Packing profiles
A profile states that everything of a given kind packs in the same way. One row covers three hundred articles that nobody has to open, which is the difference between packing data that gets finished and packing data that gets abandoned.
Stockly → Operations → Shipping → Packaging materials → Packing profiles.
Start with the default
Section titled “Start with the default”Create one profile that applies to everything. It is the floor of the whole system: an article that matches no other rule still gets an answer, so a shop that has filled in nothing else keeps working. Without it, articles outside every rule get no packing data at all and every parcel falls back to a weight-based split.
The screen displays a banner while no default exists.
What a profile can set
Section titled “What a profile can set”| Field | What it means | Empty means |
|---|---|---|
| Packaging per unit | what one piece adds beyond its own weight — a sleeve, a bubble bag | ask the next level |
| Own box | goods that are never put inside a carton: a drum, an oversized item | ask the next level |
| Dunnage factor | how much room the goods claim beyond their size; 1.2 = a fifth more | ask the next level |
| Preferred material | the carton this class normally goes in | ask the next level |
| Stand-in size | what a typical piece measures, for articles nobody measured | no stand-in |
Empty is never zero. A zero packing weight is a statement that the article ships unpacked; an empty field states that no value was given, and the question moves one level down. That difference is what allows one number to be set in a narrow rule while the other four keep inheriting.
What a profile applies to
Section titled “What a profile applies to”A property — recommended. “Volume: 5 l” describes the article itself, it is already maintained for the storefront filters, and it changes when the article changes.
A category — available, second choice. A category describes where an article is shown. The same 5 l can sits in “Paints”, in “New in” and in “Summer sale”, and two of those say nothing about how to pack it. Matching on categories means matching on marketing decisions.
Rank: which rule wins
Section titled “Rank: which rule wins”An article can carry several properties, so several profiles can claim it. Rank decides, with the higher rank winning, and the editor shows which ranks are already in use during the selection.
The full order of questions, first answer wins, per field:
- the article’s own packing card
- its parent article, for a variant that says nothing of its own
- a profile assigned to the article by hand
- a profile assigned to its parent
- profiles matched by property or category, in rank order
- the default profile
Because it is per field, a narrow rule can override just the packing weight and let “own box” continue down to the default.
Two rules of the same rank
Section titled “Two rules of the same rank”The answer stays stable: the same order replanned tomorrow gives the same box, which is what makes a complaint reproducible. It is, however, settled internally rather than by the configuration. That is reported as a fault on Packing data coverage, and the fix is to give one of them a higher rank.
Seeing it on an article
Section titled “Seeing it on an article”Every product has a Packing & shipping card on its Specifications tab, right under the measurements. It shows what the system will use, which level each number came from, which rule won and which rules it took precedence over. An unexplained number is a number nobody trusts.
What to do next
Section titled “What to do next”- Packaging materials — the boxes these rules pick from
- Cartonization — how a box is chosen for a real order