Make your shipping stations work the way you need them to

Custom Shipping Rules

Customise how you ship for no additional cost

Shipster is a truly custom shipping solution, that allows you to automate large parts of your shipping operation with bespoke shipping rules and your couriers of choice. Read on to find out how it works and see popular shipping rules that could revolutionise the way you despatch.

Rule Conditions (Triggers)

Automate shipping rules based on:

Data Matching

Using virtually any piece of data associated with an order or product in your system, you can create rules that target keywords/labels/attributes by: “exact match”, “starts with…”, “ends with…” or “contains…”. You can also group data matches as: “and…”, “or…”, “neither…” and “not…”. This means you can affect multiple groups at once, and yes, create rule combinations.

Weight

Item weight can play a big role in preventing overspend on your shipping. Shipster can take the weight and allocate them to the most cost-effective shipping service for that weight and instantly calculate whether it is more efficient to split or bundle items together.

Locations

Use location data to automatically allocate shipments to the correct delivery service. You might also use destination data to print documentation translated to the recipient’s language or print additional labels e.g. CN22.

Read More

Language

Shipster can check language attribution fields and print all customer documentation in the required language.

Read More

Number of Items

Trigger rule commands for how [X] number of items should be shipped e.g. the packaging, courier service, parcel splitting, bundling etc.

Failed Shipments

Decide a more efficient way to process failed shipments – pop them in a "skipped" queue for later, print a document containing all the details or automatically save them to a designated folder for an allocated member of staff.

Required Temperature

Products requiring temperature-controlled storage and transport can be allocated to the appropriate temperature-controlled shipping service e.g. Polar Speed.

Currencies

Automate how you handle currencies. For instance, convert currencies across platforms or on your shipping documentation. Conversions can be used in carrier service selection e.g. if an order sold in $ exceeds £100, then select Courier A, Delivery service X.

Dangerous Goods

Create as many shipping rules as you need to handle and ship dangerous goods safely. Products marked as dangerous or matching a particular product category can trigger Shipster to print the correct shipping documentation, staff instructions and allocate to the appropriate courier service.

Date and Time

Create shipping rules based on the date and time of order or processing. Useful when managing next-day deliveries. Can use current day, time or time range e.g. 2 pm - 5 pm.

Order Value

Order values are useful in dozens of shipping rules. Often the value is used to automate which delivery service is used during a product promotion, when the cost of insurance is higher or the general shipping rates. Such values can also be printed on your documents.

Promotions

If an item has a related marketing campaign and the order is tagged to reflect this e.g. product category, you can have all the relevant marketing material printed with each applicable order – or trigger a pop-up telling staff to include pre-printed materials.

Influencers

If you’re shipping goods to influencers and reviewers, you can tag orders in your order data to show this. This allows Shipster to print any additional documentation (marketing campaign brief? User instructions?), labels or staff processing instructions.

Busy Periods

Create shipping rules that are only active during a specified period. Many of our clients also like to beef up their operations at such times with additional packing bench installations.

Bulky Items

If an item or total package items exceed a dimensions limit, choose to send them on the most cost effective service, along with the necessary safety and care documents for staff and customers.

Rule Commands (triggered effects)

Example Rule Effects

Packaging Selection

Automatically select the correct packaging e.g. parcel vs large letter for your packing staff or packing machine - plus the option for the user to override the decision based on what they see in front of them.

Courier Selection

Each shipment can be automatically assigned to the courier you need according to the conditions criteria you have set e.g. over 1kg and outside EU = Courier B, service C.

Store Collection

Automatically amend the delivery address of store collection orders to the selected store and produce a customer-collection label to support store operations.

Returns Labels

Generate return labels with every order or selected items only. Labels can be standard 4x6” labels or integrated with an A4 invoice/returns document using your design.

Postcode Correction

Faulty postcodes can be automatically corrected.

Pop-up screens

Shipping rules can be set up to trigger a pop-up screen for shipments that require special attention, further instruction or more information from the packer.

Service Types

Shipments can be allocated to specific courier service types according to the conditions criteria you set. The Shipster rules engine does this using your courier shipping codes.

Data Overrides

Should you need to override an attribute that’s fed between your integrated software (or courier), Shipster can override any data at the point of despatch.

Split or Bundle Parcels

This is a popular weight management tactic to reduce overspending on shipping. If items in an order are below or exceed your custom threshold, they can be bundled or split into separate parcels.

Notification Labels

Print extra labels to conveniently notify warehouse staff with specific instructions for a shipment e.g. “NEXT DAY” or “FOR DESPATCH ON MONDAY”.

Custom Documents

Orders meeting the conditions you set can be despatched with the same or completely different documents: different designs, languages, paper type or promotions.

Fill Data Gaps

If there’s a consistently missing field in your data, Shipster can fill these for you instead of using manual intervention every time. A good example is a missing product category or weight for a batch of products.

Offers and Discounts

Have relevant offers and discounts print with the applicable orders e.g. a value threshold, product category or destination etc.

Colour Coding

Boost the speed of your sorting and loading at the despatch point by triggering colour coded labels per shipment type, e.g. Next-day orders printed on red labels.

Create Barcodes

You might want to generate a barcode for all sorts of processing purposes such as returns.

QR Codes

Shipster can generate QR codes on your shipping documentation for an easier returns process, marketing campaign or tracking.

Partial Despatch

If only part of an order is ready, pop-up the choice to ship a partial dispatch now instead of delaying the whole order.

Shipping Upgrade

Automate shipping upgrades or downgrades e.g. A faster courier service when a customer pays extra or a more economical service during your own free delivery promotion.

Block Address

Block postcodes or countries that are risky to ship to due to extremely high costs, potential fraud or other complications.

Customs Declarations

Automatically print the correct customs documentation with each order e.g. CN22/CN23 labels with every non-EU order.

Delivered Duty Paid

Use rules to add service enhancements that create DDP labels for certain orders. Delivered Duty Paid is when the sender pre-pays for all shipping related costs including export and import duties. This option is only available for the couriers that provide this service.

Paperless Trading

Shipster can be customzed to send customs documentation electronically, namely commercial invoices and airway bills. This feature is only available for couriers whose API is set up to request these documents for the countries that support paperless trading.

How the Shipster Rules Engine works

All custom shipping rules (new and changes) are included in our monthly support fee which you can instantly calculate with our pricing calculator

Just give us clear instructions on how you want your shipments to be automatically processed. We suggest writing this down or illustrating in a simple spreadsheet for our team to use and we’ll do the rest. We will of course test and trial on one PC then roll out to the rest when you are ready.

You can have a different set of rules per shipping station. A popular option in warehouses where one shipping bench is dedicated to a particular shipment type or courier.

We're able to offer a high level of flexibility when it comes to changes in your setup at different times of year. You can add temporary shipping rules, carriers or installations according to what you need per month. For instance, many clients choose to bump up their number of installations in the run-up to Christmas. 

We provide support via telephone, an email ticketing system and live assistance (screen sharing for in-situ troubleshooting).

Shipster is currently integrated with over 40 leading couriers, Inventory Planner, Linnworks and Peoplevox. We also build custom integrations other pieces of software you may use, including your company’s own custom builds.

Our courier services include: Royal Mail, DPD, Amazon Seller Fufilled Prime, FedEx, ASDA toyou, Hermes, Parcelforce, TNT, UPS, Yodel, Deutsche Post, Polar Speed and DHL. See more in our list of couriers.

Write your own rules

No Warehouse is the Same

Shipping methods vary hugely according to your business sector, your shipping goals within that sector, the nature of your product and how you like to operate. 

In sectors such as fashion, quick and easy return processes are key in the current market. In pharmaceuticals, timing and temperature are critical. For businesses that are expanding, constantly improving efficiency at every shipping station is a must. 

Whatever your goals and preferred shipping methods are, we work with you to build a bespoke shipping automated system that works for you and breaks the shackles of the usual off-the-shelf shipping integrations. 

Want to customise your shipping?

Get in Touch

Other brands getting ahead with bespoke shipping

Testimonials

MissPap

MissPap

Andy Porter, Head of Logistics

Liaising with Tony and the team on a regular basis is a pleasure. Tony is always more than happy help with any technical issues or any integration work that is required. The service and communication are brilliant. I would highly recommend Tony and his team at Oddsphere. They are a credit and pleasure to work with. Tony has helped on quite a few projects for MissPap over the past 7 months and each time he puts his full commitment to the cause. I can’t thank Tony and his team enough. Without their continued support, MissPap would not have been able to develop as quickly and successfully as it has.

Royce Lingerie

Royce Lingerie

Richard, Operations Manager

The support from Oddsphere for Shipster is second to none. During the implementation of our new warehouse management system including despatch, Shipster was the best-supported element. The service integrates well into all of our carriers and saves a huge amount of time compared to manual entry. The pricing structure of Shipster means the more we send, the more we save which works well for us as a small to medium size business user. Once it’s set up ongoing costs are minimal instead of being tied to a price per parcel. Overall very happy with the service we have received so far.

CHO Fashion & Lifestyle

CHO Fashion & Lifestyle

Gareth O'Rourke, Head of E-Commerce

"We have been using Shipster for 18 months and it has literally transformed our warehouse department. We have managed to fully integrate with our three main couriers and significantly improve the speed, efficiency and accuracy at which the warehouse team are able to push parcels out of the building. We have managed to do this with the same number in our despatch team as what we had 18 months ago, even though parcel volumes have gone from 70,000 to 120,000 parcels."

Intersport

Intersport

Chief Creative & Technology Officer

"I’ll take the opportunity now to thank you for the OddSphere service; we’ve had very little interaction with OddSphere – aside from the initial set up – but that’s entirely down to it having worked flawlessly. So thank you."

Pink Parcel

Pink Parcel

Mike Crowley, Operation Manager

"Shipster and team have been brilliant in helping to set up a new shipping system and now maintaining it. The biggest win for me is they are just a call away. They took all the stress away when Royal Mail dropped their DMO system by setting up a new API. The only thing I had to do was forward an E-mail onto Shipster. The system is reliable, fixable and robust, just what you need in this fast pace, ever changing business of Ecommerce."

Flatspot

Flatspot

Nathan Bawden, Lead Data Coordinator

"I know I've said it before, but just wanted to say again how impressed I am with your team of folks, they have been nothing but professional at every stage."

DLSB

DLSB

Daniel Mitchell, Operations Manager

"Shipster for us was like a breath of fresh air with regards to our old system. From the first initial onboarding meeting with Shipster, we could tell they were going to be a company that we could rely on to support our business growth. I have found that no request is too big or small, I have found the team at Shipster are always available which in comparison to our old system is a blessing."