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Shipping with ShipStation

ShipStation is only available in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. For more information, click here.

ShipStation is a web-based shipping fulfillment service for eCommerce retailers. Designed to streamline the fulfillment process, ShipStation integrates with all major eCommerce shopping carts and shipping and fulfillment platforms.

If you don't intend to use a shipping fulfilment service, you can manually set up your own predefined shipping rates.

Getting started

Before you get started, you'll need to set up an account with the carrier or carriers you want to use with ShipStation. Make sure to choose a carrier that provides the services you need, including delivery to locations where you sell your products. Also, check to make sure the carrier is supported by ShipStation. Next, sign up for an account with ShipStation.

As part of their platform changes, a minimum subscription of Scale-Gold or higher is now required to access ShipStation API and integrate with Lightspeed. Your account must be upgraded to at least the Scale-Gold plan to use the ShipStation integration.

ShipStation does not recognize currencies. When setting up your ShipStation account, please ensure the currency you configure in ShipStation matches your store's currency (in the eCom Back Office).

Setting up ShipStation

Setting up a shipping carrier in ShipStation

Before proceeding, make sure you have an account with the shipping carrier(s) that you want to set up with ShipStation.

  1. Log in to your ShipStation account.
  2. Click Welcome.

    ShipStation Welcome page.

  3. On the Welcome page, click the link to add a shipping carrier and follow the on-screen prompts.

Selecting a label layout in ShipStation

  1. In your ShipStation account, click Welcome.
  2. On the Welcome page, click the link to select a label layout and follow the on-screen prompts.

Generating your ShipStation API keys

If you already have ShipStation API keys and you're using them with another service or application, do not regenerate them. Copy your existing API Key and Secret into eCom. Regenerating the API keys will require you to update the other services or applications where you use them.

  1. In your ShipStation account, click the gear icon at the top right to access your account settings.
  2. On the Settings page, click Account > API Settings.
  3. Under API Keys, click the Generate New API Keys button.
  4. Copy the values for API Key and API Secret. You'll need to paste these values when configuring ShipStation in the eCom Back Office.

    Settings page with API Keys highlighted.

Configuring ShipStation in the eCom Back Office

  1. Log in to the eCom Back Office.
  2. From the main menu, go to Settings > Store Settings > Shipment Methods.
  3. Click Connect ShipStation.
  4. Under Login Information, configure the following:

    Login information section.

    • Enable this integration - Toggle this setting to the On position.
    • API key - Copy the API key you generated in your ShipStation account and paste it here.
    • API Secret - Copy the API Secret from ShipStation and paste it here.
  5. Under Configuration, set the following options:

    Configuration section of the ShipStation settings.

    • Calculate taxes automatically - Toggle this setting to the On position for Lightspeed to automatically calculate taxes on shipping costs, provided you've set this up for your store under Settings > Payment Settings > Taxes.
    • Company phone number - Enter your business phone number. Make sure this matches the phone number you've set up with the carrier or carriers associated with your ShipStation account.
    • Handling costs - Toggle this setting to the On position and add a fixed handling fee as a dollar or percentage value to cover any additional handling and/or labor charges. This can help you cover extra costs like insurance or signature at delivery (which are not included in shipping rates returned by ShipStation in your online store's checkout pages).
    • Non-delivery option for international orders - Specify how you want carriers to treat international packages that do not get delivered to their intended recipient.
    • Sync all future orders to ShipStation - Toggle On if you want all orders to be synced regardless of their shipping method type, except for in-store pickup orders.
  6. Under Default Package Setup, specify default package dimensions for your products. This is helpful if you haven't configured weight and dimensions for your products and/or product variants.

    If a given product/variant has weight and dimensions configured, those settings override the default dimensions you set here.

    Default Package Setup section.

  7. Under Origin Address, enter your company's mailing address. This will appear on return shipment labels. Make sure this matches the address you've set up with the carrier or carriers associated with your ShipStation account.

    Origin Address section.

  8. Click Save.

Setting up Lightspeed eCom as a selling channel in ShipStation

  1. Log in to your ShipStation account.
  2. Click Welcome.

    Welcome page.

  3. On the Welcome page, click Connect a channel.
  4. In the Search box, type custom store.
  5. Click the Custom Store icon.
  6. In the pop-up window that displays, configure the following fields:

    Connect your Custom Store pop-up.

    • URL to Custom XML Page -
      • For stores in the United States, Canada, and Australia, enter https://services.shoplightspeed.com/webhooks/shipstation.xml
      • For stores in the United Kingdom, enter https://services.webshopapp.com/webhooks/shipstation.xml
    • Username/Password - Enter the Username and Password associated with your ShipStation integration in the eCom Back Office. To find your Username and Password:
      • In the eCom Back Office, go to the ShipStation page (Settings > Store Settings > Shipment Methods > ShipStation).
      • Under Login Information, click the See Selling Channel details button.
      • In the pop-up that displays, copy the Username and Password by clicking the corresponding copy buttons.

        Selling Channel Details pop-up with Username and Password areas highlighted.

  7. Go back to your ShipStation account and paste the Username and Password in their corresponding fields.
  8. Click the Test Connection button in the ShipStation pop-up.
  9. Once the connection is successful, click Connect.

Managing your carriers and service levels

By default, as soon as you set up the ShipStation integration, eCom displays all the carriers associated with your ShipStation account in your online store's checkout pages and also enables each carrier's service levels.

Depending on your business needs and your customer demographics, you may want to only offer specific carriers and services. For example, if you see a trend where the majority of your customers use the least expensive service level, disabling more expensive service levels may increase a customer's likelihood to purchase, reducing shopping cart abandonment rates.

To manage your carriers and service levels:

  1. From the main menu of the eCom Back Office, go to Settings > Store Settings > Shipment Methods.
  2. Click ShipStation.
  3. In the Carriers section, locate your carrier.

    Carriers section.

    If you don't see your carriers, or if you don't see a carrier you recently associated with your ShipStation account, click Sync carriers. If the problem persists, double-check your API Key and Secret.

  4. You can prevent a carrier from displaying in your online store's checkout pages by setting its Show during checkout toggle to the Off position.

    You must have at least one carrier enabled.

  5. Click Edit to configure a carrier's service levels.

    Edit page for selected carrier.

  6. For some carriers, such as USPS and UPS, you'll also need to configure default package sizes. Use the dropdown menus to select your package size.

    Package size dropdowns.

  7. Click Save once you've finished.

Setting up international shipping with ShipStation

When all the products in your customer's shopping cart have affiliated Harmonized System (HS) tariff codes, they will have the option of international shipping with ShipStation at checkout. Learn more about setting up HS codes.

Managing and fulfilling your orders in ShipStation

When a customer places an order in your online store, the order appears in both your eCom Back Office (on the Orders page) and in your ShipStation account. Any change that you make to an order's status in ShipStation is automatically reflected in eCom, and vice versa. For example, if you mark an order as shipped in ShipStation, the order's status will update to Shipped in eCom.

We strongly recommend that you manage your orders in ShipStation (and NOT in eCom), including setting insurance costs, updating the status of a shipment, etc. This is particularly important for bulk actions, such as bulk printing labels, because performing bulk actions in eCom will impact ShipStation's API rate limit.

To manage orders in ShipStation:

  1. Log in to your ShipStation account.
  2. Click Orders.
  3. On the Orders page, click the order you want to manage.

Orders page with specific order selected.

Understanding ShipStation API rate limits

ShipStation has a rate limit on API calls. The current rate limit for each API Key/Secret pair is 40 requests per minute. When this limit is reached, ShipStation will refuse further API connection requests until the time resets (at the beginning of the next 60 seconds). The potential impacts to your online store include:

  • If ShipStation is the only fulfillment service you've set up, no shipping method will be available at checkout for your customers.
  • You may be unable to update the ShipStation integration in the eCom Back Office.

To avoid exceeding ShipStation's API rate limit, we recommend that you:

  • Limit the number of carriers that you set up with ShipStation to 2.
  • Perform all your order fulfillment activities in ShipStation (instead of within eCom).

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