How to Use Box Suggestions

Box Suggestions help your packers pick the right box faster. Warehance analyzes your shipping history and, when an item combination has consistently shipped in the same box, suggests that box automatically at pack-out. Admins can also pin a specific box to an exact item combination or build box rules that pick a box based on the order's contents — no more guessing at the packing station.

The Box Suggestions page is only visible to Admin users. Packers don't need access to the page — suggestions appear for them automatically on the packing screen.

How It Works

Warehance builds suggestions from three sources, applied in a strict order of precedence:

1. Packer's choice — a box the packer has already selected is never overridden.
2. Pins — an admin-defined box (or a "never suggest" block) for an exact item combination. Pins always win over rules and learned suggestions.
3. Box rules — condition-based rules evaluated at pack-out against the order's current items. Rules run top to bottom and the first match wins.
4. Learned suggestions — roughly every 12 hours, Warehance analyzes the last 180 days of your shipments per client and groups them by their exact item combination (the same SKUs in the same quantities). A box is suggested once a combination has shipped enough times with the same box.

Viewing Your Suggestions

Step 1: In the left sidebar, go to Shipments and click Box Suggestions.

Step 2: The Suggestions tab lists every learned suggestion and pin. Each row shows:

• Client — suggestions are learned per client.
• Items — the exact item combination (products, SKUs, and quantities).
• Suggested Box — the box that will be suggested, with its dimensions.
• Source — Learned (from shipping history) or Pinned (set by an admin).
• Avg Weight — the average shipped weight for this combination.
• Shipments — how many times the combination has shipped.
• Confidence — the share of those shipments that used the suggested box.
• Last Analyzed — when the combination was last analyzed.

Step 3: The header shows Last analyzed with the time of the most recent analysis run, and the How it works tooltip explains where suggestions come from.

Not seeing suggestions for a client? Combinations only qualify after shipping at least 3 times with the same box used 85% of the time (both thresholds are configurable — see "Adjusting the Thresholds" below). Clients with highly varied orders may never cross the thresholds, and shipments only count when a box was recorded on the shipment.

Pinning a Box to an Item Combination

A pin locks in a box for one exact item combination. A pin always wins over box rules and learned suggestions for that combination.

Step 1: On the Suggestions tab, click Pin a Box in the top right — or click Pin Box on an existing learned suggestion to start from its combination.

Step 2: Select the Client.

Step 3: Under Item Combination, click Add Products and set the Qty for each product. The combination must match the order's items exactly for the pin to apply.

Step 4: Choose the Behavior:

• Always suggest a specific box — then select the Box to suggest.
• Never suggest a box (packer decides) — blocks all suggestions for this combination. The row will show No box (packer decides).

Step 5: Click Create Pin.

The item combination identifies the pin and cannot be changed after creation. To target a different combination, delete the pin and create a new one.

Creating Box Rules

Box rules pick a box based on conditions instead of an exact item combination — for example, "orders with any oversized-tagged product use the large box." Rules run at pack-out against the order's current items, so they stay accurate even if the order is edited or split after import.

Step 1: On the Box Suggestions page, click the Rules tab, then click Add.

Step 2: Enter a Rule Name (e.g. Oversized items use the large box) and select the Client.

Step 3: In the IF section, build your conditions. Available condition types:

• Order Contains SKU
• Order Contains Product
• Order Has Product With Tag
• Unique SKU Count
• Total Item Quantity
• Total Product Weight (oz)

Click Or to add an alternative condition within a group, or And to add another group — any condition in a group can match, but every group must match.

Step 4: In the THEN section, select the box under Use box.

Step 5: Click Create Rule.

Step 6: Order matters: rules run top to bottom and the first matching rule picks the box. Drag rows in the Rules table to reorder priority, and use the Active toggle to disable a rule without deleting it.

Adjusting the Thresholds

You can control how much history is required before a learned suggestion appears.

Step 1: Go to Settings and open the Shipping tab.

Step 2: Under Label Defaults, adjust:

• Box Suggestion Minimum Shipments — times an item combination must ship before a box is suggested (default 3).
• Box Suggestion Minimum Confidence % — share of those shipments that must use the same box (default 85).

Step 3: Save your settings. The new thresholds apply on the next analysis run.

What Packers See

When an order with a suggestion reaches the packing screen, the box selector shows a Suggested box with the box name and where it came from:

• Pinned — pinned by an admin for this item combination.
• The rule name — the order matched a box rule.
• A confidence percentage (e.g. 85%) — learned from historical shipping data.

The packer clicks Accept to use the suggested box or Choose Different to pick another. On a fresh package the suggested box is selected automatically; a box the packer has already chosen is never overridden.

Want to stop suggestions for a specific item combination? Create a pin with Never suggest a box (packer decides) — packers will always choose manually for that combination.