Adding a Virtual Location in Pipe17

A virtual location, sometimes referred to as a "dummy" location, is a location manually created in Pipe17 used to send irrelevant or self-fulfilled orders to a non-routable location. The virtual location provides a way for Pipe17 to limit certain orders from being sent to fulfillment in cases where the order is being self-fulfilled, or not fulfilled at all. 

In this Article

• Use Case
• Pre-Requisites
• Requirements
• Adding the Virtual Location
• Adding the New Location to Order Routing

Use Case

If you've already configured Order Routing, you know that orders meeting certain conditions are already routing to a "fulfillment location" in Pipe17.  However, what happens to orders that do not meet those conditions? For example, you would like to fulfill orders containing SKU-A yourself, so you need a way to ensure that these orders are not routed to an actual fulfillment location in Pipe17. This is where a virtual location comes in handy. 

Pre-Requisites

• Order Routing
• Locations in Pipe17

Requirements

Ensure that you have Administrator access to your Pipe17 account before getting started on this guide.

Adding the Virtual Location

1. Login to Pipe17
2. Click the Inventory tab on the left
3. Click Locations
4. Click Create Location in the top right corner

5. After clicking Create Location, a new page will appear. 

6. Enter the name of your location (ex: Virtual Location, Non-Fulfillable SKUs, Self-Fulfilled Orders)

7. Be sure to check the box for "Exclude totals from inventory" so that Pipe17 does not factor          inventory for this location. 

8. Leave the 3PL Integration dropdown blank

      9. Click Save

Your new virtual location should now appear in your locations menu (Inventory > Locations)

Adding your Virtual Location to Order Routing

Now that you've created your virtual location, it's time to add a new order routing card that will use this location. 

1. In Pipe17, click the Configuration tab on the left
2. Click Order Routing
3. Ensure that the Routing Rules tab is selected (on the left)
4. Add a new order routing card by clicking the Add Order Routing button in the bottom right corner

5. A new order routing card will appear. 

6. Enter a name for your order routing rule (ex: UN-FULFILLABLE)

7. Add any filters by clicking the "Add Filter" button. Here, you can specify which orders/line items will be unfulfillable. If you already have these conditions configured for your first order routing              card, then all other orders NOT meeting those pre-set conditions will route to the new UNFULFILLABLE routing card. Review our Order Routing guide for more information.

8. Check the box for "Do not check inventory" to turn off inventory based routing for this location. 

9. Select a destination/region if applicable

10 In the fulfillment location dropdown, select your new Virtual Location

 (titled UNFULFILLABLE SKUs in this example)