Anyone using Shipstation?

[Urbanfarmer]

Hello.....I only found 2 posts. Apparently it's a newer shipping platform. I am interested in finding a shipping solution that handles multiple carriers, unlike Endicia or Stamps. I specifically need UPS and USPS. 

 

If anyone is using SS, how do you rate it? Does it integrate well?

[kg4geq]

I'm trying it. It works...partially.  The GOOD:  It imports orders and products fine FROM PS into their online app.  You can quickly create labels without having to type in addresses via Endicia or Stamps, UPS, Fedex etc.  They give you a FREE Endicia OR Stamps account AND an Express1 account.  The benefit to the Express1 account is you can ship Commercial Plus rates and not just Commercial Base, but Express1 only ships Priority or Priority Express mail.  You can link in your UPS and/or FedEx accounts as well. There are quite a few custom rules you can setup in ShipStation to automate your label selections based on products, weights etc if you take the time to write to the rules in their app.

 

The Not-so-good: Labels made in ShipStation are taking at least 1 business day before it shows up in USPS tracking.  Before, it would at least show "Electronic Info received", but it simply says NOT FOUND which has caused some concerns from some of my customers.  The following business day all the tracking shows up with about 5-10 activity scans on it.

 

The BAD:  After you create your label, ShipStation is currently experiencing errors connecting back into your PS backoffice and updating the tracking number and marking the order as "Shipped".  I've got help tickets currently open with ShipStation, but no resolution yet.  They definitely have better customer support than PS though.

[jazzin]

I'm trying it. It works...partially.  The GOOD:  It imports orders and products fine FROM PS into their online app.  You can quickly create labels without having to type in addresses via Endicia or Stamps, UPS, Fedex etc.  They give you a FREE Endicia OR Stamps account AND an Express1 account.  The benefit to the Express1 account is you can ship Commercial Plus rates and not just Commercial Base, but Express1 only ships Priority or Priority Express mail.  You can link in your UPS and/or FedEx accounts as well. There are quite a few custom rules you can setup in ShipStation to automate your label selections based on products, weights etc if you take the time to write to the rules in their app.

 

The Not-so-good: Labels made in ShipStation are taking at least 1 business day before it shows up in USPS tracking.  Before, it would at least show "Electronic Info received", but it simply says NOT FOUND which has caused some concerns from some of my customers.  The following business day all the tracking shows up with about 5-10 activity scans on it.

 

The BAD:  After you create your label, ShipStation is currently experiencing errors connecting back into your PS backoffice and updating the tracking number and marking the order as "Shipped".  I've got help tickets currently open with ShipStation, but no resolution yet.  They definitely have better customer support than PS though.

 

Hey kg4,

 

Are you still currently using ShipStation with Prestashop? I am looking into to it to help automate my shipping process. Were you able to get your PS back office to work, and update the tracking number, and mark as shipped?

[kg4geq]

ShipStation has been fantastic to work with.  They followed up today, so I thought I would write an update for other PS users that may be considering or using ShipStation.

 

It was determined that my webhost was the one blocking ShipStation from going back in and updating the Order with the tracking number and "shipped" status.  At that time I was running PS 1.5.4.1

 

I liked ShipStation so much and it was saving me time and money by automatically importing address and paying for labels, that I decided to upgrade my shared webhosting (maiahost) to VPS webhosting account (a2hosting).  When I transitioned servers I decided to upgrade to the new 1.6 PS.

 

After getting the store reconfigured and working with PS 1.6 I tested the ShipStation integration.  ShipStation was working better, but there are still 2 small hangups.  Everything works as it should until the very end.  Order is placed on PS. When you login to ShipStation the orders update and import your order data.  You can setup rules based on products and it will automatically default to that shipping preference (or you can manually change the shipping method) and get a shipping rate.  Click print label (literally 2 button clicks).  ShipStation then transmits the tracking number to your PS backoffice order and changes the order status to "Shipped".

 

The problem is normally when you enter a number into the tracking number on the backoffice and press Enter on your keyboard or "Edit" button on the tracking number, PS updates and it automatically sends out the 'In-Transit' email to your customer which includes the tracking number.  ShipStation is correctly putting the tracking number in the BO order, but it doesn't hit "Enter" or "Edit" for you.  So, the 'In-transit' email is NOT sent out.  You have to manually click on that number and/or click "Edit" and then it sends the email.

 

A similar problem with the Order Status.  When the order is initially placed in your BO it 'logs' and timestamps the status as 'Paid' or 'Preparation in Progress' or whatever you choose.  When ShipStation finishes creating the label for the order and transmits the status as "Shipped" back to PrestaShop, it somehow changes the status to 'Shipped', but it doesn't timestamp or log that event.  It also, locks the 'Shipped' status up so you can't re-select it yourself to timestamp and log the event by greying the option out.  My workaround was to create another shipping status called 'Shipping Complete' and manually choose that status after I refresh the tracking number.

 

ShipStation is working with PS on this issue.  PS support can be challenging as I've experienced, so I feel for ShipStation.  Apparently, the API that ShipStation is using is a legacy version and there are some significant changes in PS 1.6.  Maybe some of the PS gurus can help get these last 2 items ironed out?  Thanks! -Mark

[jazzin]

 

 

The problem is normally when you enter a number into the tracking number on the backoffice and press Enter on your keyboard or "Edit" button on the tracking number, PS updates and it automatically sends out the 'In-Transit' email to your customer which includes the tracking number.  ShipStation is correctly putting the tracking number in the BO order, but it doesn't hit "Enter" or "Edit" for you.  So, the 'In-transit' email is NOT sent out.  You have to manually click on that number and/or click "Edit" and then it sends the email.

 

A similar problem with the Order Status.  When the order is initially placed in your BO it 'logs' and timestamps the status as 'Paid' or 'Preparation in Progress' or whatever you choose.  When ShipStation finishes creating the label for the order and transmits the status as "Shipped" back to PrestaShop, it somehow changes the status to 'Shipped', but it doesn't timestamp or log that event.  It also, locks the 'Shipped' status up so you can't re-select it yourself to timestamp and log the event by greying the option out.  My workaround was to create another shipping status called 'Shipping Complete' and manually choose that status after I refresh the tracking number.

 

ShipStation is working with PS on this issue.  PS support can be challenging as I've experienced, so I feel for ShipStation.  Apparently, the API that ShipStation is using is a legacy version and there are some significant changes in PS 1.6.  Maybe some of the PS gurus can help get these last 2 items ironed out?  Thanks! -Mark

 

I have to agree with everything you mentioned above! I decided to give ShipStation a shot, and is absolutely incredible. I had the issue of Prestashop not getting updated when a label was created for the customer. ShipStation support was able to fix the issue within 24 hours.

 

I have had some customers mention they did not receive a tracking email, and it sounds there is an actual bug with the system. Thanks for mentioning the workaround of updating the tracking number. Hoping this gets fixed quickly as it will be quite time consuming going into each order and updating.

 

Let me know if you hear of any updates!