Generic File: Add a Store Using Email

Let's get started!

1. Click on the Manage tab, then on the Stores button. Then, click Add Store.

2. Select the platform you are adding to ShipWorks from the What platform do you sell on? drop-down menu. Then, click Next.

5. Now, select the type of file you will be importing from the What type of file will ShipWorks be importing: option. Then, click Next.

For this example, we are importing from an Excel spreadsheet, so we have selected the Excel option.

6. Next, we need to tell ShipWorks from where we are pulling our order data. From the Import the data from: menu select Incoming email.

1. On the Import the data from: screen, click on the Setup button to the right of the Email Account: field.

2. The Account Setup screen allows you to attempt to connect to your email account by using automatic settings or to connect by manually entering all of the information about your email account. For this example, we will use the Automatic Configuration option.

Note: For more detailed information on how to configure an email account with ShipWorks, please refer to the article on how to add your email account to ShipWorks..

2a. Verify that Automatic Configuration is selected.

2b. Fill in the information for the following fields.

Your Name: The name associated to the email account.

Email Address: The email address to which you are attempting to connect.

Password: The password for the email account to which you are attempting to connect.

2c. Click Next. ShipWorks will contact the email server and attempt to automatically configure the settings needed to connect.

2d. Once Shipworks connects to the email account successfully, you will be prompted to enter an account alias. The alias is just how you see the name for this email account in ShipWorks. It is not included in any emails sent.

Enter an alias and then click Next.

2e. On the Setup Complete screen, click Finish.

PLEASE NOTE:If you are unsuccessful in adding your email account using the automatic configuration option you can attempt to connect using the Manual Configuration option. For more information, please refer to the article on how to add your email account to ShipWorks..

Great! Now that your email account is setup with ShipWorks you need to specify from which email folder you would like ShipWorks to import the order files from.

1. On the Import Data From screen, click on the Browse button to the right of the Mail Folder: field.

2. A list showing the available folders associated to your email account will be listed. Select the folder from which the emails containing your ShipWorks orders will be imported from. Then, click OK.

Note: In this example, we are going to configure ShipWorks to pull the order files directly from the inbox folder. However, if you have set up a specific folder from which ShipWorks orders will be imported, please select this folder.

ShipWorks allows you to specify which messages have the ShipWorks order files attached to them. This allows you to tell ShipWorks to only import those email messages and to ignore any other email messages that may be in the folder that you selected.

For this example we will specify the following:

1. On the Import the Data From: screen, check the box for Only import unread messages.

2. Now, check the box for Only import mail with subjects that match: and then enter the subject line for emails containing your ShipWorks Orders. For this example we will use ShipWorks Import.

3. If you wish, you can also specify for ShipWorks to ignore any emails that contain a particular subject line.

Now, let's tell ShipWorks to where the successfully imported file should be moved. (Remember that we created the Complete folder earlier?)

1. Click on the Browse button located in the After a successful import: section.

2. Navigate to the Complete folder that we created in the previous section. Then, click OK.

Note

You do have the option of having the file deleted after a successful import.

There are two options that you can select from for when an error occurs while importing an import file. Let's take a look at them:

1. From the If an error occurs while importing: drop-down menu, select the option that works best for you. In this example, we are leaving the default to stop and display an error.

Nice job! We are now ready to select the actual import file and to begin the mapping process.

2. Click Next.

Now, we are going to point ShipWorks to the actual order file that we wish to use for mapping. We placed the import file into our ShipWorks Import folder earlier on in this article. If you missed this step, no problem, just paste it into the folder now.

1. In the Import Map screen, click on the New Map button.

2. Click on Browse, navigate to your ShipWorks Import folder and, select the import file you will use to create your mapping. Then, click Open.

After selecting the import file, ShipWorks will display the data found in the file so that you can be sure that it looks correct. By default, ShipWorks will look to the first row of an Excel file (row A) for the column headers.

3. If needed, modify your headers so that they are located on the first row of your spreadsheet or data source. Once the data is correct, click Next.

If you have never mapped a file to an application or database before, it is super easy. What we will be doing is defining to ShipWorks exactly where ShipWorks should import your data to. For example, ShipWorks does not know that it should place the customer's first name into the First Name field. So, we are going to tell ShipWorks where to place our data.

Before we begin mapping, take a look at the Map Setting section. it gives you the File Name, source information and Date format information. If the Date format is not correct, you can click on the Edit button to manually configure the date and time settings.

OK, let's begin mapping.

Notice that ShipWorks breaks the data down into 3 separate groups, Orders, Address, and Items. When you select one of the three groups, only the fields in ShipWorks that relate to this group are made available for mapping. This is done to help organize the mapping process.

In addition, the Column Mapping screen is divided into two columns. The ShipWorks Field column lists the available fields in the ShipWorks database while the Source Column allows you to select from your import file what data should be imported into the ShipWorks Field.

We will not go through mapping every single field in our file. That would make this article really, really long. So, instead we will map two or three columns for each group so that you can see how it is done.

1. Select Orders from the Column Mappings screen. Now, let's map the Order Number. In the Source Column click the drop-down menu to the right of Order Number. A list of all of the available columns in your source file will be displayed along with examples of the data from your import file.

2a. Click on the Column Name that houses your order number data. Notice that the OrderNumber source column is now mapped to the Order Number field in ShipWorks. This means that when you import your orders, ShipWorks knows where to place the order number in its' database.

2b. Let's map one more column from the Orders group. Sometimes, you will need to map to a field in ShipWorks based upon how your input file is formatted. For example, you will notice that ShipWorks has an Order Date and Time field AND separate Order Date and Order Time fields. Our sample import file only has an order date so we will only use the Order Date field. However, if you have both the order date and the order time in the same column, you may wish to use the Order Date and Time field in ShipWorks.

2c. Continue mapping all of the Order fields in your import file to the fields available to you in ShipWorks.

3. Select the Address group on the Column Mappings screen. Notice that the ShipWorks Fields change to show only the fields that relate to address information.

3a. In our sample import file, we only have one address. So, we will map our address columns to the Ship to fields in ShipWorks. Map your address columns to the available fields in ShipWorks.

Mapping the Ship First Name field

Mapping the Ship Last Name field

Mapping the Ship to Address1 field.

3. Continue mapping the address columns from your import file to the available fields in ShipWorks.

4. Select the Items group from the Column Mappings section. The screen changes to display only the ShipWorks fields related to items.

5. Make note of the Multiple Items section available to you now. You will use this section to define how the line items are listed in your import file. There are two options available to you. Let's take a look at both of these options.

Click to enlarge the above image

With this option selected, you can select the max number of items you will need to map to ShipWorks and how many attributes are available for each item.

Click here to enlarge the above image.

With this option selected you can specify what column of your input file identifies each order and the number of attributes associated to your items. It is important to note that line items will be combined into a single order only when the unique identifier appears in contiguous lines of your import file. (For example: In the above image, OrderNumber 6000 appears on lines 2 and 3 for the import file. So, the line items will be combined into a single order.)

5a. Based upon the above examples, select the correct option for your import file. For this example, we will select the below options:

5b. Map the appropriate columns from your import file to the correct fields in ShipWorks.

6. When you have completed mapping all of your Order, Address, and Item fields, click Next.

Congratulations! You have completed the Generic File setup!

7. Click Finish. Then, click Close.

Once you have completed your Generic File setup you will be able to import the orders from your order file attached to an unread email . To test your setup:

1. Ensure that an email has been sent to the email account you connected to in the above steps being sure that the email contains an attachment of the order file you wish to import. For our example we have an email with the subject of ShipWorks Import which contains our attached order file. There is also an email in our inbox with a subject line of Do Not Import. This is so that we can ensure ShipWorks will only grab the emails we wish for it to per our settings above.

2. In ShipWorks, go to the Home tab and then click on the Download button.

If all goes well you will see your orders being imported into the ShipWorks software.

You will also notice that the import file was moved from the email Inbox folder into the Completed Imports email folder we created in the steps above.