ShipStation Connector For Acumatica Brings Order Fulfillment Full Circle

There’s a reason ShipStation is the No. 1 shipping management software for online sellers: It delivers.

The leading eCommerce shipping solution provides a suite of features, including branded label printing, real-time shipping rates from major carriers, and automated workflows to easily move items from warehouse shelves to customers’ doorsteps.

The ShipStation Connector adds the powerful data and functionality of ShipStation to the scalable Acumatica Cloud ERP platform. By adding ShipStation to Acumatica, merchants supercharge the fulfillment capabilities of a solution that already includes customizable modules for financials, accounting, inventory management, customer relationship management, and more.

WHO CAN GET VALUE FROM THE EXTENSION?

Any B2B or B2C merchant who wants to increase the efficiency of their shipping operations will benefit from the ShipStation Connector for Acumatica. Tightly coupling two best-of-breed cloud platforms into single business management and fulfillment solution will save time, improve customer satisfaction, and provide a digestible, holistic view of business activities.

WHAT DOES THE EXTENSION DO?

The ShipStation Connector seamlessly links Acumatica and ShipStation, empowering merchants to further automate their fulfillment process. Integrating shipping tasks and ERP activities into one solution allows businesses the following benefits.

• Centralize orders from all your selling channels – Eliminate the need for multiple tools in order management. Track your orders from a single interface.
• Choose from any of your major shipping carriers – Don’t worry about being limited by a single carrier. Find the best rates and save money on shipping costs.
• Create and print shipping labels – Make printing labels easy. Use your current printer to print custom shipping and return labels.
• Automate your processes with customizable rules – Establish rules to automatically sort your shipments based on factors such as weight, cost, and destination.
• Brand labels and customer-facing tracking materials – Bolster your presence by including your logo and messaging on packages and tracking pages.
• Enable easy returns in your fulfillment system – Simplify the return and exchange process. Print customizable return forms along with your shipping labels.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

At the most basic level of the integration, the ShipStation Connector has two components: a push from ShipStation to Acumatica and a pull by ShipStation from Acumatica.

The push component of the extension allows ShipStation to share details when an order is shipped. These details can include the carrier, shipping status, and tracking number.

The pull component of the extension allows ShipStation to extract information from Acumatica. On its own, ShipStation does not capture these details, such as products, in-depth customer information, and products purchased.

HOW WAS IT BUILT?

This project was conducted differently than any Acumatica extension we’ve created before. Because ShipStation’s architecture provides system integrators with multiple methods to choose from, we decided to deviate away from our normal API-based integration. Instead, we collaborated with ShipStation and chose their Custom Stores approach.

The Custom Stores method, which is generally used for data synchronization between ShipStation and external marketplaces, allowed us to get the desired functionality out of the integration. In this scenario, Acumatica was treated as the “store” with which information is being exchanged.

Using the Custom Stores approach outlined by ShipStation’s architects, our team used query strings and exposed web endpoints to transfer XML data (instead of the APIs our team typically works with).

KENSIUM & OUR EXTENSIONS

Kensium has been developing on the Acumatica framework for more than 4 years. We have created a range of certified extensions, including our eCommerce connectors (Magento, Shopify, and BigCommerce), and PayPal plugin. Most of these products use the APIs from Acumatica and the respective application to transfer data and allow seamless integrations between the platforms.

Our experience in Magento Commerce and Acumatica allows us to consistently innovate for Magento merchants. Some of our more recent challenges have included integrating back-end systems with eCommerce, implementing Magento’s new B2B tools, and migrating 1.X merchants to Magento 2.

If you have questions about the ShipStation Connector for Acumatica or how we can help you catalyze the efficiency of your eCommerce store, contact us today.