Package Consolidation

The Fulfiller UI allows users to consolidate a customer's shipments from multiple orders into the same package(s) as long as they satisfy certain criteria. This saves on shipping costs for the retailer and provides a better shopping experience, as shoppers can receive items at the same time even when they belong to multiple orders.

This is available out-of-the-box for all Order Management implementations and can be used with Ship to Home, Ship to Home Consolidation, and Transfer shipments for both B2B and B2C. This guide explains package consolidation behavior and demonstrates how it works for fulfiller users.

How It Works

This is different from Ship to Home Consolidation, which refers to the use of transfers to move all of one shipment's items to a single location for shipping. Instead, package consolidation allows fulfiller users to combine packages from multiple shipments for the same recipient that are assigned to their location, even if they belong to different orders.

When a fulfiller user begins fulfillment on a shipment, the Fulfiller UI will suggest any other qualifying shipments. The user can confirm which they want to consolidate, and then pick those items. A tracking number and return tracking number will be generated for each package, and shipments with items in the same package will share the common tracking number information. 

Shipment Requirements

In order to qualify for consolidation with the selected shipment, other shipments must:

• Be in the Ready state.
• Be assigned to the same fulfillment location.
• Be going to the same B2C customer or B2B account.
• Be using the same fulfillment type.
• Be going to the same shipping address using the same shipping method.

Examples

Shipments may be consolidated in one or more packages:

• Shipment A consists of two tops and a skirt, while Shipment B consists of three socks. They are consolidated into one package that contains all items.
• Shipment A consists of two tops and a skirt, Shipment B consists of three socks and a vase, and Shipment C consists of one lamp. The apparel items are consolidated into one package while the vase and lamp are consolidated into another package.

Enable Package Consolidation

Package consolidation must be enabled by Kibo for your implementation. Submit a request to Kibo Support if you want to begin using it.

Fulfillment Process

This section demonstrates how the consolidation process works for a STH shipment.

1. Go to Main > Fulfiller.
2. View a Ready shipment you want to fulfill and click Finish Fulfilling Shipment.
3. Before accepting the shipment, click Package Consolidations Available. If no other shipments qualify for consolidation, this link will not be displayed.
4. Select up to 10 qualifying shipments and click Consolidate. You will not be able to add more shipments to the consolidation after this point.
5. This will redirect you to a new page with a tab for each shipment, as shown below. 
6. You can independently complete the workflow for each shipment up to the Prepare for Shipment step. During the Print Packing Slip step, enter the number of packing slips corresponding to the number of boxes you want to ship for that shipment. Once a packing slip has been generated, shipments can no longer be removed from the group.
7. During Prepare for Shipment, toggle Consolidate Packages across Shipments and associate other shipments from the consolidation group with the appropriate packing slip(s) using the drop-down menus that appear. The below example demonstrates Shipment 4110 and 4108 consolidated into one package.
8. Click Confirm.
9. Enter the box dimensions and carriers for each package as usual, then generate the shipping label(s). A tracking number and return tracking number will be generated for each package. These numbers are the same across all shipments included in the package. 
10. Click Yes, Complete Shipment. This will complete all grouped shipments and release them from the group. 

Remove Shipments from Consolidation

Once a fulfiller user has added a shipment to a consolidation group, it cannot be added to a different consolidation group or fulfilled by itself unless released from the group. To release a shipment before a packing slip has been generated:

1. In the tabbed layout shown in Step #6 above, click the tab of the shipment you want to release. Viewing any shipment that belongs to a consolidation group (such as from the search results) will direct you to this page if needed.
2. Click Release Shipment in the top right.
3. Click Confirm.