How to create and apply Product Preset Groups to apply automation for similar products.
If you ship many of your products the same way every time, you may find it tedious to set up product defaults for each individual product. Preset Groups allow you to apply the same shipping settings to a group of products.
You can think of Preset Groups as a special kind of product default that includes shipping options and customs information, just like individual product defaults. When a product is part of a Preset Group, ShipStation will apply the Preset Group options, unless there's a specific product default set to override it.
Let's say your company specializes in hats and shirts. Your hats and shirts come in different colors, sizes, and designs. You find that even though you're selling thousands of technically unique products, when you're shipping single-item orders the only thing that you look at when choosing the shipping option is whether it's a hat or a shirt.
Since an order for any single hat will ship one way, and an order for any single shirt would ship another, you can create one Preset Group for Hats and one for Shirts then apply the Preset Group to the relevant products - that way if you ever need to adjust the product automation, all you need to do is edit the Preset Group, instead of updating all the individual products.
Combining Preset Groups and Product Defaults
There are times it may be beneficial to use both Preset Groups and individual Product Defaults.
Using the above example again, let's say that most shirts weigh 8oz in their package and you use First Class Mail as the shipping service.
You would create a Preset Group using that information and apply it to all the shirts. However, you recently began carrying a XXL version of a shirt that also has a heavily embossed logo, which increases the weight to 10oz. Instead of removing the Preset Group from the product, you could just add the weight as a Product Default. This will override the Preset Group weight for this one product.
This means when an order imports for the XXL shirt, ShipStation will still use the shipping service dictated by the Preset Group, but will use the 10oz weight value that's stored as the product default.
To access Preset Groups, go into the Preset Group section in the Products tab.
On this page, you can view existing Preset Groups and add new ones by clicking the Add Preset Group button.
The following Product Defaults can be set in Preset Groups:
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Domestic shipping service / package / confirmation
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International shipping service / package / confirmation
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Weight
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Dimensions
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Do not create customs declarations for products which use this Preset Group
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Customs description
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Customs declared value
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Customs harmonization code
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Customs origin country
After you have created the Preset Group, there are two ways that you can apply it to your products:
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In the Shipping tab of the Product Detail window, use the Preset Group drop-down menu to set it for the individual product.
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In the Products tab, select multiple products and click the Add Preset Group button. Select the Preset Group you wish to add to the selected products.
Adding a Preset Group to a product will not change any of the individual product defaults. Instead, if a Preset Group is applied, the value set by the Preset Group will appear italicized underneath the product default field.
