How to add a Magento store to ShipStation, what features are available, other need-to-know details, and troubleshooting tips.
Magento provides a fully customizable shopping cart for ecommerce sellers, ranging from small businesses to enterprise retailers. ShipStation automatically syncs and updates your Magento orders, helps you sell on multiple stores, and supports Magento's invoice-after-shipping feature.
Connection Requirements:
An active store using Magento 2.3+
The ShipStation API Key generated by the Auctane-ShipStation plug-in file.
Installation of the ShipStation-Magento plug-in file on your store webserver. The plug-in is available to download from the ShipStation connection pop-up.
Scope of Support
Installing the plug-in file to your webserver is beyond ShipStation's scope of support. We recommend you contact your store developer or Magento Solutions Partner if you need assistance with the plug-in installation process, as the process can differ based on the unique Apache server configuration.
Order Import Requirements:
Include a Ship To address.
Include at least one physical product.
Connecting a Magento store to ShipStation first requires setup within your Magento account. Once you have completed the steps in your Magento account, you can then follow the steps to connect the store in ShipStation.
Magento 1.x and 2.0-2.2 No Longer Supported
You can no longer connect a Magento 1.x store to ShipStation. For more details, please review Magento's announcement about ending Magento 1.x support.
Magento has ended support for Magento 2.0-2.2 and the plug-in module for these versions is no longer available. Please update to Magento 2.3+ to continue using Magento with ShipStation.
Before you can connect your Magento 2 site to ShipStation, you'll need to install and enable the Auctane extension file, as well as generate an API Key that ShipStation will use to communicate with your store.
To install the extension and generate your API key:
Download the Auctane-ShipStation module for Magento 2.x and extract the contacts to your Magento Folder.
Log in to the Magento Admin site as your Administration User.
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Click System on the left, then Cache Management under Tools.
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Select Flush Magento Cache.
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Click System, and choose Web Setup Wizard from the left navigation panel.
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Select Component Manager or Extension Manager and continue with Manage your components.
Go to the Auctane_API module from Listing and select the Enable option from the Actions column.
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Click Next.
Important
We recommend making a backup of existing Code, Media and Database files.
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Click Enable.
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In your Magento Admin site, go to the
Stores > ShipStation > General Settingsthen click Generate and save api key.Copy the generated ShipStation API Key.
After you've set up the Auctane module in your Magento site and created the admin user, you're ready to connect the Magento store to ShipStation.
Log into your ShipStation account.
Scroll or search for the Magento tile and click it.
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Use the Select Magento Version drop-down to select Version 2.3+.
Enter the ShipStation API Key generated in the ShipStation module settings within Magento.
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Enter the Store URL of your store in the connection window. Use HTTPS if possible. (for example: https://www.mystore.com)
Locate the Store URL in
Stores > Configuration > General > Web > Base URLs (Secure)(or Base URLs for HTTP configuration)
Multiple Magento Stores
If you manage multiple stores in Magento and want the ShipStation store connection to be store-specific, you must modify your Store URL using the Store View Code.
Skip to the Connect Multiple Stores section below for detailed instructions.
Click Test Connection to see if the steps you followed worked correctly.
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Adjust your custom status mappings, if needed.
ShipStation will automatically fill in the most common Magento status mappings, but if you use any custom status mappings, update them in the provided status fields.
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Choose an option in the connection window for Warehouse Location Attribute, Invoice after shipping, Product Weight Units, and Enable Partial Shipping.
The Warehouse Location Attribute field requires you to have configured this as a custom attribute in Magento.
If you add this as a custom attribute at a later time, you will need to reconfigure your store connection in ShipStation before the attribute will import correctly.
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Click Connect to make this store active in ShipStation!
After you've completed the connection steps, your store will be connected to ShipStation. You'll be taken to the store's Settings page to adjust the store-specific settings like branding, notification preferences, and product handling.
If you manage multiple Magento stores within a single Magento account and want your connection to be store specific, you can do so by using a special Store URL format that includes your Magento Store View Code parameter.
This will limit ShipStation's order requests to the orders contained in the specified store. You can also connect each store within your Magento account so each store's orders will import into the corresponding store in ShipStation.
First, locate your Store View Code in your Magento Admin panel:
Go to
System > Manage Stores.Click the store link on the Store View Name column.
Copy the code from the Code field.
Next, you'll follow connection steps 1-7 from the Connect to ShipStation section above. When you get to Step 8, follow the instructions to locate your Store URL but use the instructions below to modify the URL format.
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Enter the Store URL into the Store URL field using one of the formats listed below, where [store view code] is the code you copied from your Magento Admin panel.
The structure of the URL will depend on whether your site allows direct access to PHP files.
https://[websitedomain.com]/[store view code]/api/auctane/index/store/[store view code]
https://[websitedomain.com]/[store view code]/api/auctane
The Magento setting to Add Store Codes to Urls must be set to Yes. Review Magento's Set Up Multiple Websites article for more information on where to locate this setting.
Click Test Connection to see if the steps you followed worked correctly.
Complete steps 10-12, as listed in the Connect to ShipStation section above.
Repeat the same process to connect any additional Magento stores in your ShipStation account.
ShipStation's integration with Magento supports the following standard features:
ShipStation's integration with Magento allows for the following additional features:
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Invoice on Shipping |
When configuring your Magento store connection, you can choose whether your store invoices when the order is placed or when the order is shipped. If your store invoiced upon shipment, ShipStation will include an action to invoice the order when we send the shipment update to Magento. |
Partial Shipping |
When configuring your Magento store connection, you can choose to enable Partial Shipping. If Partial Shipping is enabled, the shipment notification ShipStation will send to Magento will include specific product information so that only the products in the shipment will be updated as Shipped on Magento. |
Send ShipStation Rates to Magento Checkout |
ShipStation's Checkout Rates Options allow you to send the rates you get in ShipStation to your store checkout. Use the latest version of the ShipStation plug-in to Send Rates to Store Checkout. Visit Magento's ShipStation page to get the most recently updated plug-in in their plug-in store. |
In addition to the features listed above, the following settings can be enabled for your Magento store by the ShipStation User Success team.
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Custom Fields |
Up to three Custom Fields can be mapped for a Magento store. Available custom fields are as follows:
|
Suppress Internal Notes |
If enabled, this setting will prevent ShipStation from importing Internal Notes from your Magento store. |
With the ShipStation 2.2.3 plug-in or later, a single Magento instance can support exporting orders to ShipStation in different currencies.
If using ShipStation Legacy, Magento orders that have been split must retain their original order number. If the order number is changed, such as by adding a suffix, ShipStation cannot successfully update Magento with the shipment information.
Here are some common issues experienced by users, potential causes, and available troubleshooting tips.
Issue |
How to troubleshoot or resolve |
|---|---|
Store Connection Error: We received an error testing the Magento store: Invalid data returned from API |
This may be caused by entering an incorrect username when connecting the store to ShipStation. Reconfigure your store connection in ShipStation and be sure to enter the username created for the ShipStation user in Magento. |
Shipment Notification Error: Order does not exist. |
Reconfigure your Magento store connection in ShipStation. Check that you are using the correct secure or unsecure connection option. |
ShipStation's shipment notifications are not successfully updating your orders in Magento. |
Ensure you have updated to the most recent ShipStation plug-in (as of Feb 4th, 2021 the most recent version is v.2.2.3). Once the plug-in has been updated, resend your marketplace notifications from ShipStation. |