Shipwire is the leading provider of Internet-based inventory storage and order shipping services, providing online merchants a range of services to eliminate the hassles of warehousing and order fulfillment. Located at www.shipwire.com, they have partnered with AspDotNetStorefront to integrate their services into the software.
Signing Up
1 - First, navigate to this page in the admin site, at Configuration → Shipping → Shipwire
2 - This will bring up the Shipwire "Getting Started" page. Shipwire offers a free trial of their services to merchants to make it easy to get started. Just click the "Get More Information" button.
3 - You are now on Shipwire's website. From here you can read their range of services, warehouse locations, shipping carriers, and other information. When you are ready to sign-up for the Free Trial, click the "Start Free Trial" button.
From Configuration Menu, click Shipping → Shipwire
4 - This will take you through the Shipwire signup process (not shown here). During registration, you'll be asked to provide Shipwire with a username (your email address) and password.
5 - Once you have completed their registration process, return to the Shipwire "Getting Started" screen by going to Configuration → Shipping → Shipwire in the admin site again.
6 - Enter your username and password into the fields, and click the "Store Values" button.
Designating Products to be Handled by Shipwire
Once your Shipwire account is created, you must tell the software which products will be shipped by Shipwire.
1 - First, create a new distributor. The name can be anything you want, but for the email address field, enter a "placeholder" address. It does not matter what address you use, as long as it contains the word "shipwire" somewhere within it. No emails will be sent to this address. See here for more information on setting up distributors.
NOTE: If you are going to use realtime shipping rates, you can enter the address of the Shipwire warehouse you are using (get this info from Shipwire) in the address fields to get accurate shipping costs.
2 - Assign the products Shipwire will be handling to the new distributor. See here for information on doing that.
That's it! From now on, any orders placed that contain these products will automatically be transmitted to Shipwire for fulfillment. You can check the Shipwire Dashboard at www.shipwire.com to view the orders they are fullfilling for you.
Order/Inventory Management
You will want to keep your ASPDNSF order history and product inventories synchronized as Shipwire ships orders to your customer. To do this, go to Configuration → Shipping → Shipwire in the admin site. From this page, you can perform two tasks:
- First, you can pull shipment tracking numbers from Shipwire into your order history. This will allow your customers to view shipment progress from their Account page on your web site.
- Second, you can pull product inventory levels from Shipwire's warehouses into your product database, to accurately reflect your quantity on hand.
These two tasks should be done daily, as Shipwire processes your order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the relationship between Shipwire and AspDotNetStorefront?
A: Shipwire is a separate company, we have partnered with them to make it easier to use their services from your ecommerce site.
Q: Do I have to let Shipwire handle ALL of my products, or can they just handle some of them?
A: They can handle anywhere from just one product to everything. That's totally up to you. If an order is placed that contains a mix of Shipwire and non-Shipwire products, Shipwire is only directed to fulfill their part of the order. You or another dropshipper can handle the remaining items.
Q: When I import tracking numbers from Shipwire, is the customer's credit card processed, and do they automatically receive a shipment notification email from my web site?
A: No, order-processing is still performed by you, as it would be for non-Shipwire orders.