Order consolidation
Order consolidation enables you to combine multiple eligible orders going to the same destination into a single consignment. This reduces freight costs, warehouse handling effort, tracking complexity, and reconciliation issues. It is designed for B2B merchants, replenishment-based businesses, and anyone shipping multiple orders to the same receiver.
Shippit treats each order as an independent shipment by default. When you consolidate orders, multiple original orders become sub-orders under a single parent consignment. The parent consignment becomes the operational shipment record for carrier booking, label generation, manifesting, tracking, and billing. The original orders remain available as sub-orders for reconciliation, reporting, and integration references.
When orders are consolidated, Shippit creates a parent order that represents the combined consignment. The original orders become sub-orders linked to that parent.
The parent order is the consolidated consignment. It is the source of truth for carrier booking, labels, manifesting, tracking, and billing. The sub-order is the original order that has been consolidated into a parent. Sub-orders remain visible for reconciliation, reporting, and upstream system integrations, but can’t progress independently of their parent order.
All order characteristics such as products, parcels, and shipment details are inherited by the parent consignment. Order-level flags such as dangerous goods, authority to leave (ATL), and value-added services are also inherited. If the orders have incompatible attributes exist, such as different dangerous goods types, then consolidation fails.
| Endpoint | Action |
|---|---|
POST /consolidations | Create a new consolidation from multiple orders |
POST /consolidations/{parent_order} | Append additional orders to an existing consolidation |
DELETE /consolidations/{parent_order} | Reverse consolidation and return sub-orders to their original state |
For full endpoint details, parameters, and examples, see the Consolidations API reference.
Eligibility rules
Orders can be consolidated only when they meet all of the following criteria:
- They share the same merchant
- They are unmanifested
- They are from the same store
If any of these conditions are not met, the orders are not eligible for consolidation.
After the orders are consolidated, the sub-orders all nherit from the parent order:
- The delivery address
- The service level
Consolidation methods
Shippit supports three ways to consolidate orders, depending on your fulfilment patterns and preferences.
Manual consolidation
Manual consolidation lets you select multiple eligible orders and combine them into a single consignment. You can consolidate orders using the create consolidation API, or in the Shippit UI by selecting the orders on the New Orders page and choosing Consolidate orders. The system checks that the orders are eligible, and consolidates the orders only if all the criteria are met.
To add more orders to an existing consolidation, use the append consolidation API.
If the selected orders have different delivery addresses, you must select the correct address to use for the consolidated order before confirming.
Deconsolidating orders
You can deconsolidate a parent order to return its sub-orders to their original, independent state. Use the reverse consolidation API to reverse a consolidation when required.
After deconsolidation, each sub-order becomes a standalone order again and must be booked and manifested separately.
Tracking and reconciliation
The parent order is the operational tracking source. Sub-orders display inherited tracking data. In the tracking view, the parent order shows all consolidated order tracking as independent tracking entries.
Sub-orders remain visible for:
- Reconciliation
- Reporting
- Merchant internal references
- Upstream system integrations
Dangerous goods and incompatible attributes
If one or more orders contain dangerous goods, the parent consignment inherits the relevant flags. If incompatible DG types exist across the orders you want to consolidate, consolidation is prevented. Shippit validates compatibility before allowing consolidation to proceed.
Original orders are not merged
Consolidation does not merge the original commercial or sales orders. Original orders remain untouched. Shippit only ships them together operationally as a single consignment.