Choosing a packing method for sending products to Shopify Fulfillment Network
When you send products to Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN), you need to choose a packing method. A packing method communicates to the Shopify Fulfillment Network how the items will arrive, and what still needs to be done by the fulfillment center to make the products available.
On this page
Understanding boxing methods
Your boxing method depends on whether you're sending only a single product variant in each box, or multiple product variants in the same box. Each product variant is referred to as a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), and the two methods available to send your products to SFN are:
- single SKU boxing
- multiple SKU boxing
If you use the multiple SKU boxing method, then you need to separate products with different SKUs from each other using dividers or packaging bags.
After you configure your boxing method, you need to download and print your box labels.
Single SKU boxing method
If each of the boxes that you're sending to SFN contain a single product variant, then choose Single SKU as your boxing method. You can then enter the number of units of each SKU that's in each box, and how many boxes you're sending to SFN. For example, if you're sending 20 medium sweatshirts and 5 of them fit in each box, then the Number of boxes is 4 and the Units per box is 5.
If you have different boxes with different numbers of the same SKU in each of them, then you can click Add box configuration for that SKU to indicate the different boxing methods. For example, if you're sending 8 medium sweatshirts across 2 boxes, where one box contains 5 sweatshirts and the other contains 3 sweatshirts, then configure your boxes for that SKU as the following:
- 1 box with 5 medium sweatshirts
- 1 box with 3 medium sweatshirts
Multiple SKU boxing method
If some or all of your boxes that you're sending to SFN contain more than one SKU, then choose Multiple SKUs as your boxing method. You can then enter the number of units of each SKU that's in each box, and how many boxes of that configuration you're sending to SFN. For example, if you're sending 12 large size sweatshirts and 20 medium size sweatshirts, and each box contains 3 large sweatshirts and 5 medium sweatshirts, then the Number of boxes is 4, the Units per box for large sweatshirts is 3 and Units per box for medium sweatshirts is 5.
If you have different boxes with a different number of different SKUs in them, then you can click Add box configuration to indicate the different boxing method. For example, if you're sending 7 large sweatshirts and 12 medium sweatshirts, and you can fit up to 3 large sweatshirts and 5 medium sweatshirts in the same box, then you can configure it as the following:
- 2 boxes with 3 large sweatshirts and 5 medium sweatshirts
- 1 box with 1 large sweatshirt and 2 medium sweatshirts
Submitting your boxing method and downloading box labels
After you finish configuring your boxing method for all the products that you're sending to SFN, you can submit your boxing method and generate labels. To submit your boxing method to SFN, click Next, and then click Confirm.
After you submit your boxing method, you can print your box content labels. Each label specifies how many of each product is in each box. Select the format that you want to print the labels on, and then click Download box content labels to print your box labels.
Box labels must be affixed to the outside of each box and there should be no other labels on the box except the shipping label.
Box content labeling requirements
SFN box content labels provide the unit level contents for a box and contain a unique identifier for the box, which is scanned and tracked within our fulfillment centers.
If box content labels are not applied, then the SFN inbound shipment is deemed non-compliant and a non-compliance fee will apply. In addition, receiving for the inbound shipment might be delayed for up to 20 days or more.
Box content labels are provided during the inbound creation process during step 4 and can be downloaded directly any time after inbound creation from the inbound detail page in the SFN app.