E-mailing Purchase Orders and Drop Shipments

*Please ensure you adhere to all marketplace guidelines and policies when processing your dropship orders.

Using StoreFeeder you can email purchase orders and drop ship requests directly from the software. Once everything is set up on your account, you will be able to click the send to supplier button against a drop shipment or purchase order and the details will automatically be e-mailed to the selected supplier.

To set this up firstly you will need to create an e-mail account against a company identity. To do this click on the 'Settings' link in the top right hand side of any StoreFeeder page. Then in the menu on the left hand side click on 'E-mail Configuration' and then 'E-mail Settings'. This will load the 'Settings Overview' Page. To add a new account, click the green 'New Email Settings' button in the top right hand corner of the page. You will then be prompted to select a company identity you wish to associate your e-mail account with. Select the correct company identity and click the green 'Add Email Settings' button.

This will then take you through to the details page, where you will need to enter the following information:

Active - This determines whether the account is ready for active use within the system. It is recommended to test your settings before setting this to on.

From Email - This is the e-mail address which any mail the system sends will appear to be from.

From Name - This is the name which mail the system sends will appear to be from.

SMTP Host - This is the server name of your SMTP server, to get this information you may need to contact your e-mail provider. The value usually takes the value similar to smtp.example.com.

SMTP Port - This is the port the server uses to send the email through, again this information can be obtained from your e-mail provider, but usually will be 25.

SMTP Username - This is your username for your e-mail address.

SMTP Password - This is your password used to access your e-mail.

SMTP Secure Connection - This will determine whether your SMTP server uses SSL to send E-mail.  This information can be obtained from your e-mail provider.

Once this information has been entered, click the grey 'Test Settings' button, which will send you a quick e-mail using these setting to determine whether everything is set up correctly. Once you have received the e-mail then you may turn the 'Active' toggle ON and click 'Save'.

Upon clicking save you will need to select the 'Email Template' option in the menu on the left hand side under Email configuration.

This leads you to the overview page where you will see all of your specified e-mail templates. To create a new template simply click on the green New 'Email Template' button in the top right hand corner.

This again will ask you to select a company identity, select the company identity for which you previously set up the e-mail account information for and click 'Next'. You will then be prompted to select the e-mail template type. The current options are:

New Order - Used to create a template used for new orders only.

Dispatch Order - Used to create a template for despatched orders.

Return Order - Used to create a template for returned orders.

Drop Shipment - Used to create a template for use with drop shipping.

Purchase Orders - Used to create a template for use with purchase orders.

Select either the 'Drop Shipment' or 'Purchase Order' option (which ever you are looking to send direct to your supplier). This will then load the template details page. The layout of this page is intended to be similar to other HTML features within the system.

In the top section you have the basic settings e.g. the type, the company identity the template it associated with and a toggle option labelled 'Preview E-mail Before Sending'. This option essentially sets whether you would like to see any e-mail before it is sent over to the supplier.  It is recommended to turn this option ON when creating a new template as it allows you to identify any issues before the information is sent over to the supplier.

Using the 'E-mail content' section, you can specify the e-mail subject and if needed a Bcc e-mail address.

The next section is the 'HTML E-Mail Body Editor', where you are able to specify the layout of your e-mail body. The process of doing so is very similar to using a text editor, where you can click into the box and type.

You are also able to design the body using HTML. To do so, you will need to click the HTML tab just below the designer where you can design your template.

Underneath the body editor, there is a section called 'Attachment Details', this is where you will specify which attachments you would like to send over with this template. The options available depend on the type of template you are creating.

To add a new attachment select the attachment type from the drop down list and then click the 'Add Attachment' button. Once the button is clicked the attachment will appear in the current attachments section.

Once this has been set, the last step with the template is to test. To do so scroll to the bottom of the page to the 'Send Test E-mail' section. Enter the e-mail address you wish the test to be sent to and then click 'Send Test'. This will then send you a test e-mail with any attachments you have added.

Once the e-mail has been received and everything looks ok with the template, you can click the 'Save' button at the bottom of the page.

There is one final step, which is optional, to setting up purchase order or drop shipment e-mails. This is to give your suppliers an e-mail address, where we can send the information.

This can be done by clicking on the 'Suppliers' option underneath the main Products menu, then clicking the 'Edit / View Supplier' link next to the supplier you wish to add an e-mail for.

Then in the Supplier Information section, underneath Postcode / Zip code, there will be a box labelled 'Supplier E-mail Address'.  Enter the address into this box and then click 'Save'.

You have now set up the system to allow you to e-mail your purchase orders or drop shipments to your supplier.

The process for sending the e-mail is a lot quicker, all you need to do is locate the purchase order / drop shipment you wish to send and then click 'Send To Supplier'.

This is where a preview window will appear if you selected the preview e-mail before sending option against the template. In this preview window you can check the e-mail information, and amend if necessary. Once the information is checked then click the blue send button which will proceed to send the e-mail direct to the specified e-mail address along with any attachments.

If you didn't select the preview option against the template the e-mail will send automatically to the e-mail address set against the supplier.

The purchase order / drop shipment will then be marked as sent to supplier, ready for you to process further at a later date.