The Shipping Containers feature in ShipHero is a tool designed to streamline the outbound shipping process by allowing warehouse staff to quickly and accurately sort packed orders into specific containers—like bins, carts, or gaylords—before carrier pickup.
This feature essentially creates a logical grouping of packages based on the carrier and shipping method, providing better control and visibility for the final steps of fulfillment.
Watch this video for a quick overview of Shipping Containers in action:
Key Benefits
- Accuracy: It prevents packages from being mistakenly loaded onto the wrong carrier's truck.
- Efficiency: It simplifies the end-of-day process for both warehouse staff and carrier drivers by having orders pre-sorted and ready for pickup.
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Better Customer Experience: By default, shipment notifications are sent to the store platform when a label is generated. However, with shipping containers you have the option to delay notifications to the store platforms until the container is marked as shipped, which provides more accurate expectations for the start of transit.
Please note: To take advantage of the delayed notification you must send a request to the Support team to enable it for your account; if you wish to return to the default behavior, you will need to request the delay shipment notification setting be disabled.
- Traceability: It provides a secondary record that a package was not only labeled but physically scanned and loaded for pickup.
In this article we cover:
Shipping Container Page Overview
The Shipping Container page lists all the Shipping containers created for your account.
On this page you can create new shipping containers, search by the container ID and filter the list by carrier and shipping method. Bulk actions include print labels, Marking as shipped, delete and duplicate.
The columns on this page include: Created Date, Container ID, Carrier & method, Shipped Date, Shipping Container note, Number of Packages scanned into the container and Container Status.
Shipping Container Statuses
- In Progress: The container is still being worked on or awaiting carrier pick-up.
- Shipped: Your shipping container is picked up from teh carrier, and the container is manually marked as ‘shipped’.
Viewing the Details of a Shipping Container
To view the details of a shipping container select the hyperlinked container ID. On the Shipping container details page, you can Mark the container as shipped or use the more actions drop down to quickly reprint the container label or delete the container. Orders scanned into the conatiner will be listed and show individual order tracking numbers associated to them. To open an order click the blue Order ID link.
How to Create a Shipping Container
This section explains how to create new shipping container labels as well as how to generate additional labels that may be required later in the day should you require more after the inital generation.
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Go to the Shipping > Shipping Containers page and select Create Shipping Containers.
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Choose the Carrier and Shipping Methods that will be assigned to each container. You can create multiple containers for the same carrier if you need to sepearate the shipping methods for example, UPS Ground and UPS Express shipping options, or you can consolidate all the carrrier's shipping methods into a single container.
Need multiple containers for the same shipping method? Increase the quantity of labels required in the quantity column?
Once all your Shipping Containers are configured click Create & print label.
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In a new window, a PDF of the Shipping Container labels will be generated and the containers will be listed on the Shipping containers page. Print these labels and adhere them to the gaylords you will use for sorting packages.
NOTE: If the label is lost or damaged, another label can be printed from the shipping container screen. Check the container that needs to have the label reprinted.
Duplicating Shipping Containers
During times of high volume, you may need multiple shipping containers for a single carrier. Or maybe you want to streamline the process of creating containers for the following day. You can generate duplicate shipping container by following these steps below:
- Go to the Shipping > Shipping Containers page and select the shipping container(s) you need to duplicate.
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Click Duplicate button and enter the number of additional containers needed.
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In a new window, a PDF of the Shipping Container labels will be generated and the containers will be added to the list on the Shipping containers page. Print these labels and adhere them to the gaylords you will use for sorting packages.
Outbound Managing and Sorting
Mobile Package Sorting
This section will walk through the steps on how to use shipping containers via the mobile application. To start go to the Orders > Shipping containers menu and select Package Sorting.
Next follow the prompts on the screen
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2. Scan the Shipping Container label with the specified Carrier/method combination | 3a. If the correct container is scanned, a confirmation screen is displayed and the package is assigend to the container. Place the package in the container. | 3b. If the wrong container is scanned the following message wlll show and you will need to re-scan the correct container |
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When a package is scanned into a shipping container the order will be added to the list of orders on teh Shipping Container's detila page and the Shipping container information will show on the Shipments section of the order details page.
How to Remove an Order from a Container
Orders can only be remvoed from a shipping container on the Shipping Container's details page. To do this, check the packages you want to remove, click the More actions button and the remove option from the dropdown.
You will need to confirm the action in teh pop up module. Note that any information recorded into that container for that package will be lost.
Closing a Container
Once a container si picked up from a carrier it should be closed. To close a container you will need to manually set to Mark as Shipped. This can be done via the Shippign containers page or via the Mobile app.
Mark as Shipped on the Shipping Containers page
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Check the box next to an individual container or multiple containers, then select Mark it as shipped.
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Confirm the action and add a Shipping Container note as required. Shipping container notes are a free-form text field that allows additional information to be captured, such as the truck number, license plate, or any information relevant to the container.
Marked as Shipped - Mobile
You can also mark a container as shipped via the mobile app.
Go to the Shipping Containers menu on the mobile app and select the Container Closing option. Then scan the container you want to close (mark as shipped).
Once the container barcode has been scanned, you'll get a green good-to-go screen confirming the container has been closed.
Want to add an extra layer of QA when closing a shipping container?
You can require scanning of a carrier barcode by enabling the Force scanning of carrier barcode when closing a shipping container in the mobile app on the My Account > Settings >App Settings page.
For the carrier barcode, create a barcode with the carrier name, for example this can be used for UPS: