Shopify
Shopify is a hosted e-commerce storefront. They have created and maintain a connection to Shipwire. There is no app to download or install. You can enable Shipwire from within Shopify.
If you plan on signing up for Shopify, please do so by clicking on the links below. This tells Shopify that Shipwire sent you, and is helpful to our partnership with them.
With a Shipwire connection to Shopify you get:
- Instant access to 5 warehouses in the U.S., Canada and Europe
- Outsourced pick pack and ship services
- Same day shipping services
- 12 carrier integrations to support your global expansion
- Shipping accuracy and service level guarantees.
- Your Shipwire account also gives you a bunch of free multi-location shipping tools. Included for all your locations: online label printing, inventory management and order management software
Below are some instructions to help you with the Shopify-Shipwire connection
Last Update to tips below: 11/15/2010
Enabling the Shipwire Order Fulfillment Service
First, click the Fulfillment Services tab in your Shopify admin’s preferences. Click the activate button at the bottom right of the Shipwire section. Then enter your Shipwire Account Email and Password into the corresponding text boxes provided and click the Save button.
Configuring your Products
Now that Shipwire has been enabled as a fulfillment service you can configure individual products to be fulfilled by Shipwire. Additionally, you can configure Shopify to update your product’s inventory levels every 24 hours using the Shipwire real-time inventory service. Please note that you must add your product to Shipwire before creating your product in Shopify. Shopify verifies your product’s SKU exists in your Shipwire account when creating or updating a product that uses Shipwire for fulfillment.
Enabling Shipwire Fulfillment for New Products
To create a new product that uses Shipwire for fulfillment you just need to enter your product’s SKU and select shipped by Shipwire from the following dropdown menu in the Inventory section of the new product form. By default, Shopify also enables the Shipwire real-time inventory service. You can change that selection to use Shopify’s inventory management, or disbable inventory management altogether in the following drop down menu. If you do choose to use the real-time inventory service, your product’s inventory levels will be updated once every 24 hours with a real-time count from Shipwire. In between updates from Shipwire your product will use Shopify’s inventory management system to ensure that your product is not oversold.
Enabling Shipwire Fulfillment for Existing Products
Enabling Shipwire fulfillment for an existing product is similar to the process used when creating a new product. Click the product you want to be fulfilled with Shipwire in the Products page of the Shopify admin interface. Then edit the product variation you want to fulfill with Shipwire, under the “Variations” heading. Locate the Inventory section and follow the directions in the previous paragraph for enabling Shipwire. Make sure you click the “Save changes” button when you have finished with your configuration.
Sending Sold Line Items to Shipwire for Fulfillment
Now that you have enabled Shipwire and have products using Shipwire for fulfillment you will have to instruct Shipwire to fulfill the product when it is sold. To do this you view the order in the Shopify admin inteface and then you click the Ship items button above the order summary. Select the items you want fulfilled, click the Ship items button at the bottom of the table and the line items will be automatically send to Shipwire for fulfillment. You can then view the details of the fulfillment in the order history on the right side of the screen by clicking the link detailing the fulfillment.
Diagnosing Problems Sending Orders to Shipwire
First, check if your store is configured correctly, by signing into your account and reviewing the instructions under the Sell tab. Second, check if your store is synchronizing inventory with Shipwire. If so, try temporarily turning this feature off, and trying again. Inventory synchronization typically occurs once a day. When starting up a new Shipwire account, this may cause problems until your initial inventory is available.
Select the Shipwire Real Time Rating Module.
Shopify integrates the Shipwire rating API that allows you to charge your customers the exact amount required to ship your product. The Shipwire module will quote shipping cost from the optimal warehouse that has inventory closest to your customer.
The Shipwire Rating module is just like the UPS, or USPS module. You need to enable it within Shopify to have it show up upon customer checkout. Contact Shopify support if you require assistance with this.
NOTE: For best results do not mix the Shipwire Rating module with carrier specific modules. Carrier modules do not have the concept of multiple warehouse in multiple countries. They can only generate a single price from the location you designate when setting it up.
When not using the Shipwire Rating Module – Match your Shopify and Shipwire Shipping Methods.
If you offer multiple shipping types (Shopify calls them ship_type) and orders are coming through to Shipwire with the incorrect shipping type you don’t have the right mapping between Shopify ship_types and Shipwire shipping methods.
One way to have Shopify automatically choose the correct method from the list, is for you to name your shipping rates based on a predetermined pattern.
The mapping we follow is as follows:
Shopify rate name => Shipwire Shipping Method
- 1 Day Service => 1 Day (1D)
- 2 Day Service => 2 Day (2D)
- Ground Service => Ground (GD)
- Freight Service => Freight (FT)
- International => International (INTL)
For instance consider an order is captured as ’1-Day Express’. Since this name doesn’t map to any of the predetermined mappings we have for Shipwire we are unable to automatically select the correct menu item for you. If you don’t select anything from the dropdown then the decision is deferred to your Shipwire account, which will default to Ground Shipping.
To get this mapping automatically working you could rename your current Shopify shipping rates to match the names in the mapping above, for example ’1-Day Express’ would be renamed to ’1 Day
Service’.
IMPORTANT: Check all your Shopify orders against how they are captured in Shipwire to be certain the shiptypes and carriers are what you expect. Don’t be surprised!
If you didn’t find the answer to your question here, please get in touch with us.