When you manage your shipping workflows, you can automate how carrier services are prioritized within your service groups. The Order Services By option allows you to automatically sort and select the best shipping method based on live rate or transit data after all other rule conditions are applied.
Related Guide: Advanced Shipping Rules
Looking for step-by-step developer instructions on setting up routing logic? Check out our comprehensive Shipping Rules guide to learn how to implement automated conditions, actions, and carrier service priorities via the ShipStation API.
To understand this feature, it helps to look at how ShipStation processes your service groups:
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Default Way (Manual Priority): Traditionally, service group rules use a fixed, manual list. ShipStation evaluates exclusion rules from top to bottom and assigns the first valid service left on the list. The ranking is entirely static and chosen by the seller upfront.
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The New Way (Dynamic Optimization): Instead of relying on a fixed list order, selecting an optimization goal allows ShipStation to dynamically rank eligible services in real time at the moment the shipment is evaluated. Exclusion statements still filter out restricted services first, but the remaining eligible services are then sorted based on live external data. The shipment is automatically assigned to whichever service wins the top spot.
Currently, you can optimize your service group rules using two primary sorting options:
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Cheapest: Automatically ranks and selects the lowest-rate carrier service for that specific shipment.
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Fastest: Automatically ranks and selects the carrier service with the quickest transit time.
Upcoming Features
Future updates will introduce additional sorting and optimization options beyond Cheapest and Fastest.
To maintain accuracy in live rating and transit times, this feature has specific eligibility requirements:
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US Sellers Only: This option is exclusively available for United States-based seller accounts.
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US Carrier Services: Live sorting will only function when USA domestic carrier services are included in the group.
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Carrier Restrictions & Saving Errors: Because dynamic sorting relies on specific regional carrier data, all services within the group must be USA carriers.
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Disclaimer: A disclaimer is displayed in the UI indicating that automated ordering only functions for USA carriers.
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Validation Error: If you select the Cheapest sorting option while non-USA carrier services are included in the service list, the system will display an inline error. You will be prevented from saving the rule until the non-USA carrier services are removed from that specific group.
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Fixed List Prioritization Lock: Once an automated sorting option (Cheapest or Fastest) is selected:
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The manual carrier services list prioritization is overridden by the live data feed.
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You will no longer be able to manually drag, drop, or change the priority order of the carriers within that rule, as the system takes over the sorting logic dynamically during execution.
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Review the comparison table below to understand how switching to Dynamic Ordering impacts your system's core behaviors, specifically regarding real-time sorting logic, execution of exclusion rules, and list customization restrictions.
|
Feature Attribute |
Manual Priroty (Default) |
Dynamic Ordering (New) |
|---|---|---|
|
Sorting Logic |
Fixed ranking determined by the seller upfront. |
Real-time ranking based on live rate/transit data. |
|
Exclusion Rules |
Filters out services before picking from the list. |
Filters out services before sorting the remainder. |
|
List Flexibility |
Drag-and-drop ordering is fully customizable. |
Manual list ordering is locked and unchangeable. |
|
Regional Limit |
Global |
US Only |
