How to add a Shopify store to ShipStation, what features are available, other need-to-know details, and troubleshooting tips.
Shopify is a hosted-shopping-cart system—this means you don’t have to have your own server. Shopify’s large partner network and its app store offer additional features for your e-store. ShipStation's Shopify integration supports order and product imports, custom fields, as well as customer requested shipping services and customizable email confirmation options.
Connection Requirements:
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An active Shopify account.
Need an account? Sign up for a free 14-day Shopify trial!
Your Shopify store domain.
Order Import Requirements:
The order has been created within 90 days of the current date.
It contains at least one physical product.
Will not import if certain fields are missing in the feed (e.g., address line 1, postal code, etc)
Include a Ship To address.
To connect your Shopify store to your ShipStation account, follow the steps below:
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Select the Shopify tile.
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Enter your Shopify Domain, then click Test Connection to ensure the URL is entered correctly.
To find your Shopify Domain, log in to your Shopify account and go to your dashboard. Copy the part of the URL after https:// but before /admin:
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If Test Connection is successful, click Connect.
After you click Connect, you'll be redirected to Shopify and the ShipStation App will be added to your Shopify account. If you're already logged into Shopify, no additional action is needed. If you're not logged into ShipStation, you'll be prompted to log in now.
Once the app installs, you'll be redirected back to your ShipStation account, where you can update the store-specific settings in ShipStation.
ShipStation's integration with Shopify supports the following standard features:
|
Common ShipStation Features |
Status Mappings
Sent with Shipment Update
|
Additional Features
ShipStation's integration with Shopify allows for the following additional features:
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Connects to Shopify's Inventory features |
ShipStation can display Shopify's inventory stock count, and will reduce stock from the appropriate inventory location when sending the shipment update to Shopify. See Shopify Inventory for more information. |
Supports Partial Shipping |
If you split a Shopify order in ShipStation, the shipment update we'll send to Shopify will only include the products within the shipped order. |
Supports Shopify POS |
ShipStation will import Shopify POS orders as long as they are for a physical product and require shipping. |
Support Enabled Features
In addition to the features listed above, the following settings can be enabled for your Shopify store by the ShipStation User Success team or your Account Manager.
Feature |
Description |
|---|---|
Custom Fields |
ShipStation can map up to three custom fields for a Shopify store. Available custom fields are:
|
Shopify Discount Codes In Notes |
If a discount code is included, ShipStation will list in in the Internal Notes for the order. |
Exclude Third-Party Fulfillment |
ShipStation will only import products in an order if the fulfillment type is set to Manual or Shopify. This is primarily used if you have a fulfillment provider (like Fulfillment by Amazon) connected to your Shopify account. |
Map "partially_paid" To Awaiting Payment |
ShipStation will import Shopify orders in the Partially Paid status as Awaiting Payment orders in ShipStation. If this setting is not enabled, Partially Paid orders will not import into ShipStation until they enter a supported status. |
Map "authorized" to Awaiting Payment |
ShipStation will import Shopify orders in the Authorized status as Awaiting Payment orders in ShipStation. If this setting is not enabled, Authorized orders are imported as Awaiting Shipment. |
Import Closed Orders |
ShipStation will import orders in the Closed or Archived status from Shopify. |
Use Fulfillable Quantity |
By default, ShipStation will import the line items and quantities from when a Shopify order was originally placed. If this setting is enabled, ShipStation will instead refer to the fulfillable quantity value from Shopify. The fulfillable quantity value in Shopify is updated whenever orders are fulfilled within Shopify, when orders are partially cancelled, or when the order's line items are edited within Shopify. Enabling this setting allows the line items in ShipStation to updated based on the actions taken in Shopify. |
ShipStation can import Shopify's Fraud Risk Assessment into one of your ShipStation Custom Fields so you can identify at-risk orders for further review before you ship them. Contact ShipStation support to enable this option and let them know to which Custom Field they should map the risk assessment.
You can use this imported risk assessment to automatically tag these orders and perform other actions necessary for your workflow.
Tip
Be sure to review Shopify's Fraud Analysis help page if you are unfamiliar with how Shopify handles fraud risk or have not enabled this ability on your Shopify store yet.
This section explains how to create an automation rule in ShipStation to automatically tag at-risk orders when they import and move them to the On Hold status in ShipStation for further review. However, you can use an automation rule to perform any action you require, not just adding tags and moving orders to On Hold status.
To use automation to tag an order, you must first create the tag in ShipStation. If needed, review the instructions for creating tags in ShipStation first.
Shopify has three levels of fraud alerts: Low, medium, and high. Here is how each assessment will appear in ShipStation:
Low risk = Accept
Medium risk = Investigate
High risk = Cancel
For example, a Shopify order considered high risk will show the word Cancel in your Custom Field, located in your order notes.
You can create a tag for one or all of these, it's up to you. Once you create your tags, they will be available when you create your automation rules.
Next, you'll create an automation rule that uses the imported Custom Field from Shopify as the rule criteria, and set the rule actions to add a tag and move the order to On Hold.
If you don't know how to create an automation rule, please review the Automation Rules article for instructions.
This example rule uses Custom Field 1 as the criteria and will apply to an order that is medium risk.
This rule states: For any order that contains the text "Investigate" in Custom Field 1, ShipStation will apply the Shopify - Investigate tag and move the order to the On Hold status for 10 days.
You could add another action that sends an email to your warehouse manager, assigns the order to a specific account user, or any number of other actions.
Create a rule for each fraud risk status you'd like to tag. ShipStation will apply the actions when the orders import.
Tip
To apply the rule to orders that have imported already, click the Reprocess Automation Rules button in the Settings > Automation > Automation Rules screen.
Keep this in mind about ShipStation's integration with Shopify:
Only physical products will be imported into ShipStation.
By default, ShipStation will ignore Shopify orders in the Closed or Archived status.
ShipStation cannot import orders while they are in the Draft status.
If you're using Shopify's Inventory features, you must link the Ship From Location used to create shipments for Shopify orders to the Shopify Inventory source. See Shopify Inventory for more information.
ShipStation does not import order tags from Shopify.
Automatic Discounts: An automatic discount is applied at checkout and does not require the customer to put in any code at checkout. ‘Automatic Discounts’ from Shopify do not import into ShipStation. These are a different type of discount than ‘Discount Codes’ that would import as a line item and may be why you see a difference between Order Total and Amount Paid.
Here are some common issues experienced by users, potential causes, and available troubleshooting tips.
Issue |
How to troubleshoot or resolve |
|---|---|
Why isn't this Shopify order importing into ShipStation? |
There are multiple reasons why a Shopify order wouldn't import into ShipStation, but here's the most common:
In these cases, your best option is to update the order in Shopify, if possible. If the order cannot be updated, ShipStation will be unable to import the order. In addition, ShipStation does not import orders that are Closed or Archived by default. If you need to import Closed and Archived orders, please contact ShipStation support and we will enable this option. |
After creating a label, ShipStation updated my Shopify order but only left a note with the tracking information. Why wasn't this order updated as fulfilled? |
This happens when ShipStation tries to create a fulfillment update for the Shopify order, but we receive an error from Shopify that the fulfillment could not be created for one of the following reasons:
If this occurs, ShipStation will not be able to update the order as fulfilled. You may be able to update the order directly on Shopify. |