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      Automation Glossary — Triggers, Conditions & Actions

      Discover all triggers, conditions, and actions available in ShippyPro Automations — and learn how each one works with practical examples.

      Automations in ShippyPro help you save time and reduce manual work by automatically performing actions based on specific events (triggers) and criteria (conditions).

      Each automation — also called a workflow — follows this structure:

      Trigger → (optional) Conditions → Action(s)

      This glossary lists all available triggers, conditions, actions, and log statuses, along with short explanations and examples to help you build your own automations.

       

      Index:

       

      Triggers

      What they are: The event that starts an automation, the When of the workflow. Each workflow must include one trigger.

      • Order is imported
        • Starts when a new order is imported from a marketplace, via API, or through a csv upload.
        • Use cases: For workflows to be executed before the fulfillment of the order, such as formatting the addresses to avoid errors, add parcels or generate labels
      • Order in error (Beta)
        • Starts when label creation fails due to carrier errors (e.g. System error, Format error, Invalid address, Carrier error).
        • Use cases: Automatically retry an order when a temporary carrier system error occurs.
      • Tracking status is updated (Beta)
        • Starts when the shipment tracking status is updated by the carrier. You can refine it in the conditions (e.g. In transit, Delivered, Exception).
        • Example: Send an internal alert when a shipment status changes to Exception.
      • Shipment label is created (Beta)
        • Starts when a shipment label is successfully created. You can limit it to a specific carrier in the conditions.
        • Example: Add a note when labels are created with DHL Express.

       

      Conditions

      What they are: Rules that determine whether actions should run. Conditions are optional — you can build workflows without them.

      • Address type
        • Whether the recipient address is residential or commercial.
        • Example: Use a specific carrier for commercial addresses.
      • Amount paid for shipment
        • The total delivery fee paid by the customer.
        • Example: Trigger an action only for shipments above €10.
      • Carrier
        • The carrier handling the shipment.
        • Example: Send specific notifications only for orders shipped with UPS.
      • Delivery option
        • The service selected by the customer (e.g. Express, Next day, Pickup point).
        • Example: Preassign the right carrier based on the service selected by the customer
      • Error message
        • The error message returned by the carrier when label creation fails.
        • Example: Autoretry only orders with error "Can't find http".
      • Error type
        • The type of carrier error (System error, Format error, Invalid address, Carrier error).
        • Example: Retry label creation only for System errors.
      • Items quantity
        • Total number of items in the order.
        • Example: Flag large orders (10+ items) for manual check or use large parcels for orders with more than 2 items
      • Order value
        • Total value of the order.
        • Example: Add notes for orders over €200.
      • Product EAN / SKU / Name / Weight
        • Product-specific details from the order.
        • Example: Add special parcels for items with SKU “FRAGILE-001”.
      • Recipient city / state / Postal code / country
        • Details of the delivery address.
        • Example: Route French orders to the FR warehouse.
      • Recipient email / phone number
        • Contact information of the recipient.
        • Example: Add a default phone number if missing.
      • Sender country
        • Country of the sender address.
        • Example: Apply Incoterm DAP for international shipments.
      • Store
        • The order source (Shopify, Amazon, API, Excel, etc.).
        • Example: Use different carriers or services for each marketplace.
      • Tag
        • Shopify-specific tags attached to the order.
        • Example: Automatically select DHL for orders tagged “Express”.
      • Tracking update
        • The shipment tracking status.
        • Example: Send notifications when a shipment is Delivered.
      • Payment method
        • The method used by the customer to pay.
        • Example: Add a “COD” tag for cash-on-delivery orders.

       

      Actions

      What they are: Tasks that the workflow performs once triggered and conditions are met. Each workflow must have at least one action.

      • Add note
        • Description: Adds a note to the order, useful for internal instructions or reminders.
        • Example: Add “Check packaging before shipping” to fragile product orders.
      • Add parcels

        • Description: Adds predefined parcel information and dimensions to an order.

        • Example: Automatically set a 1 kg, 20×20×20 cm parcel for single-item orders.

      • Add recipient email

        • Description: Fills the recipient’s email field with a default value if it’s empty.

        • Example: Add your support email (e.g., info@yourstore.com) when the customer leaves the field blank.

      • Add recipient phone

        • Description: Fills the recipient’s phone number field with a default value if it’s empty.

        • Example: Add a default phone number for marketplaces that don’t provide one.

      • Add tag

        • Description: Adds a tag to the order, helpful to categorize or flag specific cases.

        • Example: Tag all COD orders as “Check Payment.”

      • Assign incoterm

        • Description: Assigns an Incoterm (DDP, DAP, EXW) to the order for smoother cross-border fulfillment.

        • Example: Automatically assign DDP for shipments to the UK.

      • Create shipping label

        • Description: Creates a shipment label with the selected carrier.

        • Example: Automatically create labels with BRT for all new Shopify orders once imported.

      • Format order description

        • Description: Cleans and shortens the order description field to meet carrier length limits and remove invalid special characters. Helps prevent “Shipment Description too long” errors.

        • Example: Shorten long descriptions and remove emojis before label creation.

      • Format recipient address (Street 1 and 2)

        • Description: Cleans and shortens address fields to meet carrier character limits and moves the house number from Street 2 to Street 1 if missing. Helps avoid “Recipient Street cannot exceed 35 characters” errors.

        • Example: Fix addresses like Street 1 “Downing Street” + Street 2 “10 ” by combining them into “10, Downing Street”

      • Format recipient city

        • Description: Standardizes city names by removing accents and special characters (e.g., Düsseldorf → Dusseldorf, Québec → Quebec). Helps prevent carrier errors such as “Invalid City value.”

        • Example: Automatically format city names before label creation for international shipments.

      • Format recipient company name

        • Description: Cleans and shortens the company name to fit carrier character limits and removes invalid characters. Helps prevent “Name and company fields must be shorter than 35 characters” errors.

        • Example: Format “ACME International Logistics Ltd.” into “ACME Intl Logistics.”

      • Format recipient phone number

        • Description: Formats phone numbers according to the correct country standard.

        • Example: Automatically adjust the US phone numbers into the correct format

      • Format recipient state

        • Description: Converts full state names into their corresponding ISO codes (e.g., Roma → RM, Milan → MI, Madrid → M). Helps avoid “Invalid State value” errors.

        • Example: Automatically convert “Roma” to “RM” for Italian addresses.

      • Pre-assign carrier

        • Description: Pre-assigns the selected carrier to the order for faster fulfillment. The pre-assigned carrier is visible in the Ready to Ship table and can be used for filtering.

        • Example: Automatically assign GLS for domestic Italian orders

      • Retry order

        • Description: Reprocesses an order that previously failed or encountered system errors. You can select the maximum number of retries (from 1 to 5).

        • Example: Automatically retry label creation up to 3 times when a system error occurs.

       

      Log Statuses

      What they are: Indicators showing the result of each workflow run.

      • Success – All actions executed successfully.

      • Failure – All actions failed, usually due to a workflow setup issue.

      • Some errors – The workflow ran, but one or more actions failed. Check logs for details.

      • In progress – The workflow is currently running.

      • No action performed – Trigger occurred, but no action was taken because no conditions were met.

      • Plan limit reached– You’ve reached your free automation limit. Upgrade for unlimited runs.