Testing Order and Drop Ship Integrations and Automations

Introduction

One of the common use cases for automation integrations is facilitating flexible order exports to ERPs and drop shipping with 3rd party systems. These integrations may have varying integration configurations ranging from a simple SFTP/CSV integration all the way to complex API integrations that require multiple data points. Regardless of the simple or complex nature of an integration, there are common properties that make testing order drop shipping integrations very consistent. 

Once an integration has gotten past the development and testing stage that often utilizes a testing/sandbox environment (which may lacking compared to production), it will be time to ensure the integration is ready for production using production test orders from your account. The below outlines production testing requirements and steps to ensure smooth activation of order drop shipping integrations.

Testing

In SureDone, there are two modes most Drop Shipping integrations may operate in: 

Manual Drop Shipping and Automated Drop Shipping.

• Manual Drop Shipping - On the order page, you manually set order item vendor with a value of {vendor name} (ie motorstate) for orders that may be sent to a specific vendor (ie Motorstate) and then save the order. Consult each integration's instructions for what value the system expects.
• Automated Drop Shipping - If automated drop shipping is enabled, and {vendor}stock (ie keystonestock) is the first stock control field (found under Settings > Selling > Stock Options > Stock Control Fields) that shows the product in stock, SureDone will automatically send the order to the vendor (ie Keystone). In other words, let's say you have 2 vendors you can order the product from - XYZ and Keystone. In the stock control field setting (mentioned previously) it shows "xyzstock keystonestock", if xyzstock has positive stock AND keystonestock has positive stock (as seen in on the item page itself), we'll first fulfill using "xyz". If it shows "keystonestock xyzstock", and both distributors have the product in stock, we'll send the order to Keystone since it's listed first.

Prepare Test Orders

• Create 2 test orders
  • Ensure both orders have a complete and valid "shipping" address
  • Create a single item order
  • Create a multi item order
    • Create one order item that matches the criteria of the automation
    • Create one order item that does not match the criteria of the automation, for example with automated drop shipping for Turn14 you'd would set 1 order item with source turn14stock and the other order item with source stock (which is typically used for on hand inventory)
    • The point here is to confirm that only valid and assigned order items are sent to the vendor integration in a multi item order
• Ensure both orders have products that are linked to products in your SureDone account
  • This step will internally add the product record as items.itemdetails.product to each order item
  • Ensure each order item has quantity > 0
  • Ensure each order item has the "vendor" set for manual testing
  • Ensure each order item has the "source" set to {vendor}stock for automated testing
  • Ensure each linked product has a valid {vendor}sku. For example for the Brock Supply integration, the linked product should be confirmed to have a the field "brocksku" filled in with a valid Brock Supply part number

Confirm Testing Search

• All integrations via Automation Engine rely on searches that can be replicated via the user interface and API
• Many automations run as line item integrations, meaning the search filters out line items that don't meet criteria
• Standard search fields:
  • Item Status (itemstatus) typically runs against order items with an empty value ie itemstatus:=
  • Source (source) for automated modes where source = value of a stock field ie source:={vendor}stock
  • Vendor (vendor) for manual modes where vendor = value of the vendor name ie vendor:={Vendor Name}
  • Status (status) in a non-complete state ie status:-=COMPLETE status:-=REJECTED status:-=CANCELED
  • Archived (archived) false ie archived:=0
  • Put all together ie itemstatus:= source:=turn14stock status:-=COMPLETE status:-=REJECTED status:-=CANCELED archived:=0
• Test the orders search in your account and confirm only the test orders created show up:
  • ie itemstatus:= source:=turn14stock status:-=COMPLETE status:-=REJECTED status:-=CANCELED archived:=0
  • Note: the search interface does not do line item filtering, which means multi item orders that have at least one order item meeting criteria will show up - and integrations correctly setup will exclude ineligible order items

Coordinate and test orders drop shipping with the Integration Supplier/Vendor

• The integration should be installed, authorized, but left disabled at this point
• Create a support ticket in SureDone and include the email of the integrator if possible
  • Suggest a subject line: {Vendor Name} Orders Integration Production Testing
• This will ensure any issues are documented, if the integration was built by SureDone or a partner the team will be able to triage logs and other details for further investigation
• Inform the integration partner that you are conducting the test
• Once agreed on timing of the test, perform a manual run by going to Automations > The Integration > Run
• Check the boxes for "Send me an email" and "Run full update" and click "Run full update"
• Once you receive the email it is complete, check that the order was successfully sent
• If successful, Item Status will be "ORDERED" in the order items interface
  • Confirm the order is placed on the vendor portal
  • Update the ticket letting everyone know the order was successfully sent
• If unsuccessful, you may see "REJECTED" in the order items interface
  • Wait 5-10 mins and check the Automation Logs tab for errors
  • Copy the link for one of the errors and post it to the support ticket for the team to help
  • If the orders are fixable, you may reset the request by removing the "REJECTED" from the item status
• Once confirmed by the integration vendor/supplier, you may enable the integration

Coordinate and test orders drop shipping with the Integration Supplier/Vendor

• Install and authorize the related Orders Tracking Import integration
• This integration may be left enabled as they typically only import ship tracking for orders that are placed
• On the same support ticket as above, request the supplier/vendor contact to notify once the fulfillment is ready for pickup
• Once successful, the production test order will be "marked shipped" and you should see the shipment set in the order

At this point you should have completed production testing for both a single and multi item order. There may be edge cases to be aware of depending on the complexity of the integration and supplier (ie do they support LTL shipments, are there signature confirmation required, is there mapping for specific ship services and how are international orders handled). Feel to update the related support ticket with these questions to confirm specific use cases that may apply to you - once the the related support ticket is closed you should be ready to automate these drop ship orders with SureDone.