Retailers
A Retailer is a record that represents a business you fulfill for — typically a big-box store or distributor such as Walmart, Target, or Dick's Sporting Goods — rather than an individual consumer. B2B trading partners like these each have their own identifiers, receiving locations, and packing requirements, and a single Retailer can receive many separate Orders shipped to many different destinations. The Retailer entity gives you one place to capture all of that information so your team can recognize, group, and consistently fulfill a partner's business.
Each Retailer belongs to a specific Merchant. A Retailer can also point to a Parent Retailer, which lets you model a buying group or chain — for example, a single "Walmart" parent above its individual distribution centers — so that related Orders can be grouped under the same top-level partner.
Create a Retailer
- Navigate to Shipping -> Retailers and click Add New Retailer in the top right.
- Fill out the Retailer Information and Defaults sections on the Info tab (each field is described in Retailer Information and Defaults below).
Click Save Retailer.
Choose the Code carefully — it is used to identify the Retailer and cannot be changed after the Retailer is created, so avoid values you may want to rename later.- After saving, the Identifiers, Ship-To Locations, Routing Guides, EDI Documents, Orders, and Shipments tabs become available. Use them to add the Retailer's EDI identifiers, receiving addresses, and packing documents, and to review related activity.
Info Tab
Retailer Information
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Merchant | The Merchant this Retailer belongs to. Required, and cannot be changed after the Retailer is created. |
| Code | A short identifier for the Retailer (letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens only). Required, must be unique within the Merchant, and cannot be changed after creation. |
| Name | The Retailer's display name (for example, Walmart). |
| Legal Name | The Retailer's official registered business name, if it differs from the display name. |
| DBA | The "Doing Business As" name, if the Retailer trades under a different name. |
| Status | The Retailer's current status. This is shown for reference and is changed using the status actions rather than edited directly — see Retailer Status. |
| Fulfillment Model | How you fulfill this Retailer's business: Wholesale — bulk shipments to the Retailer's own locationsDrop Ship — individual shipments to the Retailer's end customersMixed — both wholesale and drop-ship |
| Parent Retailer | An optional higher-level Retailer that this one rolls up to, used to model buying groups or chains. Only other Retailers in the same Merchant can be selected. |
Defaults
These values capture the Retailer's standing shipping and billing preferences in one place.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Duties Payor | The party normally responsible for paying import duties and taxes on international shipments: Shipper, Receiver, or Collect. |
| Default Shipping Method | The shipping method normally used for this Retailer. The available options depend on the selected Merchant. |
| Allowed Shipping Methods | Restricts which shipping methods may be used for this Retailer. When set, the Default Shipping Method must be one of the allowed methods. |
| Default TPB Group | A Third-Party Billing group to bill the Retailer's shipments to by default — useful when the Retailer pays freight on their own carrier account. |
| Routing Guide Notes | Free-form notes about the Retailer's packing and shipping requirements. For full documents, use the Routing Guides tab. |
Additional Fields
Any Retailer Custom Fields you have configured appear in the Additional Fields section of the Info tab, letting you capture extra information specific to your operation.
Retailer Status
A Retailer is always in one of three statuses:
- Active — the Retailer is in normal use.
- On Hold — the Retailer is temporarily suspended.
- Terminated — the Retailer has been archived.
Change a Retailer's status from the Retailer grid using the mass-action menu, which offers Activate, Hold, Unhold, and Terminate. Select one or more Retailers, choose an action, and submit.
Retailer Grid
The Retailer grid at Shipping -> Retailers lists your Retailers with columns for ID, Merchant (when more than one Merchant exists), Code, Name, Legal Name, DBA, Status, Fulfillment Model, Parent Retailer, and the Updated At / Created At dates. Any Retailer Custom Fields you have enabled for the grid appear here as well. You can filter and sort on these columns to quickly find a partner, and export the list to CSV or Excel.
Identifiers Tab
The Identifiers tab stores the EDI identifiers a Retailer is known by, so you can match incoming documents and orders to the correct partner. Click Add New Identifier to add one:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Qualifier | The kind of identifier: DUNS, DUNS+4, GLN, ISA ID, GS ID, AS2 ID, Retailer Vendor Number, SPS Trading Partner ID, or Custom. |
| X12 Qualifier | The matching EDI qualifier code, when applicable (for example, the code used in an EDI envelope to indicate the identifier type). |
| Value | The identifier itself. |
| Label | An optional friendly name to help your team recognize the identifier. |
| Primary | Marks this as the Retailer's main identifier. |
| Notes | Optional notes about the identifier. |
A given Qualifier and Value combination must be unique within the Merchant, so the same identifier cannot be assigned to two Retailers by mistake. Use the grid's delete action to remove identifiers you no longer need.
Ship-To Locations Tab
A Retailer usually receives shipments at many addresses — distribution centers, individual stores, or drop-ship points. The Ship-To Locations tab keeps those addresses on the Retailer record so they can be reused and consistently identified. Click Add New Location to add one:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Code | The Retailer-assigned location code, such as a DC or store number. Required and must be unique within the Retailer. |
| X12 Qualifier | The EDI qualifier code for the location, when applicable. |
| Label | An optional friendly name for the location. |
| Location Type | What the address represents: Distribution Center, Store, Mark-For, Drop-Ship, or Other. |
| Company | The business name at the address. |
| Street, City, Country, State/Province, Postal Code | The address. New locations default to the Merchant's default store country. The State/Province field becomes a dropdown for U.S. addresses. |
| Telephone, Email | Contact details for the location. |
| Default | Marks this as the Retailer's default ship-to location. |
| Status | Active to make the location available, or Inactive to retire it. |
Routing Guides Tab
Retailers publish routing guides — documents that spell out their packing, labeling, and shipping requirements — and they update them regularly. The Routing Guides tab lets you keep the current files attached to the Retailer so warehouse staff always have them on hand. Click Upload Routing Guide and provide:
- Title — a short name for the document.
- Description — optional notes about the document.
- File — the document to upload.
Uploaded guides are listed with their file type, size, who uploaded them, and the upload date, and each can be downloaded from the grid. Use the delete action to remove an outdated guide.
Retailer Custom Fields
Like Orders and Shipments, Retailers support Custom Fields for capturing information that ShipStream does not track by default. Configure them under System -> Shipping -> Retailer Custom Fields — the setup form works the same way as Custom Fields for Orders. Once created, a Retailer Custom Field appears in the Additional Fields section of the Retailer's Info tab and, if enabled, as a column on the Retailer grid.