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Best practice for importing ShipStation orders into inventory management program

BradB
New Contributor

I've been reading the API docs (https://www.shipstation.com/docs/api/) but there are a few questions that I can't find answers to.

I'd like my orders to flow from a web store, such as Shopify, into ShipStation. Then, I'd like to import the orders from ShipStation into my inventory program.. 

Once the order is in my inventory program, I will allocate available inventory/lot #s/serial #s/manage the warehouse locations it should be picked from, etc. In some cases, there may be a backordered quantity so I may need to partially ship that order.

I was thinking I could split the backordered qty off into a new order using the API so that I have one order that is ready to ship and another that represents the backorder qty.

E.g., A Shopify order for a qty of 10 imports into ShipStation as order number "1234". Then, I import the order from ShipStation into my program. In my program, I'm only able to allocate 6, leaving 4 on backorder.

I believe I could update order "1234" to have a qty of 6, but could/should I create a second order as "1234-1" for the remaining four with a status of "on hold"?

If so, my thought is that order "1234" would get shipped "in full" (the 6) then, when I have the other 4 in stock I update order 1234-1 to be "awaiting shipment" at which time it gets shipped "in full" (the 4). Alternatively, that order gets "split" again.

If that's the suggested workflow, which field (orderID, orderNumber, orderKey) is used to associate the ShipStation order back to Shopify (or whichever store)? Is it possible to have two ShipStation orders send their shipments back to a single web store order?

I hope my question is clear.

Thank you.

1 REPLY 1

Hey there @BradB

 

Thanks so much for joining us here in the community! We are thrilled you're with us. 

 

It is my understanding that ShipStation can update the "shipped" status back to the web store once per order. I would also recommend reaching out to our wonderful api team at apisupport@shipstation.com. They are a great resource to utilize for specific capability questions 🙂  

From Moderator Davis, May the force be with you!