Prevent Split Shipping

Shopify Plus
,
1

I have 2 warehouse Locations. NY and NV

My ERP system can’t handle a single transactions shipping from 2 warehouse.

I have “Split shipping” turned off. But some customers when the items are not available at a single location still are able to checkout with an order that’s split.

I contacted Shopify Support and they said to prevent it I would need a 3rd part App.

Any suggestions?

2

Split Shipping being turned off doesn’t turn off the underlying logic for splitting orders based on fulfillment location. Shopify automatic splits orders when items are located at different fulfillment locations.

What can you do?

  1. Make sure your products can be fulfilled in a single location.
  2. Update Shipping profiles accordingly, also checking location and removing rates that shouldn’t be applied.
  3. Find another erp solution to allow for shipping from multiple locations in a single transaction.
3

What you’re seeing is expected, annoyingly: the “Split shipping” toggle only controls the customer-facing checkout option, not Shopify’s backend logic. Shopify still creates separate fulfilment orders whenever items are stocked at different locations — the toggle doesn’t change that.

Realistically there are two fixes: make sure each order can be fulfilled from one location (items bought together are stocked together), or force the whole order onto a single location after it comes in, before it reaches your ERP. The second is where my app Advanced Fulfillment Rules helps, you can have a rule assigns the entire order to one location.

4

hey, ran into something similar and yeah, the native split shipping toggle doesn’t fully block it in all checkout scenarios — really annoying.

just to set expectations though — preventing a split order from being placed at checkout is tricky, and most apps work post-order, not at checkout. that said, Order Routing Plus could still help on the fulfillment side once orders come in:

  • it lets you set routing rules to assign orders to a single fulfillment location based on inventory
  • it’s built to minimize split shipments when routing orders across multiple warehouses
  • so even if a split order sneaks through checkout, you’d have more control over how it gets handled on the backend

for fully blocking the split at checkout, that might need a different approach altogether — but at least on the fulfillment/routing side, it gives you more control than Shopify’s default behavior.

hope that helps point you in the right direction!

5

Hi there just wanted to chime in here.

What would work best to pin it is a fulfillment constraint function: every item in the order must fulfill from one location, so checkout only quotes rates from locations that hold the entire cart, and the order hits your Shopify Admin as a single fulfillment every time. Plan for the trade-off before switching it on: If your customer gets a cart where no single warehouse covers all of the line items. Then the checkout will show no rates at all and give them an error, so NY and NV need overlapping stock on anything commonly bought together.

I run the agency behind an App called Switchboard ( Switchboard - Block bad orders, protect margin, control checkout. No code. | Shopify App Store ), where this is the never-split rule. No code, and the free plan runs one rule, for an ERP-driven store it’s probably this one.

See this Loom here for Details to see if it fits your use case

6

Hi @Kastnerd .

Honestly, I ran into this same headache before. The split shipping off toggle only changes how delivery options look at checkout. It does not actually touch inventory allocation.
So if one warehouse is low on stock, Shopify will still split the order anyway.

The only real fix I found was using a Shopify Function to validate the checkout. It basically blocks the order from going through at all if it can not be packed from a single location, instead of just letting it split quietly.

Apps like Zapiet or Ship by Locale can also handle this, but you will want to check their settings for single location enforcement. Some of them just prioritize a warehouse without actually hard-blocking the customer. Also, if NY is always your go to, try setting NV as a backup only location instead of giving them equal priority.