Creating draft shipping labels automatically using Shopify Flow

If your store is on the Advanced Shopify or Shopify Plus plan and you use Shopify Shipping to purchase shipping labels, then you can use Shopify Flow to automate creating draft shipping labels.

Before you begin, verify that the Shopify Flow app is installed in your store.

After you install Shopify Flow, you can install and edit a pre-made template, or create your own workflow manually.

Learn more about Shopify Flow.

Creating a workflow manually

You can create a Shopify Flow workflow manually to automatically prepare draft shipping labels. When an order is ready for fulfillment in your store and meets the conditions that you set, draft shipping labels are automatically prepared for that order.

If this is your first time using Shopify Flow, you might want to start by using a template instead of creating one manually.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, click Settings > Apps and sales channels.

2. From the Apps and sales channels page, click Shopify Flow.

3. Click Open app.

4. Click Create workflow.

5. Click Select a trigger, and then select the Order ready to fulfill trigger.

6. Click Output to create a new step.

   1. Click Condition.
   2. Select the condition that must be met before any actions can be run.

7. Click Then to select the action to be taken if the condition you set is true.

   1. Click Actions.
   2. Select the Prepare shipping labels action.

8. Optional: Select the package to use when creating the shipping label from a list of your saved packages.

9. Optional: Enter the total weight of the package, including the weight of the package the order is sent in and the contents inside.

10. Select a shipping service from the list of available services.

11. Optional: Click Otherwise to add additional conditions or actions to your workflow if the condition that you set is false.

12. Click New Workflow, and then enter a title for your workflow.

13. To start using your workflow, click Turn on workflow.

Creating a workflow using a template

Templates are pre-made Shopify Flow workflows created by Shopify that you can customize and use. Several templates are available to automatically prepare draft shipping labels:

• Prepare draft shipping labels for orders
• Prepare draft shipping labels for orders fulfilling from the United States
• Prepare draft shipping labels for orders fulfilling from Canada
• Prepare draft shipping labels for orders fulfilling from Australia
• Prepare draft shipping labels based on product
• Prepare draft shipping labels based on weight
• Prepare draft shipping labels based on customer's shipping method

Note

Templates use triggers, conditions, and actions with placeholder data filled in. Before you activate your workflow, verify that you have edited the workflow and entered the values that you want to use.

Review and purchase shipping labels

When a draft shipping label is prepared for an order by a workflow, the Automation tag is applied to the order and a notification appears in the order timeline. The orders appear in the new Automations order view in the Orders page.

To view the Automations order view, go in your Shopify admin to Orders and click Automations. This view includes the Label status column, which indicates one of the following for each order:

• No label - a label was voided or no label has been created for this order
• Draft created - a draft label has been created for this order
• Partially purchased - one or more labels have been purchased, but not all fulfillments for this order have labels
• Purchased - all fulfillments for this order have labels purchased
• Printed - all purchased labels have been printed

The Automations order view can't be recovered automatically if you delete it. If you delete the Automations order view, then you can recreate it.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
2. Click Filter and then select Tagged with.
3. Click Select value and then enter Automation.
4. Click Columns and then select Label status.
5. Click Save as, enter a name for the order view, and then click Save view.

Review and purchase shipping labels individually

Before you purchase a shipping label, ensure that you've reviewed the process of buying a shipping label.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
2. Optional: Click Automations.
3. Click the order.
4. Click Create shipping label.

Review and purchase shipping labels in bulk

You can buy and print up to 20 shipping labels at a time from the Orders page in your Shopify admin. If you're in the United States, then you can buy and print up to 50 labels at a time. Before you purchase shipping labels, ensure that you review the orders and are familiar with the process of purchasing shipping labels in bulk.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
2. Optional: Click Automations.
3. Select the checkbox next to each order that you want to create a shipping label for.
4. Click Create shipping labels.