Epicor Kinetic and ShipStation integration

What moves between them

Orders flow from ShipStation into Epicor Kinetic. ml-connector polls ShipStation for new and updated orders using V1 order filtering, maps each order's customer username and products to matching Epicor customers and parts, and inserts a corresponding record into Epicor (either a backlog entry or a staged order, depending on your configuration). Shipment updates and tracking numbers from ShipStation are polled and synchronized back so the fulfillment status is visible in Epicor. Master data such as Epicor parts and customers are mapped during order ingestion so orders land on valid inventory and customer accounts. Because Epicor is poll-only, changes are detected on a cadence you control rather than on a real-time push; ShipStation's webhooks are monitored to detect shipment events but the actual order details are fetched via polling to ensure completeness.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores ShipStation API credentials and authenticates to both systems on each sync cycle. ShipStation auth uses the header-based API Key on V1 endpoints for order listing and retrieval, and respects the 40 request-per-minute rate limit by backing off when approaching the limit. Epicor auth switches between Basic Auth and Bearer tokens depending on your deployment (cloud SaaS supports OAuth2, on-premises typically uses Token Resource Service with short-lived tokens), and ml-connector refreshes the token before expiry. Orders from ShipStation are mapped to Epicor customers by exact username match or by a configurable customer master record identifier; products are mapped to Epicor parts by SKU or part number. ShipStation's all-datetime fields are in Pacific time but Epicor expects UTC, so ml-connector converts timestamps on ingestion. If a ShipStation order update arrives while Epicor's async write is in flight, ml-connector deduplicates by order key and replays the update in the next cycle. Every synced order carries a full audit trail linking back to its ShipStation source, so reconciliation and troubleshooting are straightforward.

A real-world example

A mid-sized e-commerce distributor sells the same product mix across Shopify, Amazon, and their own web store. Orders land in ShipStation, which aggregates all three channels and manages fulfillment and tracking. The operations team works in Epicor Kinetic to manage inventory, schedule production, and track shipments. Before the integration, the order management team manually entered each order from ShipStation into Epicor, a process that took 15 to 20 minutes per order and introduced re-keying errors. With ShipStation connected to Epicor via ml-connector, new orders appear in Epicor within minutes of ShipStation ingestion, matched to the correct inventory and customer records. When items ship from ShipStation, the shipment status and tracking number sync back to Epicor, so the full order-to-cash cycle is visible in one place. The operations team no longer re-enters orders or chases down shipment status in two systems.

What you can do

• •Automatically pull orders from ShipStation into Epicor Kinetic, mapped to your customers and parts.
• •Keep order status, shipment tracking, and fulfillment visibility synchronized between systems.
• •Handle the different authentication schemes, date formats, and rate limits on each side transparently.
• •Map ShipStation products to Epicor parts and customers to valid master records before orders are committed.
• •Maintain a complete audit trail on every synced order for compliance and troubleshooting.

Questions

Which direction does data move between ShipStation and Epicor Kinetic?

Orders and fulfillment data move primarily from ShipStation into Epicor Kinetic. Customers and parts are used for mapping, not created by the integration. Shipment confirmations, tracking numbers, and status updates flow from ShipStation back to Epicor so the order-to-cash cycle is complete. Epicor is the system of record for inventory and operational decisions.

How does ml-connector handle ShipStation's Pacific timezone and Epicor's UTC?

ShipStation's V1 API returns all datetime fields in Pacific time (PST/PDT). ml-connector detects the incoming timezone from the ShipStation payload context, converts all timestamps to UTC, and submits them to Epicor in the correct format. This ensures that order creation dates, shipment times, and sync audits are consistent across systems.

What happens if an order is updated in ShipStation while ml-connector is syncing it into Epicor?

ml-connector deduplicates by ShipStation's orderKey field. If the same order arrives twice within a short window, the second sync is treated as an update to the existing Epicor record rather than a duplicate insert. The full audit trail shows both the initial sync and any updates, so you can trace the order's complete history.