I’ve faced significant challenges setting up shipping with third-party suppliers, as their fulfillment processes vary widely. I often find myself spending valuable time guiding each new supplier through the setup, and incorrectly doing so most of the time. Could Shopfity offer standardized education and consultation to help streamline this process and reduce the time sellers like myself spend on it? Additionally, could suppliers who consistently struggle with the fulfillment system be rated lower or removed from your ecosystem to ensure a smoother experience for sellers?
Shopify has standard education: https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/build/orders-fulfillment/fulfillment-service-apps
But not all partners follow them.
We have an app that connects Shopify to Amazon (making us a “fulfillment service”), and follow the standard procedures, but because our app also integrates with infinite services and suppliers, we see other fulfillment services that have not yet migrated to the Shopify standard.
One idea is to create your own set of standards then share those with your suppliers. If your store is doing volume or has a good social media presence, your requirements will carry more weight.
I used to run a couple Shopify stores, various levels of suppliers / partners, we selected individually our suppliers and set standards. Same for dropshippers that wanted to dropship our branded products, we gave them guidelines and they followed.
I think it’s all about setting guidelines, but if you need flexibility, Order Automator may save you some time, because you can have it take a variety of fulfillment actions, ex: Make fulfillment requests, send emails to suppliers with their products, send daily csvs, etc.
Good luck, I hope you can find a smooth system.