Blog: shipping

ShipStation integration now available

2020 may be a year to forget in many ways, but we’ve been plugging away at some big changes for 2021 that we’re excited to show you very soon. In the meantime, we’re happy to announce that storeBlox CS now supports ShipStation!

ShipStation Logo

Yep, in addition to the roughly six-bajillion shipping options (we might be exaggerating that number, please don’t call your lawyer) currently available in storeBlox CS, you can now integrate directly with ShipStation!

ShipStation is a nifty service for shipping at best available rates, printing shipping labels, tracking shipments and a whole lot more. When you plug in ShipStation to your storeBlox CS company store (and it’s super easy, just see below), your storeBlox CS orders are pushed into ShipStation; when you ship orders the tracking information is synchronized with your storeBlox CS store automatically.

ShipStation admin screen in storeBlox CS

A few fields is all you need to get set up, but as always we’re here to help you through the process. Just drop us a line or give us a shout at 512-867-1001 and we’ll get you set up. Need to learn more about setting up your shipping options? Check out our Video Learning Center for walkthroughs and tips.

Group-based shipping methods

Among a number of small improvements and fixes in our first storeBlox CS release of 2019, we also launched Group-based shipping methods. storeBlox has Group functionality baked deep into the system, and it’s a great feature for variety of situations:

  • Assigning product access to groups: For example, your store can be set up so managers can see everything, while other users see only specific categories or products. This can be helpful if managers have access to free products, literature or other items that other users shouldn’t be able to view. You can even set up groups with their own landing pages and banners, creating Micro Stores.
  • Payment by group: Often, a store may make certain payment methods (like departmental budgets) only available to certain users. Group payment methods let you assign available payment methods to specific groups, and Group Approvers enables you to have an approver review and approve all the orders for a specific group.

There’s a lot more to Groups, so drop us a line if you need help understanding how to set them up and manage them. This month, we added Group-based shipping methods, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like – you can now control access to any shipping method by group:

storeBlox CS group-based shipping

This extends the capability to control available shipping methods to Groups. For example, if your managers have access to free shipping or local delivery, but other users need to use only FedEx or UPS, you can now assign any shipping method by group!

Other updates

The latest release also brings additions to your Order Export, and a we’ve added the ability to opt out of Loyalty Marketing emails during registration and account editing. This is separate from general opt out of marketing emails.

As always, if you have any questions about setting things up or just need a custom demo or help selling, just give us a shout!

Fun with Figures

Few of us would call calculators fun – although I do recall enjoying a few upside-down calculator messages back in middle school – but the folks here at eBlox got a kick out of building calculators for two big site launches for 2011. Then again, we are geeks.

First up is the product page calculator on the new 3M Promotional Markets website. 3M has always had pretty complex pricing and decoration options, so we actually took on the rather ambitious task of not only wrestling their pricing into a more structured model, but also building the ability to calculate that pricing accurately and quickly right on the product page.

3M Promotional Markets Product Page Calculator

3M’s calculator handles product options and freight in real time

If that wasn’t enough, 3M threw in freight quoting as well – in real-time. So, we take product and quantity options, work out the total (including decoration) and then go fetch a real-time freight quote from UPS, all right there on the product page. You get an estimated total within seconds.All of this is made possible with storeBlox 2, the most flexible, customizable e-commerce solution for promotional products suppliers and distributors.