I'll Review Your ShipStation Configuration
I will go through your ShipStation account against the twelve layers of its configuration, tell you what is missing and in what order to fix it, and send you a written document with annotated screenshots of your own account.
It costs nothing, and no call is required to act on it — though if it raises questions, we can book twenty minutes.
Why it's free
Most accounts I look at have four or five of the twelve layers missing, and the missing ones are usually the same two — product dimensions and tags. Both are data entry rather than configuration, which is why they get skipped and why nothing in the platform complains about it.
Working through them in order tends to resolve more than people expect. That is worth knowing before you conclude anything about ShipStation, and it is worth knowing before you pay anybody to build something on top of it.
The accounts where configuration does not resolve it are the ones I would want to talk to anyway. So this is a cheap way for both of us to find out which kind you are.
What I look at
The twelve layers, in the order they run. The configuration guide covers all of them in full — it is the same list, written so you can do this yourself if you would rather.
What the layers read
- Carrier accounts — which are connected, which is primary, what always uses it
- Packages — your boxes, with real internal dimensions and a maximum weight
- Product data — weight and dimensions per SKU
- Tags — product and customer tags, applied at import
What runs before everything else
- Auto-Routing — which warehouse fulfils, where your plan includes it
- Auto-Split, and the SmartFill you did not configure
The documented sequence
- Preset Groups, and Product Defaults
- Service Mapping — what the customer chose at checkout
- Rate Shopper — one strategy per shipping option you sell
- Automation rules — the classification pass and the action pass
Operating it
- Alerts — the exceptions that need a person
- Saved views — the queues somebody opens
Two ways to do it
What I can see depends on what you give me access to. Both are a complete review of what they reach, and I will tell you what they did not reach.
Pick one below. Nothing is needed up front — I will reply with exactly what to send.
| Two CSV exports | Read-only API access | |
|---|---|---|
| Effort | Ten minutes on your side. An order export and a product export, both standard, both from menus you already use. | Twenty minutes on your side, and it needs somebody with admin rights. |
| What it shows | Your catalogue as it actually stands — how many SKUs carry dimensions, how many carry weights, whether the weights look measured or estimated. Your order shapes: how often orders are multi-item, how the basket sizes distribute, what proportion would fall outside a single-line-item rule. What you actually shipped, on which services, in which boxes. | The configuration itself. Your automation rules and their order, your Preset Groups and Product Defaults, your Service Mapping, your Rate Shopper strategies and what is in them, your packages and warehouses. Read-only means I can see all of it and change none of it, and access can be revoked the moment I am finished. |
| What it does not show | Your configuration. I can see the results of your automation rules and not the rules themselves, so I can tell you an outcome looks wrong without telling you which layer produced it. | What a person is deciding at the bench. If your packers are choosing boxes by judgement, that decision exists nowhere in the account and I cannot read it. It also does not show me what you meant — a rule that looks wrong might be deliberate, and I will ask rather than assume. |
| What you get | A written assessment of your catalogue and order data against layers 2, 3 and 4, and what the shipment history implies about 9 and 10. | All of the above, plus a layer-by-layer review of your actual configuration: what is set, what is missing, what is in the wrong order, and what two rules are quietly fighting over. |
There is a walkthrough with screenshots for the two exports, if you have not pulled them before.
What you get back
Both reviews produce the same document.
An ordered list of what to change. Ordered because the layers depend on each other, and fixing one out of sequence sometimes undoes another.
Annotated screenshots of your own account, so you can see what I am pointing at rather than matching a description to a screen.
No call required. The document stands on its own. If it raises questions, ask and we will book twenty minutes — a question about your own situation needs an answer that depends on what you say next, and nothing I write in advance can cover that. Nothing here depends on it and I will not chase you for one.
What this is not
Not an implementation. This is a review. You get the document, and what you do with it is yours. If you would rather I did the work, that is a separate conversation and it comes after this one, not instead of it.
Not a sales call in a different shape. No call is required to get the review. If it finds that configuration solves your problem, that is the outcome and we are done.
Not a trial of anything. Nothing gets installed and nothing runs against your account afterwards.
Not conditional on buying anything. Including at the end.
What happens at the end
At the end of the document I will tell you which of the things bothering you are configuration problems and which are not.
Most are. When four or five layers are missing, the symptoms people describe — boxes that are too big, rates that look wrong, orders that need somebody to look at them — usually resolve once the layers are in.
Some are not, and I will say so plainly. Decisions that depend on the actual contents of a mixed order, that need arithmetic the rules engine cannot do, or that need data the order does not carry, sit outside what any configuration can express. If that is what you have, I will tell you what solving it would involve and you can do what you like with that.
Either way the list is yours.
If you would rather I did it
Some people read the list, agree with it, and would rather I made the changes than spend the week doing it themselves. I take on a few of those a month.
It is scoped to configuration — the twelve layers, set up against your operation rather than a template — and it is not building anything on top of ShipStation. You get the configured account plus a written summary of what changed and why, so it is yours to maintain afterwards.
This one does need a call, and for a reason rather than as a step: several of the layers encode decisions only you can make. Which account should be primary. What your box sizes actually are. Which shipping promise each checkout option represents. I can tell you what is missing from a read-only export; I cannot decide those for you.
Ask about it after you have the list, if the list makes it worth asking about. If capacity is full I will say so rather than queue you.
Start it
That came through. I will reply within two business days with exactly what to send.
Nothing to send yet. Pick one and I will reply with exactly what I need.
I read these myself and reply within two business days.