When Shipstore v4 launched, it was a huge improvement on the previous version. Gone were the days of heavily static process that required developers to make any changes, replaced with dozens of options within the system to configure your environment to your liking; everything from business rules and templates to LTL and consolidated shipments. Since launch, we've continued adding more functionality for users, including tracking and reports, to the point we noticed performance issues in the system for customers using the majority of the functionality we offer at the same time.

After 7+ years of upgrades and enhancements in the current version, we felt it was time to clean up the functionality to be more user friendly and allow more access to the features that has been there for some time. To address this, we completely rebuilt the UI on newer, more scalable frameworks meant for more complex apps like Shipstore, and revamped the data handling of the system to be able to handle larger amounts of info at a time. This revamp has allowed the system to handle more complex business logic and larger amounts of data at a time, as well as faster response times on every button click within the portal.

Sidebar and navigation - We've redesigned the overall layout to optimize the screen space for the system. With these changes, we moved all navigation related links to the sidebar, and have removed the top header bar. We've also enabled this sidebar to be more collapsible to save even more room for the main page.

Dashboard and Reports - To help add a little more control to your Shipstore environment, we have updated the Dashboard page to be customizable, allowing you to select up to 4 graphs to display on the dashboard at a time. We've also included these graphs in the reporting module of the system, and have enabled those graphs to have click-down logic, allowing you to expand the dataset to see what is in those graphs.

Orders - In an effort to provide a better process flow for shippers who are used to shipping through eCom platforms like Shopify, we've overhauled the Orders page to give users a lot more functionality than before. Now you can rate, route, and ship from the Orders page directly instead of having to go through the shipping tab. 

Shipping - We've revamped the shipping screen in the system to now have more data on the screen at a time, preventing extra clicks that were needed in the v4 system to look through detail like the billing addresses and international details. The page is now mobile friendly, so you can ship directly from a mobile device if needed. We're also implementing a step-by-step process for manual shipments so entering those will be a lot more streamlined than before. 

Tracking (NEW) - Shipstore now has a built in tracking page, so customers can now be directed to Shipstore to view their tracking information. We will also be enabling an optional Returns process after launch that will allow user to request returns from this tracking portal, and/or create a return label themselves.

Packing and Palletization -To simplify the packing process for customers using the LTL functionality, we have merged the Palletization process directly into the Packing screen, so users can fill out both box and pallet level detail from this screen if they wish. This should allow customers to separate out the packing step from shipping if their operation allows for it.

Batch Processing - We've performed a number of updates on the batch processing module within the system to improve both stability of processing data, as well as total volume for a batch. Customers will now be able to process batches in excess if 100k records if needed.

We have scheduled the cloud rollout starting in early 2024. Once the upgrade is complete, all users accessing https://my.shipstoresoftware.com will be directed to the new Shipstore portal.  Private cloud and enterprise customers will get a notice when their upgrade is ready so we can work through those rollouts in more detail.

At least 2 weeks prior to rolling out the v5 system, we will be rolling out an updated version of the Merchant app that can work with both v4 and v5 systems. We recommend all customers update to this app at their earliest convenience. When we get closer to release, we will advise how to update this Merchant app's configuration to point to the new system.