When running a growing e-commerce business, website design is only part of the equation. The real power lies in how well your site connects with the tools you use to sell, ship, and stay in touch.
For the third time, Mosaics Tea Store — Chicago’s boutique tea brand — returned to Sitemasons with a new set of challenges: they needed to integrate Mailchimp for email marketing, SociableKIT for live Google content widgets, and ShipStation for managing orders and fulfillment. Each of these tools offers tremendous value on its own — but they require precise technical integration to work smoothly with WooCommerce.
This case study outlines how we made it all happen — clearly, cleanly, and without compromising performance.
The Client: Mosaics Tea Store
Mosaics Tea Store is a Chicago-based e-commerce brand offering premium loose-leaf teas and a refined online boutique experience. With a fast-growing customer base and multiple sales channels, their operational needs were evolving quickly — and they trusted Sitemasons to handle the integration of business-critical third-party tools.
The Challenge: 3 Tools, 3 Different Ecosystems, 1 Seamless Experience
The tools Mosaics needed to integrate all served very different purposes:
- Mailchimp: for building a subscriber list, automated email campaigns, and abandoned cart follow-ups.
- SociableKIT: for embedding live widgets (Google Reviews, Google Map, and Google Business Profile) directly on the Contact and About pages.
- ShipStation: for streamlining order management, shipping label generation, and fulfillment.
But each tool required careful setup and customization to work smoothly with their existing WooCommerce site, hosted on SiteGround and built using Elementor.
Our Approach: Step-by-Step Technical Integration
We broke down the work into three integration tracks, each with its own goals and technical steps.
1️⃣ Mailchimp Integration: Email Marketing Automation
🛠️ Objective:
To connect the WooCommerce store with Mailchimp for subscriber sync, order-based automations, and campaign delivery.
🔧 Steps Taken:
- Installed Mailchimp for WooCommerce Plugin
- Connected via API key and store sync.
- Verified domain inside Mailchimp for better email deliverability.
- Synced Store Data
- Imported customers, orders, and products into Mailchimp’s database.
- Enabled real-time sync for new sign-ups, purchases, and cart activity.
- Set Up Automation Workflows
- Abandoned cart recovery emails.
- Welcome series for new subscribers.
- Purchase-based follow-ups with personalized product suggestions.
- Created Audience Segments
- Segmented by order frequency, location (Chicago/local), product category, and engagement level.
- Email Template Integration
- Designed brand-aligned templates in Mailchimp using Mosaics’ fonts, colors, and logos.
- Testing & Verification
- Sent test campaigns to staging accounts.
- Verified automation triggers and unsubscribe mechanisms.
✅ Challenges Overcome:
- WooCommerce variations weren’t syncing correctly at first — required plugin debugging and manual sync resets.
- Prevented duplicate audiences in Mailchimp by running a de-duplication script via Mailchimp’s backend tools.
2️⃣ SociableKIT: Dynamic Content Widgets (Maps, Reviews, Google Business Profile)
🛠️ Objective:
To embed live Google content into the Contact and About pages, without affecting site speed or breaking Elementor layout.
🔧 Steps Taken:
- Created Custom Widgets in SociableKIT
- Google Business Profile widget
- Google Reviews carousel
- Google Map embed with pin & direction features
- Optimized Embed Settings
- Set all widgets to “lazy-load on scroll” to prevent speed impact.
- Disabled iframes above-the-fold to preserve Core Web Vitals.
- Integrated into Elementor
- Used HTML widget blocks to paste SociableKIT embed code.
- Styled and positioned widgets responsively for desktop, tablet, and mobile views.
- Custom CSS Enhancements
- Adjusted font sizes, spacing, and layout to blend into Mosaics’ design system.
- Removed third-party branding links to keep the widget clean and brand-centric.
- Tested on Multiple Browsers & Devices
- Validated cross-browser support and responsive resizing.
✅ Challenges Overcome:
- Google Reviews widget failed to load due to API restrictions; resolved by regenerating new keys via the Google Cloud Console and reconnecting.
- Layout broken on Safari mobile; fixed with custom media queries.
3️⃣ ShipStation Integration: Shipping & Fulfillment
🛠️ Objective:
To automate shipping label generation, fulfillment syncing, and tracking updates between WooCommerce and ShipStation.
🔧 Steps Taken:
- Installed ShipStation WooCommerce Integration Plugin
- Authenticated via API Key & Secret from ShipStation.
- Configured store sync to pull live orders into ShipStation dashboard.
- Mapped Shipping Methods
- Linked WooCommerce shipping zones (Standard, Local Delivery, Free Shipping) with ShipStation shipping presets.
- Enabled auto-calculation for shipping rates based on location and package weight.
- Label & Fulfillment Automation
- Configured rules to generate shipping labels when payment is completed.
- Enabled email dispatch of tracking numbers to customers from ShipStation.
- Test Orders & Sandbox Verification
- Ran multiple test orders in staging mode to verify sync accuracy.
- Monitored webhook triggers to ensure real-time updates on order status.
- Post-Integration Cleanup
- Disabled default WooCommerce tracking emails to avoid duplicate notifications.
- Created backend documentation for the Mosaics team to manage ShipStation settings.
✅ Challenges Overcome:
- Mismatched shipping zone names caused incorrect label assignment — resolved by manually syncing all zones with matching names.
- ShipStation initially failed to pull certain metadata (like SKU and custom attributes); fixed by updating the WooCommerce REST API version and plugin configuration.
The Results: One Site, Three Tools, Zero Headaches
| Integration | Outcome |
| Mailchimp | Live sync of customers + automated emails running flawlessly |
| SociableKIT | Live Google widgets embedded without slowing down the site |
| ShipStation | Automated order-to-label-to-tracking pipeline saving hours per week |
All tools now work harmoniously in the background, freeing up the Mosaics team to focus on product and customer experience.
Client Feedback
Everything runs on autopilot now — emails, reviews, shipping. Sitemasons made it all simple, and it’s been a huge help.
— Leslie, Owner of Mosaics Tea Store
Key Takeaways
- Third-party tools can elevate a small business — if integrated correctly.
- Email, logistics, and social proof all add up to a better user journey.
- Tech doesn’t have to feel overwhelming when done with strategy and structure.
Final Thoughts
A clean, well-designed website is just the beginning. With Mailchimp, SociableKIT, and ShipStation working together behind the scenes, Mosaics Tea Store now has the tools it needs to scale, automate, and deliver a better customer experience — without needing to learn the tech themselves.
Need help connecting your tools and turning your site into a full business machine?
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