About order routing

Important

• This topic is not applicable to in-store purchases.

• To understand what is supported by NewStore if you use an external OMS for your business, see Using an external OMS to fulfill orders .

Orders coming into NewStore OMS can have one of two routing strategies, letting us know whether routing logic needs to be applied (default routing) or if the order should go straight through to fulfillment at a specific location (pre-routing):

• Default routing: NewStore routes the order to the best location based on the retailer's fulfillment configuration and configured routing logic. See Default order routing .

• Prerouting: Retailers provide a specific fulfillment location where the order can be fulfilled. Typically used for BOPIS orders. See Prerouting to a specific location .

The routing of orders depends primarily on the following data and configurations:

• The shipping address ZIP/postal code and country
• The shipping option chosen by the customer
• The fulfillment locations that can satisfy the selected shipping option
• The inventory capacity of the locations to fulfill orders
• For stores, NewStore also considers item processing capacity, fulfillment working hours, and if fulfillment has been enabled for the store

Order routing components

Order routing at NewStore is based off multiple factors, as outlined in the above section. These components or factors have been described in detail in the following sections.

1. Order routing table

This is an order routing table that lists the available shipping routes your business supports. It will contain a mapping of fulfillment locations/groups to shipping service levels, for each country and ZIP code that the business supports. This is used to determine which fulfillment locations:

• Have stock available to satisfy the customers order
• Can provide the shipping option & delivery service level chosen by the customer

This gives NewStore OMS the fulfillment locations to analyze, using your configured routing logic, in order to decide on the best location to fulfill the items in that specific customer order. See the example use cases for more detail.

note

To create generic zip code formats, you can use the star sign (*) to represent all characters (letters or digits). For example, 10* matches all zip codes starting with 10. Specifying * in the mapping rule matches all ZIP codes.

2. Prioritized list of shipping options

A prioritized list of shipping options is used, as part of the routing logic, to determine the order in which the NewStore OMS should check for other shipping options if all the fulfillment locations for a shipping option are unavailable.

For example: Same-day delivery > Expedited delivery > Standard delivery.

When NewStore has tried all fulfillment locations for all the shipping options and found no available fulfillment solution, NewStore OMS tries to split the order. Using your split shipment configuration , NewStore OMS finds the optimum split of items within the order, while following the same shipping option prioritization logic.

3. Prioritized list of locations

Retailers group locations together in Location groups, providing a powerful mechanism of acknowledging how a fulfillment location fits into your business landscape. Locations can appear in multiple location groups and NewSore does not limit the number of location groups a Retailer can set up.

note

Location groups are a key factor in the new fulfillment configuration. To learn how to migrate from the legacy fulfillment configuration to the new fulfilment configuration, see the migration guide.

For example, you may want to have location groups to reflect the following business classifications:

Location groups
High volume stores
Low volume stores
---------------------------
Paris 2 hour delivery
Paris 1 hour delivery
---------------------------
East France 1 day delivery
East France 3 day delivery
---------------------------
Summer fashion stores
Winter fashion stores

The location groups are then listed in a prioritized order in the routing table. You can manage the locations within each Location Group in Omnichannel Manager. See the guide here.

4. Split shipment configuration

Orders are split only when a single fulfillment location cannot ship all the items in the order. When shipping for an order is split, items are shipped from multiple locations as multiple shipments. Each shipment in the order might be associated with a different shipping option and a different shipping price.

You can configure:

• The maximum number of shipments for orders that have high shipping costs or are split between multiple fulfillment locations
• The threshold beyond which shipping for orders are allowed to be split

For more information, see Shipping split orders .

5. (Optional) Store capacity configuration

To avoid stores from being overwhelmed with fulfillment of orders, you can define:

• How many items can be processed per day, and
• For how many hours per day each store can dedicate to processing fulfillment requests

When using the default routing strategy, a store is no longer considered for fulfillment if the store has reached the limit for processing order fulfillment, or if the request comes in outside of fulfilment processing hours.

For more information, see the configuration guide .

6. On-hold order configuration

Whenever an order cannot be fulfilled by the fulfillment network, the order then gets placed on hold. If configured, NewStore continuously tries to re-route and/or cancel these orders.

You can also use Omnichannel Manager to manage On hold orders. See Managing On Hold orders .

(Optional) Automatic re-routing

If automatic rerouting is enabled, the routing engine tries to reroute orders as soon as relevant stock becomes available within your fulfillment network.

For more information, see Automatically routing On Hold orders .

Here are some example scenarios:

Example 1: When stock for all items in an order becomes available.

• An order has Item A and Item B on hold, and the stock for both items become available.
• Available stock for Item A has no allocations for other orders. Item A is automatically routed for fulfillment.
• Available stock for Item B has allocations for other orders. If the allocated stock is equal to or less than the available stock, Item B stays On Hold.

Example 2: When stock for some items in an order becomes available.

• An order has Item A and Item B on hold, and the stock for only Item A becomes available.
• If available stock for Item A has no allocations for other orders, the order is split and Item A is automatically routed for fulfillment.

Example 3: When an On Hold order scheduled for automatic routing is canceled during the delay.

• There are 7 orders On Hold because of insufficient inventory for Item C.
• 3 On Hold orders are scheduled for automatic routing as stock becomes available.
• 4 On Hold orders wait for more stock to be available in the next availability import.
• During the delay, 1 On Hold order is canceled. As the available allocations for Item C remain unchanged, the status of the 4 On Hold orders waiting for available stock does not change.
• The remaining 2 On Hold orders are automatically routed for fulfillment after the delay.

(Optional) Automatic cancelations

If automatic cancelation is enabled for your business, then all orders matching the specified reasons for on hold orders will be automatically canceled instead of being placed on hold. For more information, see Configuring order cancelation and On Hold settings .

The following reasons can be specified for automatic cancelation:

• insufficient_stock
• failed_fulfillment_node_mapping
• shipping_offer_update_error
• error
• not_enough_stock_to_create_allocation

Default order routing

The default routing strategy in NewStore uses the settings in the fulfillment configuration to route orders. If an order imported into NewStore Omnichannel Cloud doesn't specify a strategy, this strategy is used by default.

note

For orders imported into NewStore from other systems, if the order quantity limits exceed the limits set for your business, they are put on hold and are not routed immediately even if inventory exists for the items. These orders require approval before they are routed and fulfilled. No inventory is reserved or allocated for items in these orders until they are approved on NewStore Omnichannel Manager. For more information, see Reviewing big orders and Importing orders with many items .

For managing orders that are on hold because of insufficient inventory or other reasons, see Managing On Hold orders .

How default order routing works

Let's consider an example where a customer wants to buy 2 products from your business. The items are in the shopping cart and they enter their shipping address. They choose the shipping option that they like best, and pay. When their payment is successful, they see that their order was placed successfully.

Phase 1: Routing order items

When the customer enters their shipping address, NewStore ensures that:

• there is enough ATP for the items to fulfill the order.
• there are shipping options that can be offered to the customer.

This is done automatically within the platform and surfaced via Associate App or an external e-commerce solution that you may have integrated with.

note

When reserving order items during routing (phase 1 as specified in this section, also called soft routing), consider the following points when analyzing your shipping logic:

• The default routing logic tries to find a route for each Service level from the service levels specified in your fulfillment configuration , within the sl_level_priority property. If a route cannot be found, a shipping option for the corresponding service level is not available in the app.
• NewStore tries to avoid a split shipment and only considers fulfillment locations that have ATP during the default routing process.

To determine if the items in the order can be delivered, NewStore requests shipping options from the integrated shipping providers , for the ZIP code and the country in the shipping address. For example, the customer's address is in New York City and ATP for the items exists in a New Jersey store. Based on the provider, the shipping options may only include Next-day delivery and not Same-day delivery. For more information, see Shipping .

When the customer selects a shipping option and places the order, a soft allocation or reservation is placed on the items at fulfillment locations that have the highest ATP. The items are reserved for a configurable time period.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

To change or configure a reservation, See Setting the reservation timeout .

Phase 2: Requesting fulfillment to the best fulfillment location

Orders are routed only after the grace period configured for your business has ended. A grace period in the NewStore platform can be set for all orders in your business. You can define a specific grace period for each service level supported by your shipping provider, to override the grace period set for your business.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

To change or configure a grace period, see Setting the grace period .

NewStore tries to route the order:

• using the shipping option the customer selected.
• from the best fulfillment location.

The best fulfillment location is decided based on the settings in your fulfillment configuration.

note

If you are using the new process to set up your fulfillment configuration, and not the older alternative API, you can use multiple fulfillment locations as a location group to fulfill orders.

For help with updating your fulfillment configuration and migrating to the new process, see the guide .

Let's look at different scenarios and how NewStore routes orders for them. NewStore processes routing orders in the following sequence, to ensure that order fulfillment is efficient and quick.

1. If the best location in the configuration matches the location where the products were reserved; and the promised shipping option can be met along with a successful check for routing capacity, the order is routed to this location.
2. If the best fulfillment location cannot send the products, the order is routed to the next best location in the fulfillment configuration.
3. If only part of the order can be sent from the best location, NewStore chooses the next best location from where all the ordered items can be sent in one shipment. The aim is to try to send the complete order in a single shipment.

note

If the order is routed using a shipping option that is different from what was promised during checkout, the customer is notified. For example, a change from Same-day delivery to Standard shipping.

When the best fulfillment location has been decided, an allocation is placed on the item, at the fulfillment location. The reservation placed in phase 1 is removed and the quantity is deducted from the ATP. When an item is shipped, allocation for the associated item is removed from NewStore Omnichannel Cloud.

Configuring default order routing

note

Shipping and order routing settings are inter-related, and they must each be understood in the context of the other. For more information, See Shipping .

Order routing can be customized to best suit your business. The way orders are routed depends on the settings in your fulfillment configuration:

• The shipping address ZIP/postal code and country.
• The shipping option chosen by the customer.
• The fulfillment locations that can satisfy the selected shipping option.
• The capacity of the locations to fulfill orders.
• The priority of each fulfillment location for the given address and shipping option.

note

If changes in your business impact this configuration, update it using the relevant APIs or Omnichannel Manager . For example, to prevent routing orders to deactivated stores, ensure that the store is not part of the fulfillment location priority.

Share the following information with your NewStore contact point:

1. An order routing table

   A table containing a mapping of fulfillment location priority and shipping options, for each country and ZIP code that your business supports. The table is read top to bottom. See the Example section, to understand this better.

   note

   To create generic zip code formats, you can use the star sign (*) to represent all characters (letters or digits). For example, 10* matches all zip codes starting with 10. A rule matching ZIP codes equal to * matches all ZIP codes.

2. A prioritized list of shipping options (if you offer several shipping options).

   If all the fulfillment locations for a shipping option are unavailable, other shipping options are tested. The order in which the other shipping options are tried is based on the priority you provide.

   For example: Same-day delivery > Expedite delivery > Standard delivery.

   Orders are split (when items in the order are fulfilled from different locations) when NewStore has tried all fulfillment locations for all the shipping options and found no fulfillment solution.

Technical configuration

The following section involves working with technical configurations and APIs. Contact your IT support team for more information.

If you are using the Routing ruleset and Service levels APIs to set up your fulfillment configuration, and only using the legacy fulfillment configuration API, to set up provider rates (customer-facing shipping options), you need to group your fulfillment locations and zip code regions to facilitate easier order fulfillment.

For more information, see Tutorial: Setting up a fulfillment configuration .

Example

Consider this example with deliveries to the US, Canada and Mexico where the shipping priority is Same Day > Standard > Standard International:

Country	Zip code	Fulfillment locations and priority	Supported shipping option
US	10*,02*	DC1 > DC2 > DC3	Standard
US	10*	DC4	Same-day
US	*	DC1 > DC2	Standard
CA	*	DC5	Standard international
MX	*	DC5	Standard international

Based on the table, for orders shipped within the US:

• ZIP codes 10xxx and 02xxx match New York City and Boston. DC1, DC2, and DC3 have been set up to fulfill Standard delivery orders to New-York and Boston. The order is routed first to DC1. If DC1 cannot fulfill the order, it is routed to DC2 and, eventually, to DC3.
• All other standard orders to the rest of the country are fulfilled from DC1 first, then from DC2, with DC3 as the last option.
• Same-day delivery orders are routed only to DC4.
• If DC1, DC2, and DC3 are unavailable, only deliveries to New York might be fulfilled from DC4.
• Orders shipped to Canada and Mexico will only support Standard international delivery from DC5.

Important

Notice the importance of the line order. The US * rule is not applied to New York or Boston orders because the 10*,02* rule is higher in the table, making it the main routing rule for these two cities.

Prerouting to a specific location

When you send orders to NewStore, you can set the routing strategy to prerouted and specify the fulfillment location where the order must be fulfilled. For example, in a click and collect order that you import into the NewStore platform, you can specify the store from which the customer wants to collect the order, and the shipping option offered to the customer. See the create order method.

Related topics

• Integrating a fulfillment provider
• Integrating a shipping provider
• Shipping