Logistic & Fulfilment

SCAYLE models fulfilment as a chain of decisions that starts with inventory location and ends with a delivery promise shown to the customer.

At a high level:

Warehouses determine where items ship from
Carriers define who delivers the shipment
Shipping Options define what delivery methods the customer can choose from
Delivery Estimations & Cut-Offs define when the order arrives
Service Costs define how much delivery costs
Shipments & Track & Trace define how delivery is executed and monitored

Each configuration builds on the previous one.

Core Concepts

The following concepts appear throughout the logistics documentation. Understanding them early will make all other sections easier to follow. Each following section in this documentation dives deeper into one of these domains.

Warehouse

What Is a Warehouse in SCAYLE?

A warehouse represents a logical fulfilment location from which products can be shipped. It does not have to match a physical warehouse one-to-one. Instead, it is a routing and prioritisation construct that SCAYLE uses to decide:

where inventory is fulfilled from
how fast items can be shipped
whether items can be combined into one shipment

Why Warehouses Matter

Warehouses influence:

shipment splitting
delivery estimations
cross-docking behaviour
availability of shipping options

Even if you operate from a single physical location, a warehouse configuration is mandatory.

Cross-Docking (Warehouse-to-Warehouse Transfers)

What Is Cross-Docking?

Cross-docking allows you to fulfil an order from multiple warehouses, transferring items internally before shipping them to the customer. This is used when:

products in one order are stocked in different warehouses
one warehouse acts as a consolidation point

Why Cross-Docking Matters

Cross-docking directly affects:

delivery times
which delivery estimations are used
whether shipments are delayed to consolidate items

Cross-docking delivery times are configured per warehouse relationship, not globally.

Carriers

What Is a Carrier?

A carrier represents a delivery service provider (e.g. DHL, UPS, Hermes).

In SCAYLE, carriers define:

how shipments are handed over
which delivery features are available (home delivery, pickup, express)
which tracking capabilities exist

Carrier vs Carrier Group

Carrier = a specific delivery provider
Carrier Group = a logical grouping used by shipping options

Shipping Options do not reference carriers directly — they reference carrier groups.
This allows one shipping option to work with multiple providers.

Shipping Options

What Is a Shipping Option?

A shipping option is what the customer sees and selects during checkout.

Examples:

Standard Delivery
Express Delivery
Pickup at Collection Point

Shipping options define:

label and description shown in checkout
price (or pricing logic)
supported carriers (via carrier groups)
availability per country, channel, or condition

Why Shipping Options Are Central

Shipping options are the main integration point between:

carriers
service costs
checkout behaviour

Most fulfilment issues originate from misconfigured shipping options or unclear dependencies.

Collection Points

What Are Collection Points?

Collection points allow customers to pick up orders at predefined locations (e.g. parcel shops, lockers). They are:

provided by carriers
activated via shipping options
displayed dynamically during checkout

Key Dependency

Collection points only appear in checkout if:

the shipping option supports them
the linked carrier group supports them
the carrier integration provides collection point data

Delivery Estimations

What Is a Delivery Estimation?

A delivery estimation is the expected delivery window shown to the customer (for example: “Delivered in 2–3 business days”).

In the SCAYLE implementation, delivery estimations are defined and calculated on warehouse level. They are not dynamically calculated per carrier.

How Delivery Estimations Are Calculated

SCAYLE calculates delivery estimations based on:

Warehouse delivery times
Cross-docking transfer times between warehouses
Order cut-off times

This means that two different carriers using the same warehouse configuration will produce the same delivery estimation.

Important:
Warehouse-level delivery estimations must already include:

the warehouse fulfilment time (picking, packing, handover)
the average carrier transit time

As a result, delivery estimations represent an end-to-end delivery promise, not just warehouse processing time.

Warehouse-Centric Delivery Logic

Delivery estimations are evaluated based on where and how the order is fulfilled:

If all items are fulfilled from a single warehouse, the delivery time configured on that warehouse is used.
If cross-docking applies, SCAYLE adds the configured transfer time between warehouses before applying the outbound delivery time.
If an order is placed after a cut-off time, the shipment date is shifted accordingly.

The warehouse (and warehouse relationships in cross-docking scenarios) is the single source of truth for delivery timing.