Case file
A 1949 menswear wholesaler's dropship morning
Five retail channels, one dropship warehouse, ApparelMagic, ShipStation and DSCO. Live since May 2026.
The day, as it runs
- 6:48
Pick-up-in-store orders get worked
Each order is checked for stock and for resends, then taken from approve to invoice in ApparelMagic. Every step is verified on the record before the next one starts.
- 6:58
The morning run
Every awaiting-shipment order in ShipStation is matched to its retailer. Each line is checked against the dropship warehouse. Orders with enough stock get a label, the retailer's packing slip and the ApparelMagic pick ticket. The warehouse gets one email with a bundle PDF, the pick tickets, a line-item sheet and a bulk pull sorted by location.
- 6:58
Short stock is held, not shipped
An order that would drain the warehouse goes on hold in ShipStation. The warehouse gets a confirm-stock link, ticks what they can pull, and a confirmed order ships on the next run. An unanswered hold keeps reminding until someone answers it.
- 3:15
The afternoon batch
Monday to Thursday, if ten or more orders are waiting, a second run labels them for the next day's pickup.
- Any
Cancels
A short line is cancelled with the retailer through DSCO first. ShipStation follows. ApparelMagic cannot void an invoice through its API, so those steps are listed with direct links for a person to finish. Each step is reported done, failed, or "by hand."
What made it safe to turn on
Dry run first
In dry-run mode no label is bought and every email goes to one test address. A new warehouse runs this way beside its current process before anything goes live.
One way to spend money
Exactly one function buys labels, behind one switch. Every other write to ShipStation is limited to a short, named list.
Verified, not assumed
Every write is re-read and compared. Nothing that did not take is reported as done. A job stuck halfway stops and says so rather than guessing how to undo itself.
Results
Before, someone spent two to three hours every morning buying labels, printing slips and pulling pick tickets. Now the run is done before the day starts, and people handle only the exceptions it raises.
The record held while the hours came back: no late shipments and no dropship deductions, before or since. The automation did not rescue a broken process. It took a careful one and gave the time back.