Connecting a Store

Connecting a store links your storefront to ShipGenius, so your orders show up as shipments that are ready to rate and fulfillment flows back to the store the moment you buy the label. It takes care of the two steps that trip people up most in ecommerce shipping: retyping the address, and remembering to paste the tracking number back into the store.

What a Connection Does

Once you're connected:

• Orders import. Your unfulfilled orders show up on the ship screen with the recipient and contents already filled in.
• Shipments stay linked. A shipment created from a store order keeps a badge pointing back to that order, so you can always tell which order a label belongs to.
• Fulfillment flows back. Buying the label marks the order fulfilled in your store and sends the tracking number along, so your customer's shipping notification goes out without you opening the store's admin at all.

Supported Platforms

eBay -- available now

Connecting eBay takes about a minute. Pick eBay in the store picker and we'll send you over to eBay to approve the connection. Say yes there and you'll land back in ShipGenius with your store linked -- there's nothing to copy, paste, or keep track of.

It's the easiest kind of connection to live with: there's no key for you to look after, and you can disconnect it from either ShipGenius or eBay whenever you like.

Shopify -- pending app store approval

Our Shopify app is built and waiting on Shopify's review before it can go live in their App Store. You'll see Shopify in the store picker, but you won't be able to select it just yet.

If you're on the OMS plan, there's already a deeper Shopify option available to you today -- see the section on marketplace integrations below.

Wix -- pending marketplace approval

Wix works a little differently: you'll generate a key in Wix and paste it into ShipGenius. It's waiting on Wix marketplace approval, so it isn't selectable yet either.

Connecting a Store

Open the store picker from the Connect a store button on the ship screen, or from the stores chip in the utility strip. Pick your platform and follow the prompts -- some platforms send you over to sign in and approve, and others ask you to paste in a key.

Your connected stores live in the stores chip, and that's also where orders waiting to be shipped show up. If a connection ever needs reconnecting, we'll flag it right there, and one click takes you straight back to that platform instead of making you start over from the picker.

Working Store Orders

Imported orders land on the ship screen as shipments with the recipient and contents already filled in. What you add is the packaging: weight plus length, width, and height. All four are required before you can rate, because your store knows what was ordered but not what box it ends up in.

From there it's an ordinary shipment -- run rates, pick a service, and buy. The store order is marked fulfilled as soon as you do.

If an order won't fit in one box, split the shipment before you buy. Each part gets its own label and tracking number, and your store is updated with all of them.

Store Connections vs OMS Marketplace Integrations

These are two different systems and they're easy to mix up, so here's the short version of each.

Store connections are the light path described above: they pull your unfulfilled orders onto the ship screen and push fulfillment back. They exist to save you typing, and there's nothing to configure beyond approving the connection.

Marketplace integrations are the OMS system, and they go a lot further. They bring orders in as full order records, keep your item catalog and inventory in step, run on their own schedule, hold on to anything that didn't go through so it can be tried again, and feed the workflows that pick routing and service for you. Each one has its own settings for orders, items, inventory, and shipments.

Today you can use Shopify, Squarespace, and Infoplus as marketplace integrations. If you're on OMS, that's the system you want -- see Marketplace Integrations. And if you're on Core or Plus and you just want to stop retyping your eBay orders, a store connection is exactly the right tool.

Security

With a sign-in style connection like eBay's, there's no password for us to hold and no credential for you to keep track of. ShipGenius only gets the permissions the platform granted, and you can take that access away from the platform's own settings any time you want.

For key-based connections, treat the key like a password. It's worth generating a fresh one just for ShipGenius rather than reusing one you already have, so you can replace it later on its own without disturbing anything else.

FAQs

Which platforms can I connect today?

eBay is live today. Shopify and Wix are both built and waiting on approval from their marketplaces. And if you're on OMS, Shopify, Squarespace, and Infoplus are available right now as full marketplace integrations.

Does connecting a store change my rates?

Not at all. A store connection only changes where the order details come from, not how rating works. You'll see the same live rates from the same carrier accounts you always do.

Will my customer get a tracking email automatically?

Your store sends its own shipping notification once the order is marked fulfilled, which happens the moment you buy the label. Whether that email actually goes out is a setting on your store's side rather than in ShipGenius. If you'd like the carrier to send tracking updates too, add the recipient under extra services -- see Insurance, Signature, and Extra Services.

Can I connect more than one store?

Yes -- connect as many as you like, including several on the same platform. All of their orders show up together on the ship screen.

What happens if my connection expires?

Nothing is lost. The stores chip flags it and offers to reconnect, which takes you straight back to that platform to approve it again. New orders pause until you do, and everything already imported stays exactly where it is.

Do imported orders include weights and dimensions?

Usually not -- most storefronts simply don't track package data. You'll add the weight and the length, width, and height yourself, and all of them are required before a shipment can be rated. On OMS, your item records can hold weights and dimensions, and cartonization can pick the box size for you.

Can I disconnect a store without losing my shipment history?

Yes. Disconnecting just stops future orders from coming in -- every shipment and label you've already created stays right where it is in your history.