Is there info on just how Ship Station integrates and what features can be used? Can I ship from the admin section itself?

Hi, no, the way it works is the orders are imported into ship station easily and you ship from there.
When orders are shipped, the tracking number is sent back to the store, and the order up updated with that info and the status changed to shipped.
We use the ship station emails to alert the customer when the order is shipped as it's a little more robust than the ect emails and the customer can receive an email when the shipment shows delivered.

With a scale and label printer attached to the PC, ship station is a breeze to use, and it's loaded with features and analytical data.

Thanks,
David

Thanks for the info!Just a few questions. Is the importing of orders automatic or is it a manual operation? What do you mean by the emails being a bit more robust? We currently use Paypal for payments as well as shipping. PayPal uses ShipStaion to ship. I imagine we would need to set up a ShipStation account anyway or do we actually have one via PayPal? And, lastly, is it cheaper to use a ShipStation account than using the shipping they supply through PayPal?

Is the importing of orders automatic or is it a manual operation?
Both - Ship station will attempt to import orders from time to time. There is a button to import new orders.

What do you mean by the emails being a bit more robust?
It's been a few years since I set this up, but if I recall, one was the shipping service used. For example, our free shipping orders, we use price based shipping for that, so the customer didn't select a shipping service. We do that. The ship station email knows what service was used and includes that in the email.
One thing in particular is the trigger of the delivered email. The sooner you let a customer know the package is on their doorstep, the sooner they can look for it, and minimize stolen packages.
It's important to note that since I setup with ship station, there have been improvements to the ect emails, so it's close in this regard.

We currently use Paypal for payments as well as shipping. PayPal uses ShipStaion to ship. I imagine we would need to set up a ShipStation account anyway or do we actually have one via PayPal?
I'm not sure on that one. I'm guessing you are shipping via Paypal's ship station account and they are making a cut off your shipping.
Trust me, Paypal will monetize everything and it would be naive to think they aren't making money off your shipping.

Is it cheaper to use a ShipStation account than using the shipping they supply through PayPal?
I can't be sure as I've not used the Paypal shipping, but S/S is owned by Stamps.com and they are probably the biggest reseller of USPS services in the world, so they have the best rates most likely. I know they do have discounted postal rates, and you can get discounted rates with other carriers that you may not have negotiated pricing with.
If you do have negotiated rates with UPS, or FEDEX, you can connect to that account so it's being used and pulls in those rates.


There are so many tools in ship station, it's hard to remember them all, but it will validate your addresses, including showing you when a suite or apartment number may be missing.
There are tons of automation rules and for example, we didn't want employees to forget to weigh the shipment instead of relying on the weight as it was imported with the order. So e set a rule that alters the weight of all orders, upon import, to 200lbs. This forces us to weigh the boxes as the carriers will not allow a box that heavy, so a label cannot be created until we weigh the boxes.
We have another rule that changes the fedex ship service to home delivery (from ground) when the address is detected as residential.

Thanks,
David