ShipHero prioritizes order fulfillment based on deadlines and warehouse efficiency rather than the simple chronological order of when a customer checked out. This ensures that time-sensitive shipments are processed first and that pickers follow the most efficient path through the warehouse.
Priority Logic: Required Ship Date
The system primarily prioritizes orders by their Required Ship Date. This date reflects the deadline for the carrier to receive the package to meet the customer's delivery expectations. Because different shipping services have different lead times, a newer order with an urgent shipping method may be prioritized over an older order with a standard shipping method.
Efficiency and Batching
To maximize warehouse productivity, ShipHero calculates the most efficient route for pickers. The system may guide a picker to fulfill newer orders if they contain products located in the same area as a high-priority order. This prevents staff from returning to the same location multiple times, speeding up the overall fulfillment process.
If your team needs to focus strictly on chronological deadlines without efficiency grouping, you should enable When Picking Sort by: Order Date on the My Account > Settings > App Settings page. Here is more information about Optimizing Batch Picking and Order Sorting Settings.
Managing Remaining Daily Volume
If the Dashboard indicates outstanding orders at the end of a shift, you can use the Bulk Manage feature to ensure they are completed. By assigning a Custom Status to these remaining orders, your team can quickly identify and ship them to clear the daily queue.