Frequently Asked Questions

WarpWare is an order operations platform that sits between your sales channels and fulfillment infrastructure. It ingests orders from e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, etc.), applies intelligent routing and automation rules, dispatches to the correct warehouse or 3PL, and writes tracking information back to the source channel — all from a single pane of glass.

WarpWare has 21+ native integrations: Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, WooCommerce, eBay, TikTok Shop, BigCommerce, Magento, Veeqo, ShipStation, ShipBob, ShipHero, Acumatica, NetSuite, Business Central, SPS Commerce (connecting 115,000+ EDI trading partners), Extensiv, plus Email-based ingestion, SFTP file monitoring, and the Partner API for fully custom machine-to-machine connections.

WarpWare serves two audiences. Third-party logistics providers (3PLs) managing fulfillment for multiple brands — WarpWare gives each client a tenant with its own channels, rules, and inventory views. And direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands managing their own fulfillment who need a central hub to unify orders from every channel, automate warehouse routing, and keep inventory in sync.

Every order follows a six-stage pipeline: Ingestion (received from channel or API) → Rule Evaluation (five engines run in sequence: routing, territory, automation, holds, and pre-orders) → Routing (assign to the correct warehouse or fulfillment connection) → Dispatch (transmit to the destination system) → Fulfillment (warehouse picks, packs, and ships) → Tracking Writeback (tracking number pushed back to the source sales channel). Each stage is logged with timestamps for full audit visibility.

WarpWare tracks orders through eight statuses: pending (ingested, awaiting rule evaluation), ready (rules passed, queued for dispatch), sent (transmitted to destination system), shipped (carrier has the package), delivered (confirmed delivery), failed (destination rejected or error occurred), hold (manually or rule-paused), and cancelled (voided by user or channel). Archived orders are also retained for historical analytics.

Yes. The routing rules engine runs before all other processing and assigns a destination based on any combination of conditions: geographic proximity (ship-to state/country), SKU or product type, order value thresholds, sales channel, custom metadata fields, or any other order attribute. You can set priority-ordered rules with fallback destinations so orders always land somewhere.

WarpWare pulls inventory levels from your warehouse or fulfillment connections, matches products by SKU to your master catalog, and pushes available quantities to each connected sales channel. When an order is ingested, WarpWare instantly decrements local inventory to prevent overselling before the warehouse count catches up. Periodic reconciliation with the warehouse ensures long-term accuracy.

Yes, through a three-layer approach. First, instant local decrement: the moment an order is ingested, WarpWare reduces available inventory in its own ledger so other channels see the updated count immediately. Second, periodic warehouse reconciliation syncs the true physical count back into the system. Third, channel buffers let you hold back safety stock per channel to absorb timing gaps.

Channel buffers are per-channel safety stock holdbacks. For example, if you have 100 units in the warehouse, you can configure a buffer of 5 units on Amazon so WarpWare only advertises 95 units there. This prevents overselling when multiple channels share the same physical inventory and order velocity is high. Each channel can have its own buffer value.

Channel mapping links the same physical product across all of your sales platforms. You define a master SKU in WarpWare, then map it to a Shopify variant ID, an Amazon ASIN, a Walmart item ID, a warehouse-specific item code, and so on. When inventory changes, WarpWare knows exactly which listings to update on every connected channel.

WarpWare has five rule engines that evaluate every inbound order in sequence: routing rules (assign destination warehouse), territory rules (geographic logic), automation rules (24 distinct actions from carrier assignment to custom scripts), hold rules (pause orders matching conditions), and pre-order rules (split or hold based on availability dates). Rules use 50+ field extractors and 16 comparison operators to match on virtually any order attribute.

Yes. The meta.* extractor lets you drill into any JSON path within the order data. For example, meta.line_items[0].properties.gift_message or meta.tags can be used as rule conditions. This means any custom attribute your sales channel or API sends can drive routing, tagging, holds, or any other action — no code changes required.

There are 24 action types available: set_warehouse, assign_carrier, assign_service_level, set_priority, add_tag, remove_tag, set_hold, release_hold, skip_processing, notify_email, notify_webhook, add_note, set_custom_field, merge_orders, split_order, assign_territory, override_address, apply_shipping_preset, set_insurance, require_signature, add_to_batch, set_label_format, run_custom_script, and send_to_queue. Multiple actions can be chained on a single rule.

WarpWare supports USPS, UPS, and FedEx with real-time tracking. USPS and UPS use push webhooks registered per-shipment for instant status updates. FedEx uses batch polling every 4 hours (FedEx charges $199+/month for push webhooks, so polling is the default). All tracking events flow through the CarrierTracker pipeline and are written to the database and back to the source sales channel.

Yes. You can buy labels directly from USPS, UPS, and FedEx within WarpWare. The label purchasing flow includes rate shopping across carriers and service levels, batch printing for high-volume operations, and automatic format selection (4x6 thermal, letter PDF, etc.). Labels are stored and associated with the order for one-click reprinting.

Yes. When you purchase a label in WarpWare, it is automatically injected into the assigned fulfillment channel. For example, if an order is routed to Extensiv, the label URL and tracking number are pushed so the warehouse can print and apply the label without re-entering any information.

Yes, in three ways. Walter AI lets you describe what you want in plain English and generates the report automatically. The custom report builder gives you a drag-and-drop interface for defining columns, filters, grouping, and date ranges. And there are 13 built-in report templates covering common needs like daily shipment summaries, SLA compliance, and channel performance. All reports can be exported as PDF, HTML, or CSV.

The Costs tab provides shipping spend analytics broken down by carrier, service level, and sales channel. It includes margin analysis (shipping charged to the customer vs. actual label cost), cost distribution charts, trend lines over time, and per-order cost breakdowns. This helps identify opportunities to optimize carrier mix and negotiate better rates.

Yes. The real-time operations dashboard surfaces SLA tracking (orders approaching or exceeding their ship-by deadline), exception alerts (failed dispatches, stuck orders, sync errors), connection health monitoring per tenant, and throughput metrics. It is designed for ops managers who need a live view of the entire fulfillment operation.

The Partner API is a REST API that allows external systems to push orders, query inventory, pull tracking, and manage products programmatically. Authentication uses API keys (ww_live_<hex> format) with SHA-256 hashing. Rate limiting is enforced via Redis fixed-window counters (200 requests per minute default). You can also register webhook endpoints to receive real-time event notifications for order creation, shipment, failure, and cancellation — all HMAC-signed with automatic retries and exponential backoff.

Yes. WarpWare integrates with SPS Commerce, which connects to 115,000+ retail trading partners. Supported document types include EDI 850 (Purchase Order), EDI 856 (Advance Ship Notice), and EDI 810 (Invoice). SPS Commerce handles the EDI translation layer, and WarpWare maps the resulting data into its standard order pipeline — so EDI orders get the same routing, automation, and tracking as any other channel.

Walter is WarpWare's built-in AI assistant powered by Claude. It understands natural language queries about your orders ("show me all Amazon orders from last week that haven't shipped"), can create automation rules from plain-English descriptions, generates reports on demand, answers system configuration questions, and can bulk-import data from CSV, Excel, PDF, or JSON with automatic column mapping via Walter Rosetta. Walter has access to the same API the dashboard uses, so anything you can do in the UI, Walter can do conversationally.