What is Third-party Shipping & How this can be set-up in Marketcube?

In this article, we'll show you how to configure & enable the 3PL shipping within the Marketcube.

What is Third-Party Shipping?

Third-Party Shipping is the process of a retailer sending their products into a fulfilment center, for them to be processed and shipped out to customers. It is also often referred to as a third-party logistics provider or 3PL.

How to set up 3PL in Marketcube?

1. Log in as an Operator >> Click on the Setting Icon.

2. Navigate to Shipping and Fulfillments >> Click Show >> Click Fulfilment.

3. Third-Party shipping will be a Dropship model, so the Operator needs to select the Dropship from the option available and then click on Save. Once done, click on the Dropship tab next to 'Setup

4. Select the Third-Party Shipping option and from the dropdown (Highlighted in the screenshot).

Select the required 3PL available in the option & enter the required information and then click on Save.

Let's see How to configure Starshipit?

In this article, we will show you how to configure and enable the Starshipit settings in Marketcube.

Starshipit shipping rates are set up by the operator. So the rates updated by the operator on Starshipit will only flow in Marketcube.

Steps to configure Starshipit:

Log in as an Operator.
Under the Settings tab, Click on Fulfilments >> Click Show >> Click Fulfilment.
Starshipit is a dropship model, so the operator needs to select Dropship. By default, Marketcube has enabled dropship.
Click on the Dropship Tab to Setup.
Select the Third-Party Shipping option and from the dropdown (Highlighted in the screenshot). select Starshipit.
Add the Starshipit API Keys and Click on the Submit button to save the fulfilment settings successfully. Operators can find these API keys from their Starshipit Dashboard.
This setting will ensure when your customer buys a product on your Shopify store, shipping rates that have been set up on Starshipit will be levied.

Let's use a scenario,

A customer placed an order for two products for two different vendors.
As soon as they provide their shipping details, shipping rates will be visible to them. From the dropdown, you can see that customers can see the shipping rates. The operator has set up a fast delivery and standard delivery rate on their Starshipit account which is visible here. Let's say the customer opts for Fast Delivery and checks out.
The order is created and you can see that the shipping paid by the customer is Rs. 80.
Now check the Marketcube app for a new Order. You will see that the order is visible. Click on the order to accept it.
Once accepted, the Operator needs to generate the Label.
This is a prerequisite just before downloading a shipping label.
If a user needs to download a shipping label they need to generate it by clicking Generate Label located under the actions panel (as shown in the screenshot below).
Clicking this will generate a consignment ID at a database label. It only saves the consignment in the data.
In order to fulfil the order, the tracking detail and ID will be synced from starshipit. So the operator/vendor will not have to provide Tracking details in Marketcube.
Once the operator clicks on Generate Label, they will be provided with an option to select the vendors. If the vendor is generating the shipping label, they will not get this pop-up.
Once the vendor is selected, the Operator needs to click on Generate Label.
Once the operator/ vendor has generated the label, they can download the label. The key point to note here is that since the operator has generated the label for only one vendor, he can only see the label for one vendor.
Click Download Label to download the label.
The sender address is the address added by the operator in their Starshipit account. This is not the vendor's address. This is a limitation of starshipit as it does not include the address from where the order is getting fulfilled i.e., Vendors.
Before Fulfilling the order you can see that the shipping paid by the customer is Rs. 80 which will be divided equally among the vendors.
The operator/vendor will now fulfil the line item. You will see that the tracking details are prefilled as it has been synced from Starshipit.
Click Save Tracking Details to mark the order as fulfilled.

Key points to remember:

Starshipit will use the Operator API Keys.
In order to use Starshipit rates, the operator/ vendor needs to add weight to the products as it is mandatory for Starshipit rate calculation.
If weight has not been added to the products then by default Marketplace will consider the weight of the product to be 0.01 Kg.
If the operator/vendor has not set weight in Marketcube and have it set up on Starshipit, that weight will be levied.
We have a capping of 1000 Kg on maximum product weight which can be updated if the operator contacts the Marketcube team.
Physical products box should always be checked at the time of adding products in order to use this functionality.