Ghost Search: Partner Results in Your Store Search

Overview

When a shopper searches your store and fewer than 4 of your own products match, Ghost Search adds a More from our partners section under the results. It is filled from supplier and affiliate accounts that you own and connect:

Dropship items are bought through your normal cart and checkout, and the payment goes to your own Stripe account like any other order. After payment, BestWebby places the supplier order through your own supplier account, follows it through to delivery, emails the shopper the tracking, and tells you at every step.

Money. BestWebby takes no fee on Ghost Search sales and does not handle supplier payments. Your supplier bills your supplier account directly, exactly as if you had ordered by hand. Your BestWebby wallet is not used.

Who can use it. Ghost Search is included from the Growth plan up. On Starter you can connect sources and save settings, but shoppers see no partner results until you change plan. Only the account owner can connect sources, change their settings and use Preview. Team members who can manage orders see supplier orders on the Orders tab and on each order.

Step 1: Open Ghost Search

Go to Channels → Ghost Search. The page has three tabs:

• Sources: one card per provider, with its connection, pricing and filters.
• Preview: search as a shopper would and hide anything you would rather not sell.
• Orders: every order line a supplier ships for you, and where it is.

Each card shows a status: Not connected, Authorise to finish (AliExpress only), Connected · not tested, Connected or Credentials failing.

Credentials are typed once. After you save them, the page shows only a short hint of what is stored, never the full key or secret. Use Replace credentials to change them or Disconnect to remove them.

Step 2: Connect a source

CJ Dropshipping

1. In your CJ account, go to Apps → API → Add API and copy the API key.
2. On the CJ Dropshipping card, paste it into CJ API key and click Save credentials.
3. Click Test connection.

CJ prices everything in US dollars and nothing is converted, so CJ items appear only on storefronts that charge in US dollars. CJ takes payment for your orders from your CJ balance, so keep it topped up.

AliExpress Drop Shipping

1. Create a Dropshipping app on the AliExpress Open Platform and copy its App key and App secret.
2. On the AliExpress card, enter both and click Save credentials.
3. The card now shows a callback address. Register that exact address in your app's settings on the AliExpress Open Platform.
4. Click Authorise with AliExpress and sign in with the AliExpress account that will pay for orders.
5. Back in BestWebby, a message confirms the result. Click Test connection.

If AliExpress sends you back with did not authorise the app, check the app key, the secret and the registered callback address, then start again from the card. An authorisation link that has expired has to be started again from the card too. You can use Authorise again at any time, for example after changing the paying account.

Only items that AliExpress prices in your store's currency are shown.

Amazon Associates

1. In Associates Central → Tools → Creators API, create a credential. Note its Credential ID, Credential secret and the version shown next to it.
2. On the Amazon card, enter the ID and secret and click Save credentials.
3. Under Amazon account, enter your Partner tag (for example yourname-20), choose the Marketplace your tag belongs to and the Credential version, then click Save settings.
4. Click Test connection.

Amazon grants Creators API access only to Associates accounts with recent qualifying sales, so a new Associates account may be refused until it has some. Amazon results are links only: nothing is added to your cart, sold or shipped by your store.

Step 3: Set your rules

Each card has its own settings. Click Save settings after changing them. They apply from the very next search, including results that were already cached.

Pricing and delivery (CJ and AliExpress)

• Your margin (%) and Shipping allowance: the shopper price is (supplier cost + allowance) × (1 + margin), rounded up to the next price ending in 9 (12.37 becomes 12.39). In currencies without cents it is rounded up to the next 10. The price is never below the supplier's cost.
• The allowance covers the supplier's shipping to the shopper. Your store's own shipping rates still apply at checkout as well.
• Delivery from / to (days): the estimate shoppers see on each item (for example "Ships from our partner in 7–14 days"). You are told if a supplier has not shipped by the last day of it.
• Ship-to country: a 2-letter code used for supplier prices and stock. Leave it empty to use your store's country.

What to show (all sources)

• Lowest price / Highest price: judged on the price the shopper would pay.
• Order among sources: 1 shows first when several sources are on.
• Searches per day: the most requests this source is sent each day (500 unless you change it). Only real requests count: a popular search is cached (3 hours for dropship, 1 hour for Amazon) and answered from the cache. When the limit is reached the source is skipped until the next day, cached results keep showing, and you are notified.
• Only these categories: comma-separated. Leave empty for all.
• Never show these brands or words: comma-separated. A shopper search containing one of them is not sent to this source at all, and any result with one in its title, brand or category is dropped.

Step 4: Preview and hide

Open Preview and search the way a shopper would, for example "dog bed". For each connected source you see what a shopper would be offered, what each item costs you and what you would charge (for Amazon, Amazon's price), with a View at source link. Sources that are off are marked not shown to shoppers yet, so you can check them before going live.

Click Hide on anything you would rather not sell. It disappears from your store search straight away, and the card shows how many results you have hidden. Show brings it back.

If a section says no results pass your settings, the message tells you when items were dropped because the supplier priced them in another currency.

Step 5: Turn it on

Click Turn on in store search on the card. The button is available once the source is connected and, for AliExpress, authorised. Turn off takes the source out of your store search at once.

Before you promote Ghost Search, place a test order for a partner item on your own store and follow it through to the supplier, so you know your supplier account, balance and payment method are ready.

What shoppers see

• Search results. On the first page of a search with fewer than 4 of your own matches, More from our partners appears under your products.
• Dropship items show your price in your store's currency, the delivery estimate and Add to cart, with the line "Sold by this store and shipped to you directly by our fulfilment partner." Partner items are not added to your product listings.
• Amazon items show Amazon's price and a Buy on Amazon button that opens Amazon in a new tab, under this disclosure: "We may earn a commission when you buy through these links. As an Amazon Associate, this store earns from qualifying purchases."
• Cart and checkout. Up to 5 items shipped by partners fit in one order; with more, the cart asks the shopper to remove some before checking out. Discount codes do not apply to partner items, and the cart and checkout say so.
• Before payment, each partner item is checked live with its supplier:
• supplier cost up, but your price still covers it: the sale goes through at the price the shopper saw, on a smaller margin, and you are notified;
• supplier cost up past the price the shopper saw: the item is refused ("The price has just changed") rather than sold at a loss, and new shoppers see the new price;
• not enough stock: the shopper is told before paying;
• supplier not answering in time: nothing is charged and the shopper is asked to try again.
• Your privacy notice. If your store uses the built-in privacy notice, it names the dropship partners you have turned on (they receive the shopper's name, delivery address and phone number) and mentions Amazon links. If you replaced it with your own privacy page, add this yourself.
• Your help center. New help centers include a draft article, "What are items shipped by our partners?", for you to review and publish. If your help center already existed, you can write your own from the same points.

After a shopper pays

The order appears in Orders as usual. Each partner item gets a Supplier ships panel on the order page, and a row on the Orders tab of Ghost Search.

A few things happen on their own:

• An order on a fraud hold, or with a refund in progress, waits. It is sent once the hold is released or the refund settles, and only while the order is still paid.
• If a supplier cannot be reached, we try again up to 5 times, then mark the item Needs you.
• Tracking is checked regularly. When the supplier ships, the order is fulfilled and the shopper gets the usual shipping email with the tracking link. If the order cannot be marked shipped automatically, you are told and the shopper is not emailed, so fulfil it from the order page with the tracking number given.

You are notified (in Notifications, and by email according to Settings → Notifications) when a supplier accepts, ships or delivers an order, and straight away when:

• a supplier order needs you or must be checked;
• the supplier created the order but it is not paid yet, usually because your CJ balance is low (and again if it is still unpaid a day later);
• the supplier charged more than the shopper paid, so you can raise the allowance or margin;
• an order has not shipped by the latest date the shopper was given;
• a supplier cost rose at checkout, or a shopper tried to buy more than the supplier had in stock;
• a supplier stopped accepting your credentials;
• a source reached its daily search limit;
• a refund or cancellation left a supplier order that you need to deal with (see below).

Acting on a supplier order

The Supplier ships panel on the order page shows the supplier, the order number, tracking, the date the shopper was promised and a timeline. Depending on the status you can:

• Stop supplier order: while it is waiting to be sent, stop it so it is never sent.
• Send to supplier again: after a failure, once you have fixed the cause.
• Send to supplier: for an item that was stopped before it was ever sent.
• I found it at the supplier: for Check with supplier or Needs you, enter the supplier's order number if the order does exist there.
• I'll handle it myself: take the item out of Ghost Search and deal with it directly with the supplier.

Refunds, returns and cancellations

Refund the shopper from the order's own Refund button, for any amount, as with any other order. Whatever the supplier does, the refund to the shopper stays in your hands.

• Full refund or cancellation: every partner item that has not been sent yet is stopped. If one is being sent at that moment, you are told, and told again with the supplier order number once it is confirmed. If the supplier already has the order, you get a notice to cancel it in your supplier account, with its order number and where to find it. If it has already shipped, you are told it is too late to cancel.
• Accepted return: the same happens for each partner item the return covers completely.
• Partial refund: nothing is changed at the supplier. You get a notice, and if the shopper should not receive an item, use Stop supplier order while it has not been sent, or cancel it in your supplier account once it has.
• A refund made directly in your Stripe account is handled the same way.

Money from the supplier (for a cancelled or returned supplier order) is between you and the supplier, under their terms. Returns from shoppers follow your own store's returns policy.

Discounts and currency

• Discounts never apply to partner items. Discount codes, promotions, pricing rules and B2B price lists are worked out on your own products only, so none of them can push a partner item below its cost.
• One currency, no conversion. A dropship item is shown only when its supplier quotes it in your store's currency. Amazon results show Amazon's price in the marketplace's currency.

Troubleshooting

What's next

• Storefront prices for pricing your own products per storefront
• Going live for your store policies and privacy notice