uAfrica Multichannel

Smart Shipping with integrated product management

Orders are automatically synchronised from your Shopify store making it easy to generate your electronic shipping labels / waybills with one click. Receive quotes from multiple couriers (no courier account needed), select the courier you wish to use, print the shipping label and request collection from the courier all from one easy to use interface. Your buyers will then receive automatic updates by email on the status of their orders with online tracking within your own store.

Easily connect your main Shopify store with other Shopify stores and online marketplaces

uAfrica.com’s Multichannel keeps your products and orders in sync using real-time monitoring, making sure you never have to manually update inventory levels in multiple places again.

More granular control over the shipping rates you charge your buyers (shipping zones)

uAfrica Multichannel now also supports custom shipping zones. Custom Shipping Zones makes use of Shopify's real time carrier api allowing for shipping rates to be set at the time the buyer checks out based on the postal / zip code of the order's shipping address. Rates for different postal / zip codes can be set up based on the order weight and/or price.

Standard Shopify shipping functionality generally allows shipping rates to be set down to a province or state level however, depending on the carrier being used, shipping rates can vary significantly within the same province / state. With Custom Shipping Zones, shipping rates can be set at a postal / zip code level thereby providing a more granular level of control on what shipping rates are charged to your buyers.

The app has preconfigured custom zones set up for specific countries based on how common carriers / couriers charge for shipments. If definitions for your country do not exist, contact us and we will gladly set them up for you (or you can create your own custom zone definitions by uploading a spreadsheet).

Shopify's real time carrier rates functionality is required for shipping zones to work (all other app functionality will work on any Shopify plan).

How does it help me?

Inventory - Any changes made to your inventory on your source Shopify store will automatically get synced to your other sales channels with the option to transform pricing by setting up relevant rules.

Orders & stock levels - When you receive an order on Shopify, stock levels are automatically updated on other sales channels. Should the order originate from a sales channel, an order is also created on your source Shopify store with stock levels being adjusted accordingly.

Can I exclude certain product variants?

Yes. If you are using other 3rd party apps that create "hidden" variants that you do not want on a particular sales channel, you can create a rule to exclude these (or any other variants you would like to include or exclude for whatever reason).

What about channels in other currencies?

You can create a rule to transform the currency and price of products using basic mathematical formulae. For example, if you have a USD store and a EUR store, you can apply a formula to convert all your pricing from your source store to the appropriate values for your channel store and set the correct channel currency.

Can collections be synced?

Yes. When installing your source store you are given the option to sync collections (only to other Shopify channel stores). It is not required but where possible we encourage the use of smart collections on your source store (smart collections are where you set conditions within Shopify to automatically assign products to those collections). Any collections created on your source store will be automatically synced to your channel Shopify store(s). It is recommended that all products / collections on the channel store be deleted before importing your products / collections from your source store to your channel store.

For online marketplaces such as bidorbuy, you can set up rules to map products from your source Shopify store to bidorbuy categories.

How is stock kept up to date?

Our app never directly adjusts the stock on your source store. Our app will however create orders from your channels on your source store and if your Shopify source store is so configured, your underlying stock will be updated as a result of the order that was created (with the new stock levels being synced to all other channels).

Can this app be used to create a wholesale store?

Yes. Multichannel can be used to create a wholesale store (requires an additional Shopify store subscription). Many existing Shopify apps that provide wholesale functionality create multiple hidden variants, which can have undesirable consequences. With uAfrica Multichannel, your products and collections get automatically synced from your retail store to your wholesale store (or your can choose to have it vice versa i.e. have your wholesale store as your source). Multiple rules can be set up to adjust the price on your wholesale store. Standard Shopify functionality can then be used to manage access to your wholesale store e.g. requiring accounts. All your orders from your wholesale store will be synced to your retail store (if set up as your source) automatically keeping all your stock in sync across both wholesale and retail stores.

Can I customise my product descriptions on a per channel basis?

Yes. There is the ability to create custom templates and set a rule to selectively apply templates based on rule conditions that you set.

How are multi currency orders handled on my source Shopify store?

If your source store and all your channels are the same currency then this question is not applicable to you. If your source store and channels have different currencies, orders get created on your source store in the same currency that they were placed. So if your source store is in USD and you have a channel store in EUR, when an order gets placed on your EUR store, that order gets written back to your source USD store in EUR. Note that while these orders are stored in Shopify in their underlying currency (EUR in this case), the front end of the Shopify admin does not currently display the correct currency (we assume this is something that will be improved by Shopify in due course but should not prevent you from using this app). If you export your orders to a csv / Excel file, this export contains the correct currencies.

uAfrica Shipping

uAfrica Shipping enables automated tracking for shipments with over 350 couriers around the world. Simply select the carrier and enter the tracking number and your buyer will receive automatic notifications whenever the shipping status changes (the status of orders on Shopify are also automatically updated).

For South African users, you can also receive quotes from multiple couriers (currently Dawn Wing and Courierit), create waybills, request collections and track shipments while automatically notifying your customers of any shipping status changes by email. Learn more about uAfrica Shipping.

Why do I need this?

Our team has years of experience in eCommerce, and no one knows your pain of having to keep multiple sales channels in sync better that we do. You’re busy, we know. Let us help by saving you time, allowing you to focus on what’s important, more sales!