How rules decide the supplier

How Dropday checks your rules

When an order comes in, Dropday checks your rules for each order line, from the top of the Rules list to the bottom. This also happens for test orders.

The first rule that matches an order line decides its supplier, and Dropday doesn't check the rules below it for that line. Put specific rules above general ones, and change the order by dragging rules on the Rules list.

When a rule matches

A rule checks one or more conditions. Each condition compares a field of the order or the order line with a value, using an operator: for example Brand, Is and a brand name.

A rule with several conditions matches when it Meets one of these conditions or when it Meets all conditions, depending on what you chose for that rule.

Purchase-price threshold

A rule can have a purchase-price threshold. The rule then only applies when the order lines that match it together meet that threshold. If they don't, Dropday tries the next rule.

One supplier per order line

Each order line goes to exactly one supplier, so one order line can't be sent to two suppliers at once. The whole line goes to that supplier as it was sold, with the same product and quantity.

An order with several products can still go to several suppliers, because each order line gets its own supplier.

If two parties need the same order, set both up under one supplier: a supplier can have several delivery methods that all run, and a second party can get a copy of the order email through the email's BCC field. The Supplier Portal and the shipping status then treat them as one supplier.

After a rule matches, Dropday sends the order line through the supplier's active delivery methods. A supplier that holds orders for review waits for your approval, and An order line was not sent to a supplier explains the other cases in which a line isn't sent.

Order lines that match no rule

An order line that matches no rule shows No rule and isn't sent to any supplier. To see what happened to a line, go to Orders, open the order and expand the product: Rule and Supplier show the rule and supplier it got.

Dropday doesn't check an order line again later. Adding or changing a rule doesn't affect order lines that already came in, and there's no button to apply the rules again.

If this happened to a real order, An order line was not sent to a supplier explains your options.

Fields and operators

A new rule and a rule you edit offer the same fields. The list first shows six product fields; Show more shows the rest.

• Product fields shown first: Supplier, Reference (SKU), Name, Brand, Category and Labels.

• More product fields: External ID, EAN-13, Quantity, Stock Quantity, Price and Purchase Price, and technical fields for the order line's supplier, height, width, length, weight and last edit.

• Order fields: External ID, Order Source (Store Name), Test, Total Paid, Shipping Costs, Shipping Carrier Name, Shipping Method Description, Shipping Note, Requested Delivery Date, Email Address, the delivery address (first name, last name, company name, address lines 1 and 2, postcode, city name, state, country and phone number), and technical fields for whether the order is blocked, its country code, when it was finalised and its last edit.

Each condition can use these operators: Begins with, Ends with, Is, Is not, Contains, Does not contain, Greater than, Smaller than, In list and Is empty.

What rules can't do

• Choose a supplier by hand: the supplier of an order line is decided by your rules. You can't move an order or order line to another supplier after the order came in.

• Preview a rule: there's no preview of which rule and supplier an order line will get before the order is in Dropday. Check your rules with a test order instead.

• Split bundles or multipacks: Dropday can't split a bundle into separate items, multiply quantities (for example 1 × "6-pack" into 6 single items) or send parts of a bundle to different suppliers. To handle a bundle, your webshop has to split it into separate order lines before the order reaches Dropday.

• Manage rules through the API: you view and manage rules only in the Dropday dashboard, and they can't be read or exported through the API.

Next, test your setup with a test order to check that each order line gets the supplier you expect.