Ship to Store

About Ship to Store

Using local retailers as ship-to-store pickup sites, service points, or in-store returns is becoming a key need for every brand. Locally makes this easy by leveraging your existing, managed dealer network. We enable any dealer to accept shipments for prepaid customers. The process is seamless, shipping fees are minimal as compared to residential shipments, and is supportive of your wholesale channel.

Implementing Ship to Store

Choose an order fulfillment method

With Locally's Ship to Store, you can manage your Ship to Store orders manually through the Locally dashboard or you can integrate via API with our Cart API to receive and update orders programmatically. 

Option 1: Locally Dashboard Method

With this method, you are alerted of new orders by email. Any Locally admin for your company that has the user role "Ship to Store Contact" will receive email updates about new and existing orders. Orders are also visible in the Order History screen of your Locally Dashboard.

The email prompts you to head into your Locally dashboard and update the order by using options on the Locally order screen. You'll accept and process the order, and then mark it as shipped once you've sent it off. Each order update is communicated to the shopper so they can keep track.  

Option 2: Locally Cart API Method

Use our Cart API to receive new order alerts and update orders programmatically. You'll need to provide a Webhook URL endpoint where Locally can post order updates, as well as access to the Locally Cart API. For API documentation, please head to https://api.locally.com/reference/ship-to-store-integration. 

Setup an Available to Sell Feed

Your Available to Sell (ATS) feed is an inventory feed from your warehouse that informs Locally what products are available for Ship to Store. You will need to provide a single CSV document indicating which of your company’s UPCs are available to sell. You can post this file at an online URL (https) or transmit it over SFTP. 

This file has a very simple format, containing up to 5 fields: UPC, Quantity, Percent Revenue Retained, Shipping Cost and Country (in that order). Locally will scan this feed at least once per hour. 

• The `UPC` and `Quantity` field are self-explanatory. 
• `Percent Retained` is the percent of total revenue from the customer that your company will retain when a purchase of this UPC is made. You can set a default percentage in your STS configuration to handle cases where there is no percent defined in the ATS feed. To use the default, in the feed enter -1
• `Shipping Cost` is any amount you would like to charge the customer for having the item shipped to the store. By default the shipping fee is $0
• `Country` is only required for multi-country integrations where Locally needs to understand which country a given UPC is available for

Feed format sample:
upc, qty, percent revenue retained, shipping cost, country
727602259178, 10, 70, 0, US
727602259179, 20, 70, 25, US
727602259190, 50, 65, 0, US

Alternatively, instead of defining the percent revenue retained on each order, you can define a 'monetary split' which is the amount of revenue the retailer should retain on each order (ex: "on this product, the retailer gets $500"). To use the Monetary split feature, add a column titled `split_flat` which contains the amount the retailer should receive for a sale of that product. 

Feed format sample:
upc, qty, split_flat, shipping cost, country
727602259178, 10, 500, 0, US
727602259179, 20, 350, 25, US
727602259190, 50, 500, 0, US

It is your responsibility to keep this feed updated. If the feed is not available for Locally to scan, we will temporarily disable Ship to Store functionality for your brand. We will continue to scan for the feed and will re-enable functionality when the feed has been restored.

Enable your dealers for Ship to Store fulfillment

Any of your retailers can participate in Ship to Store transactions. However, each retailer must have a registered Locally account with “Buy it Locally” enabled. Each retailer must also approve your request for STS participation. 

To get started with retailer activation, navigate to https://www.locally.com/station/panel/brand_store_relationships, and where it says "Request new auth for," select the store, ensure "Ship to Store Support" is selected on the right, and click to submit the request. You can include an optional message.

Additional Details

Manage payouts

Locally remits proceeds monthly via check or Stripe payout. To receive payments, make sure your company and mailing address information is up to date in https://www.locally.com/station/panel/billing_accounts/index and that Locally has a W9 on file for your company.  

Manage returns and refunds

If a shopper requests a refund before the order has shipped to the store, the brand is responsible for issuing the refund. The shopper is refunded the full amount, and the order is canceled. No payouts are issued to either the brand or the retailer. 

If a shopper requests a refund after the order has shipped to the store, by default the retailer is responsible for issuing the refund and then taking the product into their own inventory to resell. Payouts in this case are handled as follows:

• The brand will retain their payout
• If the retailer was already paid out on the order, that payout will be reversed
• The retailer will be charged by Locally for the brand's payout amount. The retailer is effectively paying the wholesale amount for the product, so they can take it into inventory and resell.

If your brand offers it, you can arrange a return with the retailer so they do not have to be charged for the product. In these special circumstances, you will notify Locally who will update the retailer's statement to ensure they are not overcharged.