Packing Different Quantities into Set Boxes

Scenario

Let’s say you have 5 box sizes and sell fishing rods.  You have maybe 12 different types of rods that you sell and they vary in length and diameter.

The question is how you use the ShipperHQ Dimensional Shipping application to set this up.

There are 3 steps here:

  1. Define your boxes
  2. Assign Boxes to new Packing Rules
  3. Assign Packing Rules to your products

Box Definitions

For each box that you use for shipping add a New Box in ShipperHQ.

Set the length, width, height, and if you know the maximum qty/max weight then set this (otherwise the max weight at a carrier level will be used).

If there is a packing weight set aswell. Bear in mind the max weight includes this packing weight.

Packing Rules

With Packing Rules you are basically grouping possible box options based on the product type. So let’s say you have 8ft Rods, and they can fit in 3 different box types.

You would create a rule called say 8FT_RODS and then assign the 3 box types.

What you are saying here is that products assigned to this rule can fit in any of the 3 boxes (depending on weight, qty, dims).

Product Setup

So now in your eCommerce Platform, you can go to your products and assign the packing rule. In Magento there is an auto-sync mechanism, on Bigcommerce/Shopify you need to ensure the group name matches the name in ShipperHQ.

In terms of the product, you really have a few fields you can play with:

  1. Does the product ship in its own box (1 sku = 1 package) – set to ship separate either at the product or packing rule level
  2. The weight of the product – only up to max weight will fit in a box
  3. The qty of the product – only up to max qty will fit in a box
  4. The dims of the product – if present then the volume of the product will be compared with box volume to determine the amount of box space available e.g. if the dim volume is 30 and box volume is 90 then only 3 can fit

Using Dimensions to Adjust Max Qty Per Product

For some scenarios, you may want to use the dimensional volume as a way of changing quantity that can fit.

An example is described here. Let’s say you have Rod A, Rod B, and a Large Tube.  For Rod A you can fit 10 in the Tube, for Rod B you can fit 50 in the Tube.

The dims of the tube are 50x10x10 = total volume of 5000

In order to specify that Rod A can fit 10 into the tube then Rod A volume needs to be 5000/10 = 500. So 5x10x50.

Rod B dimensions likewise would be a volume of 100, so you could use 10x5x2.

This allows you then to have a box where you can put some of Rod A and some of Rod B and know a 2nd package will be used if the box is over-filled.

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