Supplier Onboarding Guide
Introduction
Welcome to fabric Dropship. This guide will walk you through the supplier onboarding workflow.
Welcome Email
The Dropship onboarding process begins with a welcome email that contains a unique link to Dropship that will connect you to your retail partner.
After clicking the link to begin the onboarding process, you are directed to the Sign Up screen.
- If you are new to Dropship and don’t have an account, select I am new to fabric Dropship to set up your account.
- If you already have an account, select I already have a fabric Dropship account.
Once you have completed initial account setup and logged in, you will need to complete the onboarding tasks to finish the onboarding process.
Onboarding Tasks
After your onboarding call, you will need to complete the onboarding tasks to finish the onboarding process.
The Onboarding Tasks page has a checklist that includes setup tasks such as:
- Adding a Billing address
- Adding a default fulfillment location
- Adding Primary contacts
- Configuring the Transactions Integration
- Getting Started with EDI
- Configuring Product Imports & Proposals
- Configuring Notifications
- (Optional) Schedule a Demo Call
The Onboarding Tasks page is accessible by clicking on fabric Home from the menu at the top of the page in Dropship and selecting Onboarding.
Dropship will also remind you of any incomplete tasks whenever you log in by displaying the Continue Onboarding popup.
Billing address
Click Start next to the Billing Address section of the Onboarding Tasks page to add your address.
The billing address is for all payment remittances and other communication with the retailer and Dropship. Fill out the Legal Business Name field, as well as all of the other address fields.
When finished, click Continue.
Default fulfillment location
Click Start next to the Default Fulfillment Location section of the Onboarding Tasks page to add your Default Fulfillment Location.
The Default Fulfillment Location serves as the default warehouse for all of your orders. It’s mandatory to set up your default warehouse before proceeding as a supplier.
When finished, click Continue.
Note: After you set up the default location, you can add more locations (warehouses) by clicking on fabric Home from the menu at the top of the page in Dropship, selecting Supplier Settings, and then clicking on Inventory Settings.
Primary Contacts
Click Start next to the Primary Contacts section of the Onboarding Tasks page to add contacts at your organization.
Three contacts are required to complete this task:
- The Primary Business Contact is notified of any policy- or business-related changes to your relationship with the retailer.
- The Merchandising Contact is contacted by the retailer to discuss things related to merchandising, proposals, and products being dropshipped with the retailer.
- The Fulfillment Contact is contacted by the retailer whenever there is an issue with order fulfillment, such as delays, missing shipments, or order cancellation.
When finished, click Complete Task.
Transactions Integration
Click Start next to the Transactions Integration section of the Onboarding Tasks page.
Dropship supports multiple methods to trade inventory, order, shipment, and inventory data. As a supplier, you can choose the integrations you want to have with Dropship.
For low and medium order volumes, we recommend using the fabric Supplier Portal, which includes import/export tools to process orders in bulk. For higher volumes, we recommend using EDI or API.
Choose an integration method in the Integration Options window, click Complete Task, and then complete the following steps to finish setting up that option.
EDI: Managed Onboarding
Create your Dropship EDI account by filling out the EDI Qualifier and EDI ID fields, and then clicking Create EDI Account. The fabric team will help you onboard your EDI.
fabric Supplier Portal
There are no additional steps required to set up the fabric Supplier Portal integration.
ShipStation
fabric can be configured to automatically push purchase orders to and pull tracking numbers from your ShipStation account. Enter your ShipStation API Key and ShipStation API Secret and then click Continue.
On the following screen, you can specify a ShipStation Store ID if you would like orders to land in a designated ShipStation store. Otherwise, your orders will land in your default ShipStation store. This field is optional. Enter a Store ID or leave the field blank and then click Continue.
The next screen allows you to select the tags you want to be added to all orders that go from Dropship to ShipStation. If you would like fabric to tag orders, select the tag from the list below. If you need to a new tag, create it in your ShipStation account and it will be available in Dropship instantly. When finished, click Continue.
Shopify
The Dropship Shopify app can be installed to automatically push purchase orders into your Shopify store and pull tracking numbers once you ship. To install the app, fill out the Shopify Store Name and API Key fields and then click Continue.
Once your store is connected, you can configure the integration’s webhooks and other settings. Click Continue to finish.
BigCommerce
The Dropship BigCommerce app can be installed to automatically push purchase orders into your BigCommerce store and pull tracking numbers once you ship. To install the app, fill out the Store Identifier and Store Token fields.
You can find your Store Identifier in your BigCommerce store URL. Example: store-storeidentifier.mybigcommerce.com/admin.
Your Store Token is the admin API Key you can generate from your BigCommerce account.
When you’ve entered your information, click Continue.
WooCommerce
The Dropship WooCommerce app can be installed to automatically push purchase orders into your WooCommerce store and pull tracking numbers once you ship. To install the app, fill out the WooCommerce Store URL field and then click Continue.
Once your store is connected, click Install App to finish.
API
There are no additional steps required to set up an API integration.
Getting started with EDI
fabric trades EDI documents over SFTP through our proprietary, in-house EDI system.
In this onboarding task, you are asked to download and review fabric’s “EDI Specifications” file.
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Click continue
You are prompted to create and EDI account.
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Retrieve and input your EDI Qualifier and EDI ID to create the account.
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The fabric team will help you set up and test your EDI integration.
Catalog (Import Products/Approve Import Request)
Depending on your connection settings, you will see either Import Products or Approve Import Request for the Catalog section.
- About Product Imports & Proposals means you need to create products by importing them.
- Approve Import Request means that your retail partner creates products and you have to approve their requests for products.
Click Start to begin the process. You are presented with a how-to video relevant to the import process you selected.
Video: Approve import requests
Product imports & proposals
Based on the category of products you are uploading, select a template from the dropdown, choose a file to upload, and then click Import.
To learn more about importing products, see Adding products to your catalog.
Video: Submit a proposal for a new product
Approve import request
A fabric retailer will submit a request to upload a set of products on your behalf. Once submitted, this “import request” requires your approval.
When the retailer submits the import request, you receive an email with instructions and a link to view the products and approve the request.
You don’t have to take any action at this time.
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Click Complete Task to continue onboarding.
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(Optional) Click Schedule a Demo Call after the Notifications section, before Complete Onboarding.
Notifications
Click Start next to the Notifications section of the Onboarding Tasks page to configure which push notifications you receive.
There are four types of notifications to configure:
- Connection: notifications whenever there are changes to your connections or connection notes
- Order Received: notifications whenever you receive an order
- Order Change Requests: notifications when a customer has requested a change to their order
- Order Digest: a notification at the end of each business day that contains a summary of that day’s new or open orders
For each step in the Notifications workflow, enter an email address to enable the notification and click Save & Continue. To disable the notification, click Skip Notification.
Schedule a demo call (Optional)
Still have questions about fabric? Feel free to schedule a call with our team of specialists to discuss your questions and concerns! We recommend that you invite any members of your team who may be using Dropship to join the onboarding call.
Complete Onboarding
After you have finished all of your onboarding tasks, your retail partner will receive a notification to activate your connection. Once the retailer has activated the connection, click the Complete Onboarding button at the bottom of the Onboarding Tasks page. You will start receiving orders in the Dropship portal.