So after talking with Shipstation support for over an hour (unsuccessful, but they were helpful), I decided to make this post so that the engineering team can review what seems like an obvious, but definitely lacking feature.
SITUATION:
Currently my company uses Channeladvisor. Initial setup was a breeze, but the problem comes with the order numbers. Currently Channeladvisor captures 2 orders numbers from Walmart API:
Secondary Site Order ID: This is the primary Walmart customer facing order ID. When a customer (or Walmart) calls us on the phone, this is the order ID they are looking at (this is important)
Site Order ID: This is a sort of internal PO# that Walmart generates (probably more appropriate for 1st party sellers to Walmart, not 3rd party sellers)
Channeladvisor Order ID: This is a randomly generated number that lives inside of Channeladvisor. This number is not used by any other software or user except Channeladvisor (also important)
Now here comes the confusing part.
PROBLEM:
When Shipstation imports the orders, they actually receive all 3 order IDs via the API (confirmed by Shipstation Support, here's the code)
However they completely ignore the 2 Walmart Order IDs, and instead place the Channeladvisor Order ID as the ONLY searchable ID in the system (Why??)
Since both our call center and order processing teams only use Shipstation, when a customer calls in and gives them 200010172420368, our team members can't find the order (for some reason it shows up in internal note. great, but its not searchable in either Scan or Orders page...).
Q: Why is Shipstation placing the CA number as the primary order number, when the Walmart Customer Order # is the more used order number for customer order searches and inquiries (including Walmart themselves).
So here are some possible solutions:
1. Allow the Site Order IDs (either of them) to automatically populate a custom field as chosen by the user (configured in Settings under Edit Store Details)
2. Allow the internal note field to be searchable (at least under Orders tab)
3. Bring in more than just the Channeladvisor Order ID (Can Shipstation not support multiple order IDs like Channeladvisor?)
4. Just import the Walmart Customer Order ID as the primary order number (like Shipstation already does with Amazon.com)
Anyway, I hope the Shipstation team reviews and takes this into consideration as its really confusing to me why this is setup this way.
All the best,
Mostly happy shipstation customer