Catch 22 of setting up a new Store

[jeremy_S-and-S]

You know how you have to have experience to get a job, but you can't get a job without experience? Yeah, that whole thing.

My company is in the process of leaving our current Marketplace for a website/eCommerce platform designed for us from the ground up. As the head of our Shipping, I've been tasked with creating the connections between our new marketplace and ShipStation so the spice can flow without any hiccups. Our new eCommerce platform builders (not found in the Marketplace section of ShipStation) tell me I need to just plug in the API key/secret and the Store ID to make the connection. (I know how to find Store IDs), but how do I get a Store ID unless I create the store? They told me not to go the route of Custom Store Connection, because the connection should be done via API key, not XML web endpoints.

Do I create a Manual Store, get the ID, and use that? My gut tells me no, because those are for manual orders or "orders imported via CSV or text files."

How do I create the Store without a connection in order to plug in the ID to connect the Store?

[Moderator-Davis]

Hey there @jeremy_S-and-S, 

Thanks for posting about this need! I am happy to provide a resource I think you'll find helpful in this endeavor! 

Check out our Custom Store Development Guide which will help with that Custom store creation. You are absolutely correct that it is different than the Manual Store option! 

I hope this helps 🙂 

[jeremy_S-and-S]

@Moderator-Davis, sadly, this is the route I originally tried to go down. But when I told them I needed "a Web Endpoint that returns XML," they said, "No, we don't want to do that. We want the connection to be via your ShipStation API."

I'm guessing that they are misunderstanding the ShipStation side of things, yes?

[Moderator-Davis · Accepted solution]

@jeremy_S-and-S with that in mind, I think your best bet would actually be to start a 3 way email thread between your new eCommerce platform builder and our API team to ensure that everyone is on the same page in regards to creating this Custom Store! This is my recommendation because the actual creation of this type of store is not my direct expertise and I want to make sure you are able to bounce those questions off the experts in that category!

You can reach out to the API team directly at apisupport@shipstation.com. The API team is terrific and they will be more than happy to clarify any Custom Store development questions!