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Connecting and Managing a FedEx Account

Use Goflow's FedEx connection to shop rates, generate shipping labels, and track shipment progress.

Connecting a FedEx Shipping Account

Connecting a FedEx account requires three key steps:

  1. Generate FedEx API Keys
  2. Add the FedEx Account in Goflow
  3. Await Certification

Generating FedEx API Keys

To connect your FedEx account, you’ll need to generate API credentials from the FedEx Developer Portal. This involves creating an organization, setting up a project, and requesting access to the relevant APIs.

Goflow provides clear, step-by-step instructions to guide you. When creating your FedEx account in Goflow, click the Where do I get this? link for detailed guidance.

FedEx requires two separate sets of API keys—one for shipping and another for tracking. These keys are not interchangeable and must be created separately.

Adding a FedEx Account in Goflow

To add your FedEx account in Goflow, follow these steps:

  1. Start by following the general steps for connecting a new shipping account.
  2. From the list of carriers, select FedEx.
  3. Enter the Company Name exactly as it appears on your FedEx account. This is required for the certification process.
  4. Enter your 9-digit FedEx Account Number.
  5. Provide the API Key and API Secret obtained from the FedEx Developer Portal.
  6. Click Save to complete the setup.

Awaiting FedEx Certification

FedEx requires all new accounts to complete a certification process to ensure they can generate high-quality shipping labels that meet FedEx’s technical standards. Goflow will submit to FedEx a full set of scanned test labels from your shipping account.

While the account is undergoing certification, the status will be Onboarding. During this period, the account cannot yet be used to generate shipping labels. However, you can add it to store carrier accounts, and configure other FedEx settings.

Certification typically takes 2–3 business days. Once FedEx approves the account, Goflow Support will update its status to Active and notify you that the account is ready for use.

Managing a FedEx Account

For general guidance on managing shipping account settings, see the main carrier page.

Enabling Shipment Tracking

To allow Goflow to monitor the progress of your FedEx shipments, enable shipment tracking by following these steps:

  1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings › Shipping, and select your FedEx account.
  2. Click Enable Tracking.
  3. Enter your FedEx tracking API Key and API Secret. For step-by-step guidance on generating these credentials, click the Where do I get this? link.
  4. Click Save to enable tracking.

Enabling SmartPost

FedEx accounts do not have SmartPost (Ground Economy) enabled by default. Before activating it in Goflow, contact your FedEx representative to confirm that SmartPost is enabled on your account and to obtain your SmartPost Hub ID.

Once confirmed with FedEx, click Enable SmartPost, and select the Hub ID from the list.

Enabling Address Validation

FedEx supports two ground delivery methods, depending on the address type:

When you create a shipment, Goflow checks with FedEx to determine whether the destination address is classified as commercial or residential, based on FedEx’s internal address database. If address validation is enabled on store shipping accounts, Goflow will automatically generate either a Ground or Home Delivery shipping label based on the address type returned by FedEx.

If a Ground label is created for a residential address, FedEx will apply a Residential Delivery Surcharge.

If you want all shipments for a store to always use Home Delivery, you can disable address validation and configure your shipping policies to assign orders to Home Delivery.

You can disable address validation for third party billing shipments only. This setting is recommended for dropship stores where the channel determines the shipping method to use, and overriding the channel-instructed method may result in violating fulfillment policies.