that rule, and the Actions define what will be done with the items on the order.
Unlike automation rules, only one multi-warehouse allocation rule will be executed per order.
Adding Multiple Warehouses in a 3PL account
Once you have multiple warehouses and multi-warehouse allocation (MWA) turned on (required for 3PL accounts) in your 3PL account you will need to do the following:
- Go to My Account > Warehouses and ensure you have filled in all the location information for the new warehouse. Please choose Default as the profile. Default will allow inventory to be added to the warehouse.
- Click on the 3PL billing tab, then click on the customer you want to add to the new warehouse. The customer must have a billing profile assigned to them.
- In the Warehouses section on the right-hand side of the screen, select the Add button so you can add the warehouse to the client.
Note: Please make sure that you select PROFILE DEFAULT when creating a new warehouse. Otherwise, if you select a different profile, no warehouse will be created, just a new warehouse profile.