How do I connect my 4PX (Cainiao) account and send orders to it?

Before you start

• You need the Starter plan or higher (trials included). On Free, Connect Supplier shows a lock and is disabled.
• Your 4PX account must be registered on 4PX's US platform. An account on 4PX's China platform cannot be connected yet.
• Ask 4PX to turn on FB4, their overseas warehouse fulfilment service, for your account. Without it, 4PX refuse to share your stock, and the stock line on your 4PX card shows their reason, "FB4 business is not open." According to 4PX, they refuse orders from such an account too.
• You can connect one 4PX account.

Steps

Connect your 4PX account

1. 1Click Settings at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. 2Click Suppliers under Business.
3. 3In the Supplier Accounts card, click Connect Supplier.
4. 4The Connect Supplier dialog opens ("Select a supplier platform to connect"). Click the 4PX (Cainiao) tile ("Connect your 4PX account to fulfil orders from your overseas warehouse stock").
5. 5Click Connect. It reads Connecting... while it sends you to 4PX.
6. 6Sign in to 4PX and authorize DS-Mate.
7. 7Back on DS-Mate you see "Connecting your 4PX account", then the toast "Successfully connected your 4PX supplier account", and you are back on Settings > Suppliers.
8. 8Your account appears under Your Connected Accounts as 4PX (Cainiao) US, with a Refresh stock button and a line that says where your stock stands.

You can also start from Trending Products: pick 4PX (Cainiao) under Supplier before you connect, and the page shows "Connect your 4PX account" with a Connect 4PX account button. It opens the same dialog with 4PX already chosen.

Find your stock

1. 1Right after you connect, DS-Mate copies your stock from 4PX. The line under your 4PX card reads "Syncing your stock now. This takes a few minutes." and then "<number> products synced on <date>."
2. 2Click Trending Products in the sidebar.
3. 3Under Supplier, pick 4PX (Cainiao). The page now shows only your own stock, and Ship from lists your own 4PX warehouses.
4. 4Click Add to Store on a card to import it, or View details to open its page inside DS-Mate.

Link your products to your 4PX stock

1. 1Import the product from Trending Products, or link an existing variant to it as you would to any supplier product.
2. 2Enter Your cost ("What one unit cost you. Your pricing and profit are worked out from it."). 4PX do not price your own goods, so this is the only cost the link carries.
3. 3Choose the shipping service. Only 4PX delivery services from warehouses that hold sellable stock of the item are offered. The service is saved on the link, and every order for that variant ships with it, from that service's warehouse.
4. 4Save the link.

How an order reaches 4PX

1. 1When the buyer has paid and the protection window ends, an order whose items are all linked to your 4PX stock is sent to your 4PX account on its own. The store's Auto-pay with credits switch does not change this, because DS-Mate pays nothing for the order.
2. 2The order's tracker reads "Sent to your 4PX (Cainiao) account". 4PX pick, pack and ship it from your warehouse.
3. 3When 4PX report a tracking number, DS-Mate sends it to your store. See Track a shipment.

To send an order yourself, open it while it waits: its page shows the card Send to 4PX (Cainiao) ("This order ships from your own 4PX (Cainiao) warehouse, and 4PX (Cainiao) bill your 4PX (Cainiao) account. Ds-Mate does not bill it."), and its row in Orders has the same button. Click it. It reads Sending..., and the toast "Sent to 4PX (Cainiao)" confirms it.

When an order does not reach 4PX

When 4PX do not hold enough sellable stock for the order, it shows the card Product is out of stock at the supplier. That card is the same for every supplier and suggests relinking; for your own stock, restock the item in 4PX, then click Retry.

For the other reasons, the order's page shows a sentence that names what to fix:

• "This item's 4PX link has no shipping service. Relink it and choose a service."
• "These items ship from different 4PX warehouses or services, which can't go out as one parcel yet. Relink them to the same warehouse and service."
• "This order has items from more than one supplier, which we can't fulfil as a single order yet. Fulfil each supplier's items separately."
• "Your 4PX account is not connected, so this order was not sent. Connect it on the Suppliers page and the order is sent again automatically." If the connection cannot be used, the sentence asks you to reconnect it instead.
• "4PX refused this order: the 4PX shipping service on this item's link does not deliver to the buyer's postal code. Check the shipping address, or relink the item with another 4PX service, then retry."
• "4PX refused this order (4PX code <code>). Check the shipping address, the item's 4PX link and your 4PX account balance, then retry." The part in brackets shows only when 4PX send a code. According to 4PX, this is how they refuse an order from a prepaid account with no balance, or from an account without FB4.

After you fix the cause, click Retry on the order. When you connect or reconnect your 4PX account, the orders refused for the connection are sent again on their own. While an order waits at Ready to Fulfill, you can also click Send to 4PX (Cainiao).

When 4PX hold or cancel a sent order

• Top up your 4PX (Cainiao) account: "Your 4PX (Cainiao) balance is too low to ship this order. Top it up in 4PX (Cainiao), and the order goes out once it is paid."
• On hold at 4PX (Cainiao): "4PX (Cainiao) stopped this order before it shipped. Check it in your 4PX (Cainiao) account." Only 4PX explain this hold, in your 4PX account.
• Either notice goes away once 4PX move the order again. DS-Mate has no button to release a hold.
• If the consignment is cancelled at 4PX, the order reads Cancelled by 4PX (Cainiao) and can be sent again.
• DS-Mate does not cancel an order at 4PX for you. If your buyer cancels after the order was sent, cancel it in your 4PX account. An order the buyer cancels during the protection window is never sent.

Good to know

• DS-Mate never charges you for the goods or the shipping of a 4PX order. 4PX bill your 4PX account directly. According to 4PX, that covers each order they ship and the storage of your stock in their warehouses.
• The shipping prices shown when you link are an estimate of 4PX's delivery charge only. According to 4PX, they charge shipping by the box they pack the order in and add warehouse fees such as packing and outbound handling, which the estimate does not include. Once 4PX bill the order, the order's cost in DS-Mate is updated to what 4PX charged.
• A 4PX order still counts toward your plan's monthly order allowance, like any order on your own supplier account. Past the allowance, your plan's per order rate for your own supplier account is taken from your service credits, and while your balance does not cover it, the order is not sent. See Understanding DS-Mate plans.
• Each 4PX SKU is one product with one variant. Only units in good condition count as in stock; damaged and returned units are kept apart.
• Refresh stock on your 4PX card copies your stock again, for example after new stock arrives at 4PX. It reads Refreshing... while it runs, and the toast "Syncing your 4PX stock. This takes a few minutes." confirms it.
• The copy in DS-Mate can be out of date, so DS-Mate reads your stock live from 4PX when you import, link and send an order. With nothing sellable left, an import is refused with "You have no sellable stock of this item in your 4PX warehouses right now. Restock it in 4PX, then try again.", and a link with "You have no sellable stock of this item in the 4PX warehouse that ships the service you chose. Choose a service from a warehouse that holds it, or restock it in 4PX, then link it."
• If a stock sync fails, the line under your 4PX card reads "Last sync failed on <date>:" followed by 4PX's reason. Click Refresh stock to try again, or take the reason to 4PX.
• When you import with Auto-link variants to supplier on, DS-Mate picks a shipping service for each link, following your Shipping origin choice. You can change it on the link afterwards.
• With a 4PX account connected, the 4PX (Cainiao) tile in Connect Supplier is greyed out and reads "Already connected. Disconnect it first to connect a different account."
• You do not pick 4PX per store with Assign Supplier. Orders for products linked to 4PX go to your 4PX account, whatever supplier the store has.
• 4PX is searched on Trending Products only. Find Products does not list it.

On the Shopify app

The Shopify app has no screen for connecting supplier accounts or refreshing your 4PX stock. Use the web dashboard. A 4PX order's page in the Shopify app shows the same Send to 4PX (Cainiao) card and the same hold notices.