In Pipe17, an exception represents any event that prevents an order, product, inventory update, or fulfillment from flowing correctly through your connected systems. Exceptions help your team detect issues early, resolve them quickly, and maintain a smooth post-purchase experience for your customers.
Understanding what counts as a failure—and how the app surfaces these events—allows ecommerce teams, fulfillment partners, and brands to proactively fix operational problems before they impact shipments or customer satisfaction.
What Is an Exception?
An exception is a system-detected error that stops or delays an operational workflow. Exceptions can occur during order ingestion, routing, fulfillment, inventory sync, or connector communication.
Pipe17 monitors every step of your order lifecycle and automatically flags exceptions when data cannot be validated, transmitted, or processed as expected.
What Counts as a Failure?
Failures generally occur when required data is missing, invalid, mismatched, or blocked by a downstream system. The most common categories include:
1. Order Ingestion Failures
These occur when an order cannot be successfully imported from a selling channel. Typical causes:
- Missing or invalid address details
- Unsupported or unmapped SKUs
- Duplicate order IDs
- Missing required customer information
Impact: The order cannot enter your fulfillment workflows.
2. Routing Failures
Failures during the routing step prevent the order from progressing to fulfillment. Common triggers:
- No location meets your routing rule conditions
- Out-of-stock items with no alternate source
- Conflicts among multiple routing rules
- Misconfigured location roles
Impact: No Shipping Request can be created.
3. Fulfillment Failures
These failures occur on the warehouse or 3PL side when a Shipping Request cannot be processed. Examples include:
- SKU not recognized by the fulfillment partner
- Invalid shipping method or service level
- Warehouse rejects the request due to missing data
- Carrier restrictions for the destination address
Impact: The order cannot ship until corrected.
4. Connector or Sync Failures
Failures caused by communication issues between Pipe17 and a connected system. Common scenarios:
- Authentication errors
- API rate limits or timeouts
- Incorrect or expired credentials
- Incompatible payload formats
Impact: Orders, inventory, or fulfillment updates stop syncing.
5. Inventory & Product Data Failures
Issues related to product mismatches or inventory inconsistencies. Typical causes:
- SKU missing in one or more systems
- Inventory levels failing to update
- Invalid product mappings
- Unsupported product types or bundles
Impact: Overselling risk, routing failures, or fulfillment delays.
How the App Helps You Detect Failures
Pipe17 provides multiple layers of visibility so your team can catch and resolve issues quickly:
- Order Details Page shows exceptions tied to a specific order.
- Live dashboards highlight problem orders and sync failures.
- Event logs provide detailed error messages for technical troubleshooting.
- Automation Engine rules can detect anomalies before they reach fulfillment.
This proactive visibility allows operators and 3PL teams to respond before customers are affected.
Why Exception Handling Matters
Effective exception management helps you:
- Prevent delays and missed deliveries
- Reduce customer service escalations
- Maintain accurate, synchronized data across all systems
- Protect your storefronts from overselling
- Give your fulfillment partners clean, actionable requests
By identifying failures early, you keep your operational pipeline predictable and resilient—even as order volume grows.
Common Examples
- “SKU 12345 not found in ShipBob.”
- “Address validation failed: Missing postal code.”
- “Inventory sync rejected by Shopify due to invalid quantity.”
- “Routing rule did not match any location.”
- “Amazon rejected fulfillment update due to missing tracking.”
Each of these is surfaced as an exception and requires review before the order can continue.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter repeated failures:
- Review the specific exception message on the Order Details Page.
- Confirm that product SKUs and mappings are identical across all connected systems.
- Validate that routing rules and locations are configured correctly.
- Ensure all connectors are authenticated and healthy.
- Check for missing or invalid customer, address, or line-item details.
Need Help?
If you need additional assistance:
- Use Ask Pippen, our AI agent, located at the top of the app page.
- Submit a support request with as much relevant detail as possible. Learn how to submit a request.
- For urgent issues, email us directly at support@pipe17.com.
We're here to help you succeed with your operations.
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