Set up ASM on Shopify

In this tutorial you install Advanced Shipping Manager (ASM) on your Shopify store, add your first shipping rule, switch ASM on, and see ASM's rates at your own checkout. Follow the steps in order. You don't need to know anything about ASM yet.

Beginner · Step-by-step tutorial

Before you start

• Live rates need Carrier Calculated Shipping. This is a Shopify feature, and whether you have it depends on your Shopify plan. If you're not sure, carry on. ASM tells you on its Dashboard if it's missing, and Shopify: turn on Carrier Calculated Shipping explains what to do.
• Your products need SKUs in Shopify. ASM matches products by SKU, including each variant's SKU.

Step 1: Install the app

1. Find Advanced Shipping Manager in the Shopify App Store and install it.
2. Shopify shows a permission screen. ASM asks for access to your shipping settings, products, inventory, orders, locations and fulfillments. It needs these to read your products and return rates at checkout. Approve it.

Step 2: Approve the subscription

Shopify then asks you to approve the charge for Advanced Shipping Manager Connector for Shopify. The screen shows the price and your 7-day free trial. Approve it.

You pay for ASM on your Shopify bill, not to ASM directly. See Billing for Shopify stores.

Step 3: Land in ASM

After you approve, ASM:

• creates your ASM account,
• connects itself to your checkout as a carrier service called Advanced Shipping Manager Connector for Shopify,
• starts importing your products, and
• signs you straight into the ASM admin.

You also get an email titled Thank you for implementing Advanced Shipping Manager. It holds your username (your store ID, the part before .myshopify.com) and a password. Keep it. You only need them to sign in outside Shopify. See Sign in to ASM.

Step 4: Check that your products arrived

You start on the Dashboard. At the top is a card called Finish setting up. It lists what's left to do and ticks each step off by itself.

The first step, Your products are in ASM, ticks once your products have synced. It shows how many arrived, for example "250 products synced from your store." A large catalog can take a little while. You can carry on in the meantime.

To learn how products stay in step with Shopify, see How products get into ASM.

Step 5: Add your first shipping rule

A shipping rule is one shipping method shoppers can pick at checkout, such as "UPS Ground" or "Free Shipping", with the price ASM charges for it.

1. In the Finish setting up card, select Add a rule →.
2. Follow Add a shipping method to create it.

The Add a shipping rule step ticks once you have one rule. If your rule uses a carrier's live rates, connect that carrier first. See Connect a carrier account.

Step 6: Test your rule in the Shipping Estimator

The Shipping Estimator lets you quote a cart without placing an order.

1. Go to Shipping Estimator.
2. Enter a ZIP code, type a product's SKU in Product SKU, and select Calculate rates.
3. Your method appears under Your rates with its price.

If nothing shows, see Test your rates with the Shipping Estimator.

Step 7: Turn ASM on

New stores start with ASM off, so you can set up without changing your live checkout.

1. In the Finish setting up card, select Open settings →. This opens Settings → Shipping.
2. Under Global shipping settings, switch on Enable Advanced Shipping Manager in your store.
3. Select Save Settings. The badge next to the switch changes to Live.

Step 8: See your rates at checkout

1. Open your store in a new browser tab.
2. Add a product to the cart and go to checkout.
3. Enter a shipping address.

The shipping options you see now come from ASM. Once the first live quote reaches ASM, the last Dashboard step, Get your first live rate at Shopify checkout, ticks itself. When every step is done, the Finish setting up card goes away.

You're live. Next, work through Finish setting up: your first-day checklist.

Opening ASM later

Open ASM from your Shopify admin, under Apps. ASM signs you in automatically.

Inside the Shopify admin, ASM's own left-hand menu is hidden, because Shopify shows its own navigation. The page names in this help center (Settings, Shipping Rules, Shipping Estimator and so on) are the same.