Packing Materials
The Smart Packing algorithm must know what packing material options you have available to determine the best way to pack an order. Packing materials are used to prepare items for shipping. You can add packing materials either manually, or through the import action using the Packing Materials screen.
The Packing Materials screen displays a table view of all packing materials that have been added to your system, regardless of whether they are enabled. You can also filter your table view by selecting one or more options under the Filters section:
Search: Allows you to search your table view for a specific packing material.
Kind: Allows you to filter your results by type of packing material.
Status: Allows you to filter your results based on whether the packing material is enabled in your system.
Type: Allows you to filter your results based on the carrier the packing material is intended for.
There are three buttons located at the top of the Packing Materials table:
Add Packing Materials: Use this button to add new packing materials to your account. This can be done either by manually entering packing materials from the Packing Materials page, or uploading packing materials to ShipHawk via CSV file.
Actions: Use this button to enable, disable , or delete selected packing materials from the table.
Generate Barcodes: Use this button to generate, download, and print packing material barcodes to have on hand for each workstation at each warehouse.
Add Packing Materials
Clicking this button will populate the Add Packing Material pop-up screen, where you can enter information about the new packing material you want to add. This screen is separated into two sections:
Create Packing Material
Name: Enter a unique name that describes your packing material in the Name field.
Kind: Select the option that describes your packing material type.
Material Weight: Enter the weight of the packing material in this field.
Max Weight: Enter the maximum weight that can be packed into the packing material in this field.
Outer Dimensions: Enter the packing material’s length, width, and height in the Length, Width, and Height fields under the Outer Dimensions section. These dimensions should be the outer dimensions of the packaging. Outer dimensions are fixed in space, the system does not assume these can be flexed in any direction.
Inner Dimensions: If you selected Box as the packing material type, you can enter the box’s inner dimensions under the Inner Dimensions section. Inner dimensions are useful to include if you package your products with any kind of insulation or loose fill materials. This ensures the packing algorithm selects a box with appropriate outer dimensions for fitting both the product and insulation (filler) material.
Add Another Material: To add multiple packing materials at once, click the Add Another Material link at the bottom of the Create Packing Material section.
Assign to Warehouse(s)
To assign specific packing materials to specific warehouses, click to expand the Assign to Warehouse(s) section. New fields will populate:
Bulk Action: If you have multiple packing materials, you can assign them in bulk to specific warehouses by selecting the warehouses from the Bulk Action drop-down field.
Warehouses: To assign an individual packing material to specific warehouses, select the warehouses from this field for each new packing material.