Use Shipping Rules to route Shopify orders to Amazon or any other Shopify location

If you’ve installed the ByteStand MCF Shipping app you have access to Shipping Rules. Shipping Rules give your store the power to automatically direct how orders are fulfilled—no more manually changing fulfillment locations after an order is placed. Send Shopify orders to Amazon for MCF fulfillment or…not!

Here’s a quick example. In my test store, I prefer Amazon to fulfill most of my orders. But I’ve noticed that shipping costs go up significantly when there are more items in the order. So for orders with more than six items, I want to ship them myself or through my 3PL.

With Shipping Rules, I’ve created an automatic rule that detects large orders and switches the fulfillment location—saving money and time. Amazon still takes care of the smaller orders automatically, just as I prefer.

Shipping Rule Requirements

Before you start using Shipping Rules to automatically send Shopify orders to Amazon for MCF or a different location, there are a few key setup requirements:

1. Flex Must Be Enabled and Set Up inside of ByteStand MCF Shipping on Shopify

Shipping Rules rely on our Flex feature. If you’re not sure whether Flex is enabled, here’s how to check:

In the ByteStand app, go to the Home page. If you see a “Flex” button with a flower icon, you’re all set—Flex is enabled. If you don’t see that button, you likely installed the app before Flex was introduced. In that case, scroll down on the Home page—you’ll see instructions for enabling Flex.

Flex is the new way to tell ByteStand which products we should manage. Remember when you used to do that in Shopify directly? Once Flex is enabled, you’ll unlock access to multiple fulfillment locations per product—a major upgrade.

Important: Once Flex is enabled, it cannot be disabled—so be sure to follow our Flex setup videos or contact us for help if you’re unsure.

After enabling Flex, be sure it’s set up. That means at least one product or SKU has a marketplace selected in Flex. Shipping Rules only apply to products that are Flex-enabled.

This setup tells ByteStand whether a product should be sent to Amazon for fulfillment—or, depending on the rules you configure, if it should be fulfilled from another location.

2. Shopify Automatic Fulfillment Must Be Disabled

Head over to your Shopify admin and go to:

Settings > General > Order Processing.

Make sure automatic fulfillment is turned off here. Once Flex is enabled, your fulfillment logic is controlled directly in Flex, not Shopify. If this setting is turned on in Shopify, your Shipping Rules won’t work properly.

3. Product Locations Must Be Assigned in Shopify

Here’s where things get a little tricky. ByteStand can’t move an order to a location unless the inventory is stocked there.

Let’s say you’ve created a rule:

“If inventory at ByteStand (USA) is below 5, move the Flex-enabled items in the order to the North Carolina Warehouse and don’t fulfill.”

But the rule doesn’t trigger as expected. Why?

When you check the Rules History page in the app, you’ll see an error saying:

“Items are not stocked at the new location.”

Then you look at the product in Shopify and realize—oops!—the North Carolina Warehouse isn’t assigned to that product. That’s the issue.

So, always make sure your products are assigned to the correct fulfillment locations in Shopify. It’ll save you from unexpected errors later.

Video Overview and Next Steps

After covering the requirements of Shipping Rules and how to automatically send Shopify orders to Amazon for MCF or…not. Take a look at our Video that covers the written instructions above.

The next step is to learn about the Basics of Shipping Rules. How to create a rule, view your saved rules, and keep an eye on your Rule History. Learn more here.

If this does not answer your question please visit the Contact Us page to send Cara a message! She’ll be happy to assist.