Plans: All plans | Platforms: All platforms
Overview
When you process a high volume of orders, handling each shipment one at a time costs your team hours. Bulk actions let you apply the same change across many shipments at once, whether that means buying a batch of labels, assigning one carrier service to a group of similar parcels, or setting a shared ship-from location.
Bulk actions in AfterShip Shipping are organized by status. Each submenu under Fulfillments offers the actions that make sense for shipments at that stage, so you see a shorter and more relevant set of choices than a single combined list would give you.
Bulk actions work best when the shipments in your selection have something in common, such as the same product type, the same destination region, or the same origin warehouse.
What has changed
If you used bulk actions on the earlier Orders Dashboard, here is what is different.
Earlier behavior (Legacy) | New behavior |
Five dashboards: Pending payment, Awaiting shipment, Label generated, Shipped, and All orders | Four submenus: Awaiting shipment, Shipped, On hold, and Canceled |
Move to awaiting shipment on the | Removed. AfterShip Shipping no longer syncs unpaid orders, so there is nothing to move forward manually. |
Separate actions for carrier, service, package, package size, weight, and ship-from location | Combined into a single Bulk update action, where you choose which fields to change |
Split order as a bulk action | Renamed to Split shipment and now works on one shipment at a time |
An All orders view with its own bulk actions | Removed. Work from the submenu that matches the stage you are handling. |
Select shipments and raise the Action bar
In the left navigation, select Fulfillments, then open the submenu you want to work in.
Narrow the list first if you need to. Use the Tabs, the Search bar, Bulk search, or Add filters to bring the right shipments together before you select anything.
Select the checkbox on each shipment you want to include, or select the checkbox in the header row to select everything on the page.
The action bar replaces the tab row as soon as you make a selection and shows how many shipments you have selected, along with the actions available for that submenu.
How mixed selections work
Not every shipment in a selection always qualifies for the action you choose. When your selection mixes shipments that support an action with shipments that do not, AfterShip Shipping processes only the ones that qualify and skips the rest.
Two things tell you what will happen:
The button shows the count as (n selected), so you can see how many shipments the action will reach.
The confirmation dialog lists if the selection was successfully updated, skipped or failed, which gives you a checklist of what to fix afterward.
After the action finishes, the list can take a moment to catch up. If you do not see the change straight away, refresh the page.
Bulk actions by submenu
Submenu | Bulk actions available |
Awaiting shipment | Create label, Print, Hold, Bulk update, and the overflow menu, which holds Mark as shipped, Combine shipments, Split shipment, Cancel shipments, Add tags, and Remove tags |
Shipped | Print label, Print, Void label, Reship, and the overflow menu |
On hold | Release hold, Print, Bulk update, and the overflow menu, which holds Cancel shipments, Add tags, and Remove tags |
Canceled | Restore, Add tags, and Remove tags |
For what each action does and what happens after you run it, see Manage Shipments: Statuses and Actions.
Update shipment details in bulk
Bulk update is the action that replaces the separate carrier, package, and weight actions from the earlier dashboard. Use it when a group of shipments shares the same handling.
Select the shipments you want to change.
Select Bulk update, then choose the field you want to set.
Enter the value, then confirm.
Field | When to use it |
Ship date | You are handing a batch to the carrier on a specific day. |
Ship-from location | The shipments all leave from the same warehouse or store location. |
Total weight | The shipments hold the same items and weigh the same. |
Package | The shipments use the same box or preset package. |
Carrier service | The shipments follow the same shipping method and service level. |
Hold reason | You need to record or change why a group of shipments is paused. |
Custom fields | You track your own values against shipments and want to set them consistently. |
Bulk update is available on Awaiting shipment and On hold. After a label is purchased, these details are fixed on the shipment, so Bulk update does not appear on Shipped and Cancelled.
Create labels in bulk
Open Awaiting shipment and select the Ready to ship tab. Every shipment on this tab has the information a label needs, which makes it the safest starting point for a bulk run.
Select the shipments you want to process.
Select Create label, then choose Create and print label to buy and print in one pass, or Create label to buy without printing yet.
Each shipment needs a ship-from location, a complete recipient address, a package with a weight, and a carrier service with a rate. Shipments missing any of these are skipped, and the confirmation dialog tells you which ones and why.
When you print more than one label, you can merge the files into a single PDF or print each label individually, and you can print packing slips in the same run.
Print documents in Bulk
Select the shipments you want, then select Print to print packing slips for the whole selection.
On the Shipped list, Print label reprints labels for shipments that already have one, which is useful when a label is damaged in the packing area or a printer job fails partway through a batch.
Actions that depend on your selection size
Two actions have specific selection requirements:
Combine shipments needs at least two shipments. Use it to merge shipments going to the same address into one parcel and save on shipping cost.
Split shipment works on one shipment at a time. It appears dimmed when you select more than one, so open the shipment and split it from its details page.
Things to know
Bulk actions apply only within the submenu you are working in. To act on shipments at different stages, handle each submenu separately.
Filters and search narrow the list, not your selection. Selecting the header checkbox selects the shipments currently on the page.
Bulk update changes only the field you choose. Every other detail on the shipment stays as it is.
Skipped shipments are never partially processed. A shipment either completes the action or is left untouched with a reason.
Key takeaways
Bulk actions in AfterShip Shipping are organized by status, so each of the four Fulfillments submenus offers the actions that suit shipments at that stage.
Awaiting shipment supports the widest set of actions, including creating labels, printing, holding, bulk updating shipment details, and canceling.
Bulk update replaces the separate carrier, service, package, size, weight, and ship-from actions from the earlier dashboard, and covers ship date, ship-from location, total weight, package, carrier service, hold reason, and custom fields.
The Pending payment dashboard and its Move to awaiting shipment action have been removed, because AfterShip Shipping no longer syncs unpaid orders.
Split shipment now works on a single shipment, and Combine shipments needs at least two.
In a mixed selection, AfterShip Shipping processes only the shipments that qualify, shows the count as (x of y selected), and lists the skipped shipments with reasons.
Need Help?
If you have any questions, contact our support team through live chat or email us at [email protected].