What Is Order Fulfillment API?
Order fulfillment API(a.k.a fulfillment API or Order API) is a tool that consists of different order fulfillment functionalities. Order fulfillment functionality includes order management, order shipping &tracking, inventory management, shipping label creation, etc. All the features are breakable, and you can choose the function you need.
Some order fulfillment API providers may offer other value-added features such as shopping cart management, email marketing, and so on.
What Is A Third-Party Order Fulfillment API Provider?
A third-party order fulfillment API provider specializes in integrating selling channels, shipping carriers, order management tools such as ERP, WMS, and SCM.
In other words, a third-party order fulfillment API offers one-time integration. Using a third-party order fulfillment API, you can access all order fulfillment functionalities offered by different eCommerce platforms and order management tools.
Suppose you directly use the order fulfillment API your selling channels or order management tools provide. In that case, you will need to integrate them one by one, which is time-consuming.
Why Should You Use A Third-Party Order Fulfillment API?
In general, third-party order fulfillment API can help eCommerce merchants to manage their order, inventory, and shipping better with less work and trouble. There are three benefits of using order fulfillment API.
Cross-Platform Order Management
You can integrate all your selling channels with a third-party order fulfillment API. This Order fulfillment API allows you to manage all your orders in one place and apply pre-set actions to orders.
With the help of order fulfillment API, you can save time on automating collecting order information from your selling channels and reduce manual mistakes in processing the orders.
Inventory Management
You can efficiently manage your inventory by integrating the order fulfillment API. It allows you to monitor stock levels, set inventory alerts, and automate the pre-order process.
This API can also help you prioritize your inventory, track all product information, and analyze supplier performance. With this type of API, you will never run out of stock and lose your products.
Easy Shipping And Tracking
Some third-party order fulfillment API offers order shipping and tracking features. You can use the shipping rate discount provided by the order fulfillment API providers.
Order fulfillment API helps you quickly generate discounted shipping labels for all of your online orders. Besides, you can use the API to find the best shipping rate, print a shipping label in batch. With a few clicks, you can spend more time selling and less time processing shipping.
You can also provide an exceptional post-purchase experience with branded shipping and tracking. Branded shipping and tracking allow you to create a more personalized and memorable delivery experience for your customers without additional cost.
Top 10 Shopify Order Fulfillment API
1. ShipStation
ShipStation is a web-based eCommerce shipping platform that powers shipping success of all sizes. It has branded customer pages, a mobile app, and many other features that will help your business save time and money.
Main Feature: - Manage all orders in one platform
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Access carrier discounts
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Branded delivery experience
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Various delivery options
Price: - STARTER Plan($9/month)
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BRONZE Plan($29/month)
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GOLD Plan($69/month)
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ENTERPRISE Plan($159/month)
2. Matrixify
Matrixify is an Excel/CSV file processing tool. You can use it to manage product listing, collections, discounts, etc. Here is how it works, you export and bulk edit Shopify data outside Shopify. Then import data into Shopify and review or update the import results file.
Main Feature: - Old platform migration
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Transfer data from one platform to another
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Bulk data editing
Price: - Free Plan
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BASIC Plan($20/month)
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BIG Plan($50/month)
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ENTERPRISE Plan($200/month)
3. Shippo
Shippo is a label creation platform that allows you to create and purchase shipping labels to print off and affix to your shipments. It is a reliable and easy-to-use shipping order management app in Shopify.
Main Feature: -Branded & post-purchase optimization
-Shipping rate discounts
-Shipment tracking
-Shipping label creation
Price: - Starter Plan(Free)
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Professional Plan($10/mo)
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Premier Plan(Custom)
4. Order Printer Templates
Order Printer Templates allows you to customize invoices, packing slips, receipts, quote, return forms & refund templates. It also has PDF invoice auto-delivery and translation features.
Main Feature: - PDF invoice, receipt, and other documents automation
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Packing slips creation
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Bill translation
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Custom order printer templates Price:
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Free to install
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Customize and test before purchase—$29 (one-time fee) per template
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Additional templates get an automatic 50% discount
5. Order Printer Pro: PDF Invoice
Order Printer Pro allows you to quickly print and email invoices, packing slips, quote, and returns form documents for your Shopify orders. You can print documents yourself or deliver PDFs automatically to your customers.
Main Feature: -Print and export in bulk
-Print and export draft orders
-Automated PDF invoices
-Customizable templates
Price: -FREE Plan
-UNLIMITED Plan($10/month)
6. Bulk Product Edit & CSV import
Bulk Product Edit & CSV import is a fulfillment tool that allows you to edit anything about products/variants in a few clicks. So you can efficiently edit price, tags, inventory, title, description, vendor, SKU, Channels, etc.
Main Feature: -Unlimited bulk edit & CSV import tasks per month
-500 Products per task
-Revert any product edit
-Edit all product details
Price: - DEMO(Free)
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BASIC Plan($9.99/month)
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PROFESSIONAL Plan($19.99/month)
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ADVANCED Plan($49.99/month)
7. ShippingEasy
ShippingEasy is a cloud-based software that helps you manage your shipment data from your stores, shopping carts, and marketplaces. It allows you to print shipping labels and send tracking statuses to your stores and customers.
Main Feature: - Process orders from multi-sales channels
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Addresses and order information template
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Order status Auto-update to your selling platforms and customers
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Print labels in batches
Price: - STARTER Plan($5/month)
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BASIC Plan($29/month)
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PLUS Plan($49/month)
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ENTERPRISE Plan($159/month)
8. Pre‑order Now ‑ PreOrder
Pre-order Now-PreOrder is a free pre-order App in Shopify. This tool can help reduce the lost sales caused by insufficient inventory. It allows users to sell Pre-order, Out-of-Stock, Sold Out & Coming Soon Products.
Main Feature: - Pre-order discount
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Mixed cart warning
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Pre-order by product tag
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Pre-order products
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pre-ordered items management
Price: - FREE Plan
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SHOPIFY BASIC Plan($19.95/month)
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SHOPIFY STANDARD Plan($39.95/month)
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SHOPIFY ADVANCED Plan$59.95/month
9. Back In Stock: Customer Alerts
Some customers are still waiting for your products when your inventory runs out. Replace your out-of-stock button with a pre-order option. Back In Stock: Customer Alerts is a pre-order app on Shopify that helps notify your customers when products are restocked through Email & SMS.
Main Feature: - SMS & Email campaign notifications
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Analytics & reports
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Unlimited customer lists
Price: - Free trial
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STARTUP Plan($19/month)
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SMALL BUSINESS($39/month)
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MEDIUM STORE($59/month)
10. KeyDelivery
KeyDelivery is an eCommerce all-in-one shipping & order tracking Shopify app. It offers simply point-to-click integration and API integration for merchants with or without coding skills. It is one of the popular order tracking tools in the Shopify app store.
Main Feature: - Order shipping and tracking
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Shopify order tracking page
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Branded tracking page
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Reporting
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Shipment delay alert
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Shipping rate discounts
Price: - Free Plan
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Basic Plan ($9/month)
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Enterprise Custom
Final Thought
Order management and fulfillment are important in a merchant’s day-to-day operating. Managing inventory, orders, and delivery takes a lot of work behind the scenes to get products to customers.
The customer knows how the order pressing goes yet still expects to receive their order as fast as possible. More new merchants join the competition, order management and fulfillment become more challenging and complex.
The good news is that more productivity tools can help merchants improve their order processing efficiency. You can try some of the Shopify order fulfillment APIs or Apps on the list, and you will be surprised by their functions and the time and money you save.
