Setup for Shopify Retailers
This article will guide you through the process of setting up Mothership Retailer and connecting it to your Shopify store. This article is for drop ship retailers. That's the businesses in the drop shipping partnership that sells to and manages the relationship with the end customer. The retailer does not carry Mothership inventory or fulfill Mothership orders.
Prerequisites
As part of this tutorial, you'll be installing Mothership Retailer into to your Shopify store. You may have received an email from your supplier inviting you to connect with them on Mothership. If you did, you'll need the invite key included in that email. Don't worry if you did not receive an invite email. You'll be able to send your supplier an invite once you're setup.
Getting Started
The first step in the process is to install the Mothership Retailer app into your Shopify store. You can start the installation process by going to the Mothership Retailer page in the Shopify App Store and then clicking on the Add App button.
You may be prompted to sign in or select the store you wish to install Mothership Retailer into. Please follow the prompts until you get to a page similar to the one below.
Please review the information on this page. It includes the information Mothership will have access to and the permissions Mothership is requesting in order to function correctly in your store. Once you're ready, click the Install app button in the top right corner.
Next, confirm that you're a retailer who wants to sell someone else's products to your customers.
On the following page, please choose the option that indicates you have a supplier you want to work with and then click next.
You should then be taken to a page where you need to tell Mothership if you received an invite from a supplier or if you want to invite suppliers to connect with you on Mothership.
You Received an invite from a supplier
If you were sent an invite email from your supplier through Mothership, you'll need to choose the first option and then click next. On the following page, you'll be prompted to enter the invite code contained in the invite email. Once you click Submit, the two stores will be connected and you'll be returned to complete the rest of the onboarding process.
Jump ahead to the section titled Continuing the Onboarding Process.
You did not receive an invite email
This means that you will be our primary customer. As such, you'll need to sign up for a subscription plan that will allow you to invite suppliers to connect with you on the platform. We only charge one side of the partnership. Since you will be paying the monthly subscription fee, your supplier partners will not need to pay anything to work with you.
First, select the option that says you want to invite your supplier to connect with you on Mothership.
On the following page, select the subscription option that best meets your requirements.
Once you select your subscription, you'll be prompted by Shopify to approve the monthly subscription fee.
After you approve the subscription you'll be returned to finish the onboarding process.
Continuing the Onboarding Process
After you've finished entering an invite key or signing up for a subscription, the next step in the process is to review Mothership's privacy policy and terms of service. Please review those documents, check the box stating that you agree to the terms, and then click the submit button.
On the following page, you'll be given a link to our quick start guide that covers some common setup questions. After you checkout the guide, please click next next.
The following page asks you to enter an email address that Mothership can send important notifications to. Please enter an email address that is monitored.
Let's configure your shipping mappings next. You'll need to map each of your shipping rates into a 3-tiered schema (economy, standard, and expedited) that Mothership uses to translate the end-customer's requested shipping service level into the rates your suppliers offer.
Importantly, if you add additional shipping rates in the future, you'll need to reimport your shipping rates into Mothership and update the mappings. Mothership will default to economy if we cannot find an applicable mapping between rates.
Lastly, you'll need to tell Mothership if you want us to tell Shopify to send fulfillment notifications to your customers whenever Mothership creates a fulfillment on one of your orders. Most people want this option.
You've installed Mothership Retailer!
After you click the Save button, you'll be taken to the dashboard. You've successfully installed Mothership Retailer into your Shopify store.
Next Steps
Import a product
If you're not already, you'll want to connect to a supplier. After you've done that, you'll need to import a product, merchandise it, and verify that the pricing is correct.
Place a test order
Next, publish the product to your online store and place a test order. You want to make sure your customers can check out and the order flows from your online store to Mothership and on to the supplier. You can setup a 1-time use discount code so you don't need to actually make the purchase. Your supplier may also want to simulate a fulfillment to see the tracking information flow back through Mothership to your store.
Start selling
Once you and your supplier have tested the order flow and are satisfied with how everything is working, the next step is for you to start selling the supplier's products. You can sell Mothership products through any of your Shopify sales channels.
Questions
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to support@mothership.fm.