How Parcello works
How an order moves through Parcello, from your box rules to labels, fulfillment, tracking and returns.
Updated October 20, 2026
Parcello turns each Shopify order into boxes and shipments using rules you set once per product, buys labels on your own carrier accounts and sends the tracking back to Shopify. This page shows how the pieces fit together.
The flow at a glance
| Step | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Box rules | You tell Parcello which box each product ships in, how much its contents weigh and where it ships from | Locations, Boxes, Products |
| 2. Order arrives | Shopify sends each new order to Parcello | Orders |
| 3. Packing | Parcello packs the order into boxes and groups the boxes into shipments | The order page |
| 4. Rates and labels | You get rates and create labels on your UPS, FedEx, Shippo, Estes or FedEx Freight account | The order page |
| 5. Fulfillment | Parcello sends the tracking numbers to Shopify and the order is fulfilled | The order page |
| 6. Tracking and returns | Parcello follows each box until delivery, and you can make return labels | Tracking, the order page |
1. Box rules on your products
Everything starts on the Products page. For each variant you set:
- Ship From: the location it ships from.
- Carrier: a carrier for this product, or the store default (shown as, for example, Store default (UPS)) to use the carrier you picked on the Carriers page.
- Box 1, Box 2 and so on: the box or boxes it ships in, with the weight of what goes inside each one.
Products can also share boxes, have a limit per box, or pick a box by quantity. See Set up products and How Parcello packs an order.
2. Orders arrive from Shopify
Shopify sends each new order to Parcello as it’s placed, and sends changes when the order is edited, cancelled or fulfilled somewhere else. Sync Orders on the Orders page imports recent orders, about the last 60 days.
Orders that Shopify records as local pickup, local delivery or in-store sales get no shipment. Items that ship from a dropship location are left to your supplier.
3. Packing into boxes and shipments
When an order arrives, Parcello packs it by your rules. Boxes that ship from the same location with the same carrier go together in one shipment. Each shipment gets its own labels.
For example, Order #1001 has a desk that ships in two boxes from your East warehouse with UPS, and a lamp that ships from your West warehouse with FedEx:
| Shipment | Location and carrier | Boxes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | East warehouse, UPS | Box 1 (desk top), Box 2 (desk legs) |
| 2 | West warehouse, FedEx | Box 3 (lamp) |
You can change anything before labels are created: what’s in each box, the box weights, the carrier and service, and which shipment a box belongs to. See Boxes and shipments on the order.
Which carrier a shipment uses is decided in this order: the product’s own carrier, then a connected carrier that matches the shipping method the customer chose at checkout, then your store default, then the first carrier you connected. See How Parcello picks the carrier and service.
4. Rates and labels on your accounts
On the order page, Validate Address & Get Rates checks the address with the carrier and lists the services with their prices and delivery dates. Create Labels buys the labels on your account. Postage is billed by your carrier or by Shippo, not by Parcello.
From there you can print labels, download them as a PDF and print a packing slip for each box. International shipments get a customs form and invoice. See Create and void labels and International shipments and the customs form.
5. Fulfillment back to Shopify
Creating labels doesn’t fulfill the order unless you turn on Fulfillment when labels are bought on the Automation page; then each item is marked fulfilled as soon as its labels are bought. Otherwise, when you’re ready, Fulfill Order sends every shipment’s tracking number to Shopify in one fulfillment, and Shopify emails your customer. You can also fulfill one line item at a time. See Fulfill orders in Shopify.
6. Tracking and returns
The Tracking page follows every shipment, including ones fulfilled outside Parcello, and flags the ones that are late, stalled or have a problem. Parcello looks up FedEx and EFW shipments itself, UPS and Estes shipments when that account is connected, and FedEx Freight bills of lading created in Parcello while FedEx Freight is connected. Shippo labels update from Shippo, and other carriers follow Shopify’s own tracking. See The Tracking page.
Need a return? On a domestic shipment, Generate Return Label makes a label from your customer back to your location. See Return labels.
Where checkout rates fit (Advanced plan)
On the Advanced plan and above, Parcello can also price shipping at Shopify checkout. It packs the cart with the same box rules it uses for orders, asks your carriers for rates, and shows the services you choose. When the order arrives, Parcello reads the service the customer picked and preselects it on the shipment. See Live rates at checkout and How checkout prices a cart.
Many orders at once
Select orders on the Orders page and click Open in batch to print their labels and packing slips together and fulfill the ones that are ready. On the Operations plan you can also buy labels for the whole batch. See Ship many orders in a batch.