Combine orders

When customers place multiple orders that haven't shipped yet, you can combine them into a single shipment. This reduces shipping costs and provides a better customer experience by consolidating deliveries.

Combining orders is particularly useful when customers make separate purchases within a short time frame, or when you want to optimize fulfillment by shipping multiple items together. When you combine orders, Zonos automatically recalculates the shipping costs based on the combined weight and dimensions, and issues a refund to the merchant for the difference between the original shipping charges and the new consolidated rate.

Order combination is available for Zonos Checkout custom API integrations only. This feature is not available for plugin integrations like BigCommerce or Magento.

Requirements 

To combine orders, all selected orders must meet the following criteria:

• Orders must be in OPEN status with no tracking numbers assigned
• All orders must share the same shopper email address
• All orders must use the same currency
• All orders must belong to the same organization
• At least 2 orders

How to combine orders 

1. Go to Dashboard -> Orders.
2. Select the checkboxes next to two or more orders you want to combine.
3. Click Combine orders in the top right. This button will only appear if all selected orders meet the combination criteria.
4. Review the combination page, which displays:
   1. Select orders - The orders you selected to combine
   2. Ship from location - Your shipping origin (can be changed if needed)
   3. Ship to - The destination address for the combined shipment
   4. Combined shipping options - New shipping rates for the combined order, showing the original order total, new shipping service options with updated pricing, and price comparison to see potential savings
5. Select your preferred shipping service level from the available options.
6. Click the Combine orders button in the top right.
7. Review the confirmation dialog, which shows:
   1. The action is final and cannot be undone
   2. The refund amount the merchant will receive (the difference between the original shipping costs and the new combined shipping cost)
   3. A confirmation email will be sent once the orders are combined
8. Click Combine to finalize the order combination.
9. View your new combined order, which includes:
   1. A banner indicating "This order is combined from following orders:" with links to the original orders
   2. All items from the combined orders in the order fulfillment section
   3. Updated landed cost breakdown reflecting the new shipping cost
   4. A single tracking number field for the combined shipment

Once orders are combined, the action cannot be undone. The original orders will have their status updated to COMBINED and will be locked from further modifications.

Source order restrictions 

Once combined, the original source orders cannot be cancelled or refunded directly. Any cancellation or refund must be performed on the combined order. Attempting to cancel or refund a source order will display an error directing you to the combined order.

Note: The combined order does not hold payment information directly. Payments remain associated with the original source orders. When refunds are issued, they are processed through the source orders' payment methods.

If source orders have existing partial refunds before combination, those amounts are subtracted from the total when calculating combination savings.

Refunds on combined orders 

When orders are combined, the shipping savings are refunded to the merchant, starting with the source order that has the highest refundable amount. If the refund exceeds that order's refundable balance, the remainder flows to the next highest order, and so on.

Important: When you cancel or refund the combined order, the refund is processed against the original source orders (where the payment exists), not the combined order itself. The combined order has no direct payment—it references the source orders' payments.

Example: You combine Order A ($50 total) and Order B ($150 total). The combined shipping cost is $30 less than the original separate shipping charges. The $30 refund to the merchant will be distributed starting with Order B since it has the higher refundable amount.