Organizations and Brands: how multi-tenant ShipWave works

Every ShipWave account is an Organization. Inside that org, you can run one or more Brands. A single-brand seller (most direct-to-consumer stores) ignores this layer entirely—the default Brand wraps everything and the experience looks like a normal account. A 3PL or multi-brand operator turns the layer on: each client storefront becomes its own Brand, with its own orders, products, customers, return rules, and branded portal. The Organization owns warehouses, staff, carrier accounts, and billing—the shared infrastructure—while each Brand keeps its store data isolated.

Turn on multi-brand if you fulfill orders for clients other than yourself, run two or more storefronts under different LLCs, or want to give a partner brand a co-branded portal without exposing your other customers. If everything ships under one banner—one Shopify store, one customer base, one return address—you can stay single-brand. You can always promote to multi-brand later: existing data stays in the default Brand and new Brands are added alongside it.

A typical 3PL setup looks like this: the warehouse operator owns the Organization. Each client brand they fulfill for becomes a Brand. The brand owners are invited as BRAND_ADMIN users on their own Brand only—they sign in and see only their own orders, products, returns, and rates. The 3PL operator (you) is ORG_ADMIN and sees everything aggregated across all Brands, plus the org-level invoicing and warehouse tools. End-customers (the brand's shoppers) never see ShipWave directly—they interact with the brand's storefront and a branded return portal.

Go to Admin → Brands and click New Brand. Enter a brand name, a URL-safe slug (used for the subdomain), and an owner contact email. After saving, you can add a logo, support email, and physical return address from the Brand settings page. Connect a Shopify store to the Brand to start importing orders. See Inviting team members and roles for how to bring the brand owner into their new Brand.

Separated per Brand: orders, products, inventory, customers, return requests, store integrations, brand-portal customizations, marketplace channels, EDI trading partners, billing rates. Shared across the Organization: warehouses, pick lists, carrier accounts (EasyPost), thermal printers, staff users (with role-based scope), org-level invoicing, audit logs. This split lets you run one efficient warehouse for many brands while still giving each brand a clean, isolated view of its own business.