Learn About Locations
Plans: All plans Platforms: Shopify, ShipHero, ShipBob
A Location is any physical space where you can do any or all of the following activities.
Ship orders
Fulfill orders
Receive return orders
AfterShip’s Locations option allows you to add and manage multiple locations like warehouses, ship-from, return locations, or any other place you manage or stock inventory. With multiple locations added to your AfterShip account, you can significantly improve your transit time calculation accuracy, give customers a better delivery date estimate, and boost the order-to-delivery time rate.
You can manually add your warehouse, ship-from, and return pick-up locations in the Organization settings
You also sync your location information from third-party platforms including, Shopify, ShipBob, and ShipHero (more platforms will be supported soon)
You can add and sync unlimited locations to your AfterShip account no matter the plan you are on
The Locations you will configure under your Organization settings will be centrally used to power your AfterShip Tracking product capabilities.
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss:
How to add locations
How to sync locations from other platforms
How to edit locations
How to delete a location
Locations dashboard
Go to AfterShip Organization settings > Locations
Click Add location
Shift the toggle to the right to activate the location status
Only locations with active status will be used for calculations by your AfterShip products
Add the required location details. A valid address and order processing time settings are required to successfully add a location
Move to the Order cutoff and processing times settings. The section will be configured with default details, though you are welcome to update them as per your needs.
Order processing time will be factored into calculating the order-to-delivery times and related data points to give customers a refined overview of which of their locations are performing the best in terms of processing orders.
Order cutoff and processing times will also aid our AI-engine to give an accurate delivery time estimate based on when the order was placed then use your cutoff time, processing time, and business days to calculate when an order will be shipped.
Here is what needs to be added in this section.
Configure the local timezone of the location.
It indicates the latest time to place an order to be eligible for same-day processing. Only the orders that are placed before the configured cutoff time will be processed on the same date.
Let’s say that you have set 5:30 p.m. as your order cutoff time,
If customers place an order before 5:30 p.m., e.g. 3 p.m., then you can process the order on the very same day
If customers place an order after 5:30 p.m., e.g. 10 p.m., then you can only process the order on the next day
It refers to the additional working days required to handle order-related work before the dispatch.
Example: If you set the order processing time to 1 business day, this is how things will work later on
If a customer places an order on Tuesday and before the cutoff time, you can start the fulfillment on the very same day. But the rest of the procedure will be followed on Wednesday. It means the order will be dispatched on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday.
If a customer places an order on Tuesday and after the cutoff time, the order fulfillment will start on the next business day i.e. Wednesday, and will be dispatched on Thursday.
It represents the days on which the location processes orders.
You are required to select at least one business day, otherwise the system will report an error.
US holidays will be excluded by default.
Let’s imagine that you have set your working days from Monday to Friday, then orders placed on the weekend before or after the cut-off time will only be processed on the upcoming Monday.
Select the holidays you want to exclude from the business days. The list of holidays based on your warehouse location will be automatically displayed below. Just check and uncheck the ones you want to exclude and include.
If there are additional holidays you want to exclude, click +Add dates, and select the month and date.
There is no limit to the number of custom dates you can add
Click Save
In addition to manually adding locations, you can also sync locations from other platforms.
Currently, only Shopify, ShipBob, and ShipHero are supported
Click on Sync from on the locations dashboard
Select the platform from where you want to sync locations
Click Connect to install the app. Follow the complete installation process. Once the installation is complete, you will see the configured locations from the installed platform added to the locations dashboard.
For example, you can check all the locations configured in your Shopify account under Locations settings.
You can only edit information about a location you have manually added. Just click Edit for the location you want to edit, make the required changes, and then click Save
If a location is synced from a third-party platform, the status and contact information will be not allowed to be edited. You can only edit the order processing settings.
If you want to edit the location information synced from a third-party platform, you need to make the changes on the concerned platform.
If you no longer need a certain location you’ve manually added, you can delete it anytime you want. Before deletion, inactivate the location status first. Click Delete location at the bottom of the location detail page.
The active locations will not be allowed to be removed.
If you want to delete a location synced from a third-party platform, you need to directly delete the location from the concerned platform.
You can check your list of locations in the Organization settings > Locations. The list will include locations you've added manually and those that are synced from the other platforms.
You can search for a location by adding the location name to the search bar
You can filter locations based on the platform and status
Overview
A Location is any physical space where you can do any or all of the following activities.
Ship orders
Fulfill orders
Receive return orders
AfterShip’s Locations option allows you to add and manage multiple locations like warehouses, ship-from, return locations, or any other place you manage or stock inventory. With multiple locations added to your AfterShip account, you can significantly improve your transit time calculation accuracy, give customers a better delivery date estimate, and boost the order-to-delivery time rate.
You can manually add your warehouse, ship-from, and return pick-up locations in the Organization settings
You also sync your location information from third-party platforms including, Shopify, ShipBob, and ShipHero (more platforms will be supported soon)
You can add and sync unlimited locations to your AfterShip account no matter the plan you are on
The Locations you will configure under your Organization settings will be centrally used to power your AfterShip Tracking product capabilities.
What you’ll learn
In this tutorial, we’ll discuss:
How to add locations
How to sync locations from other platforms
How to edit locations
How to delete a location
Locations dashboard
Add locations
Go to AfterShip Organization settings > Locations
Click Add location
Shift the toggle to the right to activate the location status
Only locations with active status will be used for calculations by your AfterShip products
Add the required location details. A valid address and order processing time settings are required to successfully add a location
Move to the Order cutoff and processing times settings. The section will be configured with default details, though you are welcome to update them as per your needs.
Order processing time will be factored into calculating the order-to-delivery times and related data points to give customers a refined overview of which of their locations are performing the best in terms of processing orders.
Order cutoff and processing times will also aid our AI-engine to give an accurate delivery time estimate based on when the order was placed then use your cutoff time, processing time, and business days to calculate when an order will be shipped.
Here is what needs to be added in this section.
Location timezone
Configure the local timezone of the location.
Order cutoff time
It indicates the latest time to place an order to be eligible for same-day processing. Only the orders that are placed before the configured cutoff time will be processed on the same date.
Let’s say that you have set 5:30 p.m. as your order cutoff time,
If customers place an order before 5:30 p.m., e.g. 3 p.m., then you can process the order on the very same day
If customers place an order after 5:30 p.m., e.g. 10 p.m., then you can only process the order on the next day
Order processing time
It refers to the additional working days required to handle order-related work before the dispatch.
Example: If you set the order processing time to 1 business day, this is how things will work later on
If a customer places an order on Tuesday and before the cutoff time, you can start the fulfillment on the very same day. But the rest of the procedure will be followed on Wednesday. It means the order will be dispatched on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday.
If a customer places an order on Tuesday and after the cutoff time, the order fulfillment will start on the next business day i.e. Wednesday, and will be dispatched on Thursday.
Business days
It represents the days on which the location processes orders.
You are required to select at least one business day, otherwise the system will report an error.
US holidays will be excluded by default.
Let’s imagine that you have set your working days from Monday to Friday, then orders placed on the weekend before or after the cut-off time will only be processed on the upcoming Monday.
Exclude holidays (coming soon)
Select the holidays you want to exclude from the business days. The list of holidays based on your warehouse location will be automatically displayed below. Just check and uncheck the ones you want to exclude and include.
If there are additional holidays you want to exclude, click +Add dates, and select the month and date.
There is no limit to the number of custom dates you can add
Click Save
Sync locations
In addition to manually adding locations, you can also sync locations from other platforms.
Currently, only Shopify, ShipBob, and ShipHero are supported
Click on Sync from on the locations dashboard
Select the platform from where you want to sync locations
Click Connect to install the app. Follow the complete installation process. Once the installation is complete, you will see the configured locations from the installed platform added to the locations dashboard.
For example, you can check all the locations configured in your Shopify account under Locations settings.
Edit location information
You can only edit information about a location you have manually added. Just click Edit for the location you want to edit, make the required changes, and then click Save
If a location is synced from a third-party platform, the status and contact information will be not allowed to be edited. You can only edit the order processing settings.
If you want to edit the location information synced from a third-party platform, you need to make the changes on the concerned platform.
Delete a location
If you no longer need a certain location you’ve manually added, you can delete it anytime you want. Before deletion, inactivate the location status first. Click Delete location at the bottom of the location detail page.
The active locations will not be allowed to be removed.
If you want to delete a location synced from a third-party platform, you need to directly delete the location from the concerned platform.
Locations dashboard
You can check your list of locations in the Organization settings > Locations. The list will include locations you've added manually and those that are synced from the other platforms.
You can search for a location by adding the location name to the search bar
You can filter locations based on the platform and status
Updated on: 04/03/2024
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