Portless can operate as your only fulfillment provider or alongside other warehouses and 3PL partners. This article covers how order routing is configured, and what to do when a specific order needs to ship from somewhere else.
How order routing works at Portless
Routing rules determine how orders are prioritized between warehouses or partners, for example, which warehouse is primary and which is backup.
These rules are set up during your implementation. On your introductory call, your Implementation Engineer will ask:
how orders should be prioritized
which markets you ship to
which carriers and tax requirements apply
whether any other 3PLs will remain active in your setup.
Your routing configuration is then reviewed with you on your go-live call before any live orders flow. For more information, see Installing and Configuring Portless.
Once live, orders from your store sync to Portless through your order management integration (such as Pipe17), which assigns each order to the correct fulfillment location. Pipe17 applies a hold delay of ten minutes before releasing an order, which gives you a short window for changes; from assignment to release, timing is approximately fifteen minutes total. If you need a longer delay before release, our team can adjust the hold settings.
To change your routing rules after go-live, reach out to the Portless Support team.
Reassign an individual order to a different location
If a specific order should ship from another warehouse or 3PL instead of Portless, the process is to cancel it on the Portless side first, then refulfill it from the other location through your store.
Note: If fulfillment has already started or a tracking number has been generated, Portless will not be able to stop the shipment. For orders shipped from the VN bonded warehouse, once a First Mile or Last Mile tracking number has been generated, the order can no longer be modified or cancelled, even if the status still shows In Progress.
Step 1 - Cancel the order in Portless
Merchants shipping from non-bonded warehouses can do this instantly in the Merchant Admin Portal: open the order in the Orders tab, click Cancel Order, choose a cancellation reason, and submit.
All other merchants can request cancellation by contacting the Portless Support team.
Step 2 - Wait for acceptance
If you submitted your request by email, wait for the request to be accepted. Note that a cancellation is a request, not a guarantee. Once the fulfillment process begins or a tracking number is generated, we usually cannot stop the shipment.
Step 3 - Reassign the order
Cancelling in the Portless portal only updates Portless systems, it does not sync back to Shopify. Once the order shows Cancellation Request Accepted, go to your Shopify store and either cancel the order or reassign it to another fulfillment location or 3PL.
Reassign an order to Portless
If you are moving an order in the other direction, into Portless, assign it to the Portless location in your store before making any edits. Changes made while an order is assigned to another location will not sync.
If you are using Pipe17, add the Portless_Ready tag to any Shopify order you re-assign to Portless. This tag signals our team to process the changes and fulfill your request. If you need help, please contact the Portless Customer Support Team.