When a new order comes into your Shopify store, WeatherFreight gets to work immediately. Here's exactly what happens behind the scenes — from the moment the order lands to the weather decision written to your order note.
Step 1: The Order Arrives
WeatherFreight receives the order via Shopify webhook the moment it's placed. It reads the shipping address, the origin warehouse address you've configured, and the shipping service selected at checkout. These three inputs define the problem to be solved.
Step 2: Route Waypoints Are Identified
The AI estimates the ground transit route based on the origin and destination addresses and the carrier service level. A 2-day air shipment has a different risk profile than a 5-day ground route. WeatherFreight identifies the relevant waypoints — cities and regions the package will pass through — to build the forecast query.
Step 3: The 14-Day Forecast Is Pulled
WeatherFreight queries the WeatherAPI forecast for each waypoint across the full expected transit window. If the order ships today on a 3-day route, it checks today through day three for each waypoint — not just the dispatch day. A 14-day window means even orders placed weeks in advance can be evaluated accurately.
Step 4: The AI Evaluates Against Your Thresholds
Your product's temperature thresholds are set in the WeatherFreight dashboard — a max temperature, a min temperature, and optionally cold or heat pack tolerances that widen the safe window. The AI compares the forecast at every waypoint against these thresholds:
- Does any waypoint exceed the max temperature threshold during the transit window?
- Does any waypoint fall below the min temperature threshold?
- Do the configured pack tolerances keep conditions within safe range?
- Is the forecast confidence level sufficient to make a reliable decision?
Step 5: The Decision Is Written to Your Order
If conditions are safe, the order is cleared for fulfillment and the note reflects the safe window. If conditions exceed thresholds, the order is held and the note explains why — which waypoint, which day, what temperature was forecast. No ambiguity, no black box.
Every decision is written in plain language to your Shopify order note. You always know exactly why an order was held or cleared — not just that it was.
The entire process takes seconds. By the time you open Shopify to start packing, WeatherFreight has already evaluated every order that came in overnight.