Shipping fulfillment types

Important

This integration guide supports physical goods. The physical goods product category is in Early Availability status. Features in Early Availability status are only available in production to a limited number of customers based on fit with specific use cases. For more information about Early Availability status, see Product lifecycle phases. If you would like to use the product capabilities described here during the Early Availability phase, contact your AppDirect technical representative.

Marketplaces that sell physical goods have the following options to fulfill purchases:

• Manual—The marketplace stocks the products that it sells and handles the shipping. A Marketplace Manager manually updates the user interface with tracking information that end users can view. No API is required for this fulfillment type.
• Automated using a shipper—The shipping carrier ships products on your behalf but does not stock products. If you use a shipping carrier, you can create a custom connector to connect the shipping carrier's system to AppDirect.
• Automated using a dropshipper—The dropshipper stocks and ships products on your behalf. This could also include companies that manufacture goods, sell them on marketplaces, and ship them directly to customers. You can build a custom connector that connects the dropshipper's system with the marketplace and maps products to the dropshipper's catalog. When you create physical products, the Edition Code must include a JSON hashmap string that links the connector UUID to the dropshipper SKU (this acts as a translation for that connector). This value is used within the connector to fetch relevant products.