Onboading for WooCommerce Retailers

Setting Up Mothership as a Retailer and Connecting to WooCommerce

This guide walks you through creating a Mothership retailer account and connecting it to your WooCommerce store to enable drop shipping automation.

Overview

As a retailer, you'll use Mothership to sell products from suppliers who handle inventory and fulfillment. This setup allows you to offer products in your WooCommerce store without managing physical inventory.

Step 1: Create Your Mothership Account


  1. Go to portal.mothership.fm
  2. Click the Sign up button at the bottom of the page
  3. Fill out your email address
  4. Complete the registration form
  5. Check the box to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
  6. Click Register

Step 2: Complete Account Setup


Sales Tax Information

  1. Review the sales tax notice carefully
    • Mothership does not collect sales tax on orders
    • You are responsible for collecting sales tax from customers (typically handled by WooCommerce)
    • Contact your accountant if you have questions about tax liabilities
  2. Check the acknowledgment box after reading
  3. Click Continue

Enter Your Address

  1. Fill out your complete business address
  2. Click Continue

Configure Email Notifications

Set up three types of email notifications:

  • Partner Support Recipients: Where suppliers can contact you for support
  • Sales Report Recipients: Who receives sales reports at the end of each reporting period
  • Exception Notifications: Who gets notified when something goes wrong

Tip: You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas in each field.

Click Continue when finished.


Create Your Workspace

  1. Select Retailer as your account type (you own the customer relationship and sell supplier products)
  2. Name your workspace
  3. Select your operating currency
  4. Click Save

Step 3: Connect to WooCommerce


  1. Click Connect next to WooCommerce

    Enter your WooCommerce store URL

    • Use the full URL format: https://yourstore.com   
  2. Select your shipping and fulfillment plugin (choose "Basic" if unsure)
  3. Click Connect

When redirected to WooCommerce, click Approve to grant Mothership access

You'll be returned to Mothership automatically

Step 4: Connect to Your Supplier

You have two options:

Option A: You Received an Invite Email

  1. Find the invite email from your supplier
  2. Copy the complete invite key from the email
  3. Select "Enter an invite code you received from your supplier"
  4. Paste the invite code
  5. Click Next

Option B: Invite a New Supplier

  1. Select "Send an email inviting your partner to connect with you to Mothership"
  2. Follow the prompts to send an invitation

Note: If you didn't receive an invite email, check your spam folder or ask your supplier to resend it.

Step 5: Review Supplier Configuration


  1. Click Suppliers in the left menu
  2. Click on your supplier to view partnership details

Key information to review:

  • Margin: The discount percentage off retail price (e.g., 33% margin means you pay 67% of retail price)
  • Payment settings: You may need to enter a credit card for advance payments
  • Product export settings: How prices are set when products are added to your store
  • Contact information: Email address for coordinating returns, refunds, etc.

Step 6: Import Products


  1. Click Products in the left menu

Choose to import individual products or all products

  • To import a single product:
    • Click on the product you want

    • Click Add to my store in the top right

    • Wait for the import process to complete (usually under a minute)

Verify Product Import in WooCommerce

  1. Go to your WooCommerce admin
  2. Click Products > All Products
  3. Confirm the product appears with "mothership" and "mothership connected" tags

Step 7: Merchandise Your Products


You can customize imported products in WooCommerce:

✅ Change product title and description

✅ Add or remove images

✅ Modify marketing content

❌ Do not add or remove product variants (must match supplier's variant structure)

Step 8: Process Orders


Order Workflow

  1. Customer places order in your WooCommerce store

  • Important: Change order status to "Processing" in WooCommerce admin
    • Go to Orders in WooCommerce admin
    • Click on the order
    • Change status to "Processing"

  1. Mothership automatically pulls the order (within about 1 minute)
  2. Order is forwarded to supplier for fulfillment

Track Orders in Mothership


Click Orders in the Mothership left menu to view all orders and their status

When you see a "Supplier Order Number," it means the supplier has received and is processing the order


Fulfillment Workflow


  1. The supplier will receive and fulfill the order

  1. The order will update in Mothership

  1. The order will update in the retailer's WooCommerce store

Important Notes


  • Product synchronization happens automatically every minute to update inventory and pricing
  • Manual sync is available using the "Sync" button if needed

  • Payment methods should be configured in WooCommerce to accept customer payments
  • Order status must be changed to "Processing" for Mothership to process the order

Your Mothership to WooCommerce integration is now complete and ready to process drop shipping orders!

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