The ShipStation 3PL and Dropship Manager add-ons allow 3PL clients and dropship manager accounts to share their carrier accounts and to specify the carriers and services that should be used to fulfill their orders.
This workflow is ideal for:
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3PL Clients who wish to share their carrier accounts with the 3PL fulfilling their orders and to specify which carriers and services should be used by the 3PL.
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Dropship Manager accounts who wish to share their carrier accounts with the vendor accounts fulfilling their orders and to specify which carriers and services should be used by the vendors.
3PL Clients
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Must have accepted an invitation from at least one 3PL.
Dropship Manager Accounts
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Must have the dropship manager add-on enabled.
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At least one vendor account connected to their dropship manager account.
Follow the steps in this section to configure carrier sharing for all fulfillment providers (3PL clients, dropship manager accounts, or both). This section will guide you through configuring:
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Default Carrier Sharing: The default carrier sharing settings apply to all fulfillment providers initially. You also have the option of configuring carrier sharing options unique to each fulfillment provider.
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Individual Fulfillment Provider Carrier Sharing: The default carrier sharing settings can be overwritten for each fulfillment provider. This is useful when you need to specify that different carriers and services should be used by each connected fulfillment provider.
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Additional Default Carrier Sharing Settings
ShipStation has two optional steps that give more control over Carrier Sharing settings. Use caution when enabling these settings as they can limit behavior:
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Require that fulfillment providers use these shared services: Enable if you wish to force your fulfillment providers to use only specific carriers and services when fulfilling orders. With this option enabled, your fulfillment providers can no longer use any carrier accounts or services other than the ones specified in the default Carrier Sharing settings.
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Apply these settings to all existing fulfillment providers: Enable if you wish to apply the selected carriers and services to all fulfillment providers. This is useful when you need to update the default settings for all of your fulfillment providers.
With this option enabled, clicking the Apply Defaults button will overwrite all fulfillment-provider-specific Carrier Sharing settings you may have configured and update them with the default Carrier Sharing settings.
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Select Apply Defaults to save your changes.
Fulfillment providers configured to use the default carrier sharing options are indicated in the Shared Services column of the Fulfillment Providers page.
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Select the Actions menu for the fulfillment provider you wish to configure carrier sharing. Then select Carrier Sharing.
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3PL clients are located on the Fulfillment Services tab.
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Vendors are located on the Vendor tab.
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Select Custom Settings.
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(Optional) Enable Require that fulfillment providers use these shared services if you wish to force the fulfillment provider to use only the carriers and services specific when fulfilling orders. With this option enabled, the fulfillment provider will no longer be able to use any carrier accounts or services other than the ones specified in the carrier sharing settings.
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Check the box to the left of each carrier and service you wish to share.
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Select Save Changes.
Fulfillment providers with customized carrier sharing will be indicated in the Shared Services column of the Fulfillment Providers page along with the number of services enabled for this provider.
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Multiple accounts for the same carrier cannot be shared with a fulfillment provider. For example, all USPS services shared with a fulfillment provider must be shared from the same Stamps.com account. The same is true for all shipping carriers.
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Automation rules configured to set the carrier and service should only apply services being shared with the fulfillment provider.
If the automation rule applies a service not shared with the fulfillment provider, the fulfillment provider may be unable to successfully create the shipping label.