Shipstation: New customer classification (wholesale vs retail)
Each ShipStation store can now be set to default new customers to either Retail or Wholesale. Here's how the setting works and what it does — and doesn't — affect.
Overview:
What Changed
You can now choose, per Shipstation store, whether newly created customers default to Retail or Wholesale. The store settings screen has been reorganized, and the Retail/Wholesale selector now appears as its own column on the left side.
How to Set the Default for a Store
Each row in your Shipstation store settings represents one store, so you can set this independently for each one.
- Go to your Shipstation store settings.
- Find the store you want to update and select Retail or Wholesale in the new column.
- Click Update Settings.
How the Default Works
- Stores you already had connected keep defaulting new customers to Wholesale, since that's how they've worked for the last eight months — nothing changes unless you update the setting yourself.
- Any store you connect from now on defaults new customers to Retail, since that was the original intent.
- You can change either default at any time.
What This Doesn't Change
This setting only affects newly created, unmatched customers. It has no effect on customers who already exist in RoasterTools or on customers Shipstation successfully matches to an existing record — those keep their current classification.
Caution: Changing a store's default from Wholesale to Retail (or the reverse) doesn't retroactively touch existing customers. No new customer is created, and no existing customer's classification changes — even when that customer places a new order and it's imported. Classification only changes if someone opens the customer record and updates it manually.
Tips & FAQs
Q: We changed our store's default from Wholesale to Retail. What happens to customers who were already classified as Wholesale?
A: Nothing. Their classification stays Wholesale until someone manually updates the customer record.
Q: One of our existing Wholesale customers just placed a new order under our new Retail-default store. Will importing that order change their classification?
A: No. Order imports never change an existing customer's classification — that's intentional, so an external action like an import can't silently flip a customer's setting.
Q: So does this change apply to new customers only?
A: Yes. It only applies to customers created for the first time through Shipstation after the change — not to any existing or matched customer.