Wholesale Automation Rules let you define fulfillment actions once and have ShipHero apply them automatically when specific events happen during wholesale order processing. Use them to handle repetitive decisions, like assigning pick locations or resolving a Hospital flag, without a person stepping in every time. This frees your team to focus on exceptions that actually need attention.
Activation Required
The Wholesale Automation Rules feature is currently in BETA and needs to be enabled before it shows in your account. Please contact ShipHero support to have Wholesale Automation Rules enabled.
Table of Contents
- Wholesale Automation Requirements
- Wholesale Automation Rule Components
- How Wholesale Automation Rules Work
- Reviewing Wholesale Automation Rule Activity in ShipHero
- Get Started with Wholesale Automation Rules
Wholesale Automation Requirements
Wholesale Automation Rules are available to 3PL and Brand accounts. The Wholesale Automation tab is not available for 3PL client accounts.
Your role determines what you can do with rules. Without the matching permission, ShipHero blocks the action and shows a permissions error.
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Wholesale:Manager: View | View the list of automation rules configured for the account. |
| Wholesale:Manager: Create | Create new automation rules. |
| Wholesale:Manager: Edit | Edit rules and toggle their Active/Inactive status. |
| Wholesale:Manager: Delete | Permanently delete rules. |
Wholesale Automation Rule Components
Every wholesale automation rule is built from three parts.
| Component | What it is |
|---|---|
| Trigger | The event that starts a rule, such as a wholesale order being opened. |
| Condition | An optional criterion an order must match before the rule's actions run, such as a specific client or retailer. |
| Action | What ShipHero does when the rule runs, such as auto-assigning pick locations. |
You build and manage wholesale automation rules directly from the Wholesale Settings page. No engineering involvement is required.
How Wholesale Automation Rules Work
When a trigger fires, ShipHero evaluates every Active rule configured for that trigger:
- If a rule has no conditions, its actions run for every order that fires the trigger.
- If a rule has conditions, its actions run only when the order matches those conditions.
- Actions run in the order they are listed on the rule.
Things to Consider for Wholesale Automation Rules
- Inactive rules are never evaluated. Toggling a rule off is a safe way to pause it without losing its configuration.
- All active rules are evaluated against matching triggers and conditions. When a wholesale order matches the trigger and conditions, the rule runs. A rule that runs after another can override the earlier rule's settings.
- A rule can run once per order or every time its trigger fires. The Multiple runs per order toggle on the rule controls this. Leave it off and the rule runs only the first time the trigger fires for an order. Turn it on and the rule runs every time. For example, with the A location is marked as hospital trigger and the toggle off, the rule runs the first time a location is flagged on an order. If a second location on the same order is flagged, the rule does not run again.
- If a rule's processing hits an internal error, the underlying operator action still completes normally. The picker or order is never blocked by an automation failure.
Reviewing Wholesale Automation Rule Activity in ShipHero
Every automation evaluation is recorded in the order timeline and audit log, whether the rule ran, was skipped, or failed, so you always know why an automation did or didn't fire.
| Result | What's logged |
|---|---|
| Success | The rule name, the order, and the action(s) performed. |
| Skipped | The conditions evaluated and the reason the rule was skipped, such as an unmet condition or the rule having already run for that order. |
| Failed | An error description. |
Get Started with Wholesale Automation Rules
How to Create and Manage Wholesale Automation Rules in ShipHero covers every available trigger, condition, and action, plus the steps to view, create, edit, enable or disable, and delete rules.