Linnworks Desktop Documentation

ShipStation Integration Setup

Overview
To use ShipStation to print shipping labels for your Linnworks orders, your ShipStation account must be active, and you must integrate the ShipStation account into Linnworks.net. This allows communication in both directions between the two services.

Once ShipStation and Linnworks are integrated, it is strongly recommended that all Order Management (Cancelling and modifying orders) are performed in Linnworks only.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites

Integrating ShipStation with Linnworks

 1. Setup ShipStation Endpoint

The first step is to setup an endpoint for ShipStation to communicate with Linnworks.

  1. Go to Shipping > ShipStation
    ..png
  2. Click the Add New button
    ..png
  3. Enter a unique name into the ShipStation Integration, so that the account can be identified at a later date
  4. Enable the warehouse(s) orders should be exported to ShipStation from
  5. In the setting labelled Export orders from a specific folder, select a Linnworks folder name that Shipstation will use to automatically retrieve orders from 
    • Orders for ShipStation need be assigned to this folder either manually or via the Rules Engine for collection by shipstation
    • If this folder is left unspecified, all orders NOT assigned to a Fulfilment Center will be passed to ShipStation
  6. In the field Mark exported orders with a tag, select a tag value to be assigned to orders after they are exported to ShipStation. This will show in Open Orders
  7. In the Auto processs orders from location field select the Linnworks location the orders will be processed directly on ShipStation for. Orders from fulfilment location will not be processed
    • 'Do not auto process orders' or 'Auto process orders from'. If auto process is selected, the user must select either a Linnworks location or 'Original order location'
      • If a particular location is selected, only orders from this Linnworks location will be auto processed. In the event that Shipstation's orders come from different Linnworks locations, orders from a different location than the one selected won't be processed 
      • if 'Original location' is selected every order will be auto processed when different Linnworks locations are involved
  8. The Export composite items field determines if child items will be displayed in ShipStation, tick if required
  9. In the ShipStation Default Service field, select the shipping service to be used when exporting the order to ShipStation
  10. In the Linnworks Default Service field, select the shipping service to be used when the order is processed by ShipStation with a shipping service unknown to Linnworks
  11. Click Create to complete the creation of the ShipStation integration
    • By Default, the integration will be Disabled
  12. To make the integration active, click the Disabled control to make it show Enabled
    ..png
    • At this stage Linnworks is still not actually connected to a ShipStation account

Once the endpoint is in place, the next step is to map the shipping services to be used in ShipStation to Linnworks equivalents. This ensures that information passed from Linnworks to the Selling channels when orders are processed will be accurate.

 2. Mapping ShipStation services

To link a ShipStation Service with Linnworks Shipping Service:

  1. In the ShipStation section (Shipping > ShipStation), select the Allocate button
    ..png
  2. Confirm the Default ShipStation and Default Linnworks shipping services are correct
  3. Select a ShipStation service from the drop-down list in the lower section of the mapping screen, to the left
    ..png
  4. Select the corresponding Linnworks from the drop-down list in the lower section of the mapping screen, to the right. This list includes all the currently existing Linnworks Shipping Services
  5. Click the Add Mapping button to complete the mapping. A new entry will be added to the list
  6. Repeat steps 3-5 for any services that need to be mapped
  7. Click Save to conclude mapping services

Next, there are additional options to be configured for the ShipStation endpoint.

 3. Configuring ShipStation Endpoint options

  1. In the ShipStation section (Shipping > ShipStation), select the Configure button
    ..png
  2. In the Configure window, there are five options:
  • Export orders from - Select the Linnworks warehouse(s) orders should be exported to ShipStation from
  • Export orders from a specific folder - instruct Linnworks to only submit orders assigned to a specific existing folder. If not specified, Linnworks will export all orders, except the ones assigned to fulfillment centers. (Default - None)
  • Mark exported orders with a tag - if specified, Linnworks will tag orders that have been passed to ShipStation, for order lifecycle tracking purposes. (Default - 3) 
  • Auto process orders from location - User is able to select 'Do not auto process orders' or 'Auto process orders from'. If auto process is selected, the user must select either a Linnworks location or 'Original order location'
    • If a particular location is selected, only orders from this Linnworks location will be auto processed. In the event that Shipstation's orders come from different Linnworks locations, orders from a different location than the one selected won't be processed 
    • if 'Original location' is selected every order will be auto processed when different Linnworks locations are involved
    • Please note, Orders from fulfilment location will not be processed
  • The ability to enable or disable exporting of composite items
If you would like ShipStation to pull orders from multiple Linnworks folders, a unique endpoint should be created for each folder, meaning that you will need to add multiple integrations both in Linnworks and ShipStation.

4. Connecting the ShipStation account to Linnworks

To connect the ShipStation account to the Linnworks endpoint, follow the instructions below:

  1. Login to the ShipStation account
  2. Open the ShipStation Account Settings page
    ..png
  3. Open the Selling Channels tab, located on the left-hand side
    ..png
  4. Select the button Connect a Store or Marketplace
    ..png
  5. Select the Linnworks option
    ..png
  6. Enter the registered email address and password for the Linnworks account being connected in the Username and Password fields
    ..png
  7. To populate the URL to Custom XML Page field, go back to the ShipStation endpoint settings in Linnworks.net (Settings > Shipping Service > ShipStation), and copy the text from the Endpoint for ShipStation field into URL to Custom XML Page
  8. In the ShipStation configuration page, click Test Connection. An alert box containing ‘Looks good!’ should be displayed. Close it by clicking on the X
    ..png
  9. Click Finish to save the integration settings
    ..png
  10. On the next screen, fill in the store information. Remember to check the box next to Allow this store to "auto-update" periodically? in order to allow Linnworks and ShipStation to communicate
    ..png
  11. Click Save Changes to complete the setup in ShipStation
    ..png

At this point, ShipStation and Linnworks.net are connected.

Please note that ShipStation offers connections to many Selling Channels, Marketplaces and Webstores that are also supported by Linnworks. To avoid complications, sellers should disable the connections in ShipStation and use Linnworks for order processing and despatch.

Next Steps