Adding Audiogon as a Custom Store in ShipStation

As part of our inventory management integration, we can sync Audiogon orders into your ShipStation account, as well as receive tracking information and update your buyer.

To set up Audiogon as a Custom Store, follow ShipStation's guide. We have also added these steps below for ease of reference.

Prior to beginning this process on ShipStation, you should enable Order syncing in your Inventory Management settings and select ShipStation. This will provide you with the required credentials to set up Audiogon as a custom store in ShipStation.

Connecting a custom store to ShipStation works the same way as adding any other direct store integration. See the detailed instructions below.

Add a Custom Store as a Selling Channel

To connect your custom store to ShipStation:

1. Go to Account Settings.

2. Select Selling Channels from the left-hand sidebar, then choose Store Setup.

3. Click Connect a Store or Marketplace.

4. Choose the Custom Store option.

5. When prompted for the store connection login, you will use the credentials provided in your Dashboard settings. We use your Audiogon username by default and a secure password randomly generated when you selected that you would be using ShipStation for Order and Shipping Notifications. Lastly, test your connection using the Test Connection button.

When prompted to map order status fields, there is no need to change them. We use ShipStation's default values.

Once the connection is complete, ShipStation will begin communicating with your Web Endpoint to obtain order information.

Importing Orders into ShipStation

When a buyer commits to buy an item, we immediately send the order info via API to ShipStation.

If you have enabled the auto-update feature on your ShipStation account, ShipStation will periodically import these orders automatically. However, the auto-update frequency depends the user's history of manual updates and several other factors.

You may also trigger order updates manually by hovering over the import icon  and opting to update all stores or individual stores.

SS recommends using the buyer username as the CustomerCode so that is what will show up under Customer > Marketplace Username.

A Note On Order Status

It is important to understand Audiogon's buyer workflow and how that may affect allocation.

Audiogon requires buyers to Commit To Buy before the item is added to their cart. This is to reduce fraud and backouts. When a buyer Commits To Buy, we will immediately send that order in as `unpaid`. When the buyer actually completes the transaction and pays, we will update that order as `paid`.

While most buyers pay immediately, any delay on their part may create a situation where the item is purchased elsewhere (in-store, another marketplace, etc.) before they complete the transaction.

Your team should think through how you will handle orders that remain `unpaid` after a certain time frame—perhaps even adding this to the Special Conditions section of your account policies. You may want to adjust your system to pre-allocate items, or be prepared to explain to the customer that an item they thought they were entitled to is no longer available.

Send Shipment Notifications

To alert Audiogon when you create a shipping label for an order, enable shipping notifications in your Inventory Management settings.

Once enabled, when you create a shipping label for an order, that tracking number will get automatically added to the order on Audiogon.

We will send an in-app alert and an email to the buyer letting them know that a tracking number has been added to their order, and they will be able to click and see the tracking on Audiogon

Example Tracking Page

ShipStation offers customizable notification emails, and you are certainly welcome to configure these as you see fit, but we recommend the following Store Settings for Audiogon in ShipStation.

• Don't send shipment confirmation email (or buyer will get double emailed by you and us)
• Send marketplace notification when shipping label is created
  • You can choose whatever other option you want, but know that until that condition is satisfied ShipStation will not notify us of the tracking number

Currently, we do not send the buyer a Delivery notification email (though shipping update emails are in our dev queue to build out). If you would like to send a Delivery Notification email from your store, just enable that.