Sales channel
BigCommerce warehouse management with orders, stock and shipments in step
OptiWMS connects to your BigCommerce store with a store-level API account you create in the BigCommerce control panel. Orders in the statuses you choose arrive as sales orders ready to pick, the store's products import by SKU with their variants, and stock goes to the BigCommerce inventory location you choose. Each parcel OptiWMS ships becomes a shipment on the BigCommerce order with its tracking number.
What syncs between OptiWMS and BigCommerce
- Orders
- Orders arrive as soon as BigCommerce sends them, in Awaiting Fulfillment and Awaiting Shipment unless you choose other statuses, and an hourly check collects any order whose notification was lost.
- Products
- Connecting imports every product and variant, linked by SKU to an existing product or created new. A product saved in BigCommerce updates in OptiWMS as BigCommerce reports the change.
- Refunds and cancellations
- Each order line is the quantity left to ship: ordered, less shipped, less refunded. A Cancelled, Declined or Refunded order is finished in OptiWMS.
- Stock
- Whenever stock changes in OptiWMS, it sets the absolute available quantity at your chosen BigCommerce location, with the channel stock buffer and sets applied.
- Shipments and tracking
- Every parcel becomes a BigCommerce shipment with its tracking number and carrier. BigCommerce then moves the order to Partially Shipped or Shipped and sends its shipment email if you have it switched on.
How it works in the warehouse
An order arrives in the warehouse chosen when the store was connected, ready for picking.
Most orders have one address and arrive as one order. When a shopper uses BigCommerce's ship to multiple addresses, OptiWMS splits the order into one per address, #105-1 and #105-2, because each address ships as its own parcel.
A product with a pick list arrives as the products the shopper chose, picked and packed as one set.
Each parcel goes back to BigCommerce as a shipment against the address it was packed for, with the tracking number from the label.
Canceling an order in OptiWMS cancels it in BigCommerce while nothing of it has shipped. When part has shipped, the Exceptions page names what to cancel or refund in BigCommerce.
Setting it up
In the BigCommerce control panel, go to Settings > API > Store-level API accounts and create an API account with the seven scopes the OptiWMS guide lists. Scopes are fixed once the account is saved.
Save the account and keep the file BigCommerce downloads: it holds the API path, client secret and access token, shown once.
In OptiWMS, open Integrations > Connect a store and click the BigCommerce card. Enter the API path, client secret and access token, choose the warehouse and the order statuses to import, and press Connect.
OptiWMS checks the account against your store before it saves anything and names any scope the account is missing.
When the store has several inventory locations, choose the one OptiWMS sends stock to in the store's BigCommerce settings under Connected.
Map each BigCommerce shipping method to a carrier service under Integrations > Map shipping options.
BigCommerce questions
How does OptiWMS connect to BigCommerce?
With a store-level API account you create in your BigCommerce control panel. You paste its API path, client secret and access token into OptiWMS. The client secret also verifies every webhook BigCommerce sends.
Which BigCommerce orders become warehouse work?
Orders in the statuses you choose: Awaiting Fulfillment and Awaiting Shipment to start with. Add Partially Shipped when some lines ship from elsewhere, and Awaiting Payment to see unpaid orders early. An order OptiWMS already holds is followed whatever its status becomes.
Does it work with several storefronts?
Yes. OptiWMS imports orders from every storefront of the store, and when the store has more than one, each order shows its storefront's name beside BigCommerce.
What happens to an order shipped to several addresses?
Each address with items becomes its own OptiWMS order, so the warehouse picks and ships each address separately. Every shipment goes back to BigCommerce against its own address.
What if BigCommerce turns the webhooks off?
BigCommerce switches off webhooks that fail for a long time. The hourly check turns them back on and collects every order changed in the meantime, and Retry webhooks on the store's row does it straight away.
See it running on your own catalog.
Try every feature free for 14 days. We set up your trial account within one business day, then you connect your store and run real orders through pick, pack and print. Or talk to us and we will find a time to show you the product on a demo account.
14 days, every feature, no card needed. Plans from $59 a month including GST.