You can tell ShipStation to automatically set the service for an order based on which item the order contains. ShipStation uses the Product Defaults entered into the ShipStation product records to automatically apply a shipping service, package type, as well as package dimensions and weight to an order when it imports into ShipStation.
This feature is most helpful if you assign your service and package type based on the product your customer ordered and mostly receive single-item, single-quantity orders.
With Product Defaults, ShipStation can automatically set the following for an order:
There are two methods to set shipping services based on the ordered product: Product Defaults and Preset Groups.
Product Defaults are the default settings applied to a single product record in ShipStation. Preset Groups are product defaults applied to multiple product records in ShipStation.
Valid for Single-Item, Single-Quantity Orders Only
ShipStation can only apply Product Defaults to orders that contain a single line item in a single quantity. One reason for this is to prevent conflict when product records have different defaults. Another is to prevent an invalid selection when multiple items within an order would require choosing a different service or package type unique to that order.
The one exception to this is the product weight. For multi-item and multi-quantity orders, ShipStation calculates the weight values entered as the Product Default weights and adds the total to the order.
If you frequently receive multi-item or multi-quantity orders and would still like to use automation to assign services to orders, we recommend you add tags to product records and use those tags as criteria in Automation Rules to accomplish this.
If you ship internationally, you may also want to enter your Customs defaults into the product record so ShipStation will automatically fill in your customs declarations.