Shopify fulfilment automation for Irish merchants: rules that pick the carrier
How EirLink's automation rules work: match paid Shopify orders on weight, destination, value, or tags; set the carrier, service, and sender; and optionally auto-create the label — with a human-friendly safety model.
Short answer
Fulfilment automation in EirLink is a set of ordered rules that run when a paid Shopify order arrives. A rule matches on the order's weight, destination country, value, or tags, and sets the carrier, service, and sender address. Auto-creating the label is a separate, off-by-default switch — labels cost money, so a human stays in the loop until you explicitly opt in.
What a rule sees, and what it sets
Rules evaluate the facts of a paid order: total item weight, destination country, order value, and any tags on the order. The first enabled rule that matches wins, and it sets three things: the carrier, the service, and the sender address. If nothing matches, your default action applies, and an all-empty default simply leaves the order for manual labelling.
- Under 500 g to Ireland → An Post, standard service.
- Anything to GB → An Post with customs data pulled from your Shopify products.
- Over 5 kg, or tagged fragile → DPD from the warehouse address.
Auto-create is opt-in, on purpose
Deciding the carrier and creating the label are different levels of trust. Labels cost real money on your carrier account, so EirLink keeps auto-create off until you switch it on.
When you do, there is a configurable delay of up to an hour before the label fires, absorbing the quick cancellations and address edits that happen minutes after checkout. The order's state is re-checked when the delay ends — a cancelled order never gets a label.
Fail closed, surface loudly
Automation earns trust by how it fails. EirLink's rules engine fails closed: a rule that cannot be read cannot match, and a rule that points at a carrier you have disconnected — or a sender address you have deleted — does not silently fall back to something else. The order lands in an exceptions list with the reason, and you ship it manually.
Silent fallbacks are how the wrong account pays for a label. Exceptions are boring, and boring is correct.
Customer notifications stay singular
By default, exactly one notification goes to your customer: Shopify's own shipping-confirmation email, with live tracking, sent when the order is fulfilled. Carrier-side alerts — DPD's email and SMS notifications — are off by default so nobody gets three messages about one parcel, and you can flip the channels if you prefer the carrier's alerts instead.
Start with one rule
The path that works: write the one rule that covers most of your traffic, watch it decide correctly for a week while you still press the button, then turn on auto-create with a short delay. Automation should be adopted the way it is built — one opt-in at a time.
Quick answers
Does automation create labels without me?
Only if you turn that on. Auto-create on paid orders is off by default; until then, rules pre-select the carrier, service, and sender, and you create labels when you choose.
What can rules match on?
Destination country, total item weight, order value, and order tags. Rules are ordered, first-match-wins, and anything unmatched falls through to your default action.
What happens if a rule points at a disconnected carrier?
The order becomes an automation exception with the reason attached — it is never silently shipped through another carrier. You fix the connection or ship it manually.
Will my customer get duplicate shipping emails?
No. By default only Shopify's fulfilment email is sent. DPD's own email and SMS alerts are off unless you enable them.