Shipping providers

Connect your shipping provider in Picqer and you create a shipping label with one click, without retyping any addresses. Picqer sends the shipment to your shipping provider, prints the label at your packing station and marks the order as shipped in your store, including the track & trace code.

Below, you'll find how a shipping provider and a shipping profile relate to each other, how to set them up, and what Picqer does on its own afterwards.

Shipping providers in Picqer

A shipping provider is the connection between Picqer and your carrier or shipping platform. This connection lets you easily create shipping labels in Picqer. To see which shipping providers have a direct connection, check the shipping providers overview.

There are several ways to create your shipments in Picqer:

• A direct connection with a carrier: Picqer requests the label straight from PostNL, DHL, DPD or GLS, for example, using your own contract with that carrier.
• A connection with a shipping platform: providers like Sendcloud and MyParcel bundle several carriers. You connect to the platform once and choose the carrier per shipping profile.
• Manual: Picqer doesn't request a label from a carrier. Use this when a customer picks the order up, when you deliver yourself, or when you create the shipment outside Picqer.
• Postal: for unstamped PostNL shipments. Picqer puts a KIX code, a postage paid sign, or both on the label.
• Email: Picqer emails the picklist details to an address you specify, so you can arrange the shipment elsewhere.
• Build it yourself: you write your own script that fetches the label from the carrier and returns it to Picqer. This requires programming knowledge.

Is your shipping provider not among the direct connections? We may already be working on an integration, or an external party may have built one for it. Get in touch at support@picqer.com and we'll gladly think along.

Shipping profiles

Within a connection you create shipping profiles. A shipping profile is a set of shipping settings: your sender details and options like insured shipping or a signature on delivery. Which fields you get depends on the shipping provider. If you ship in several ways, you create a separate profile for each. When you create a shipment, you choose which shipping profile to use.

Shipping options

Special shipping options, such as pickup points, only work for certain combinations of store and carrier. See shipping options per store for what's possible.

Why connect your shipping provider?

Creating a shipment with a connected shipping provider saves you manual work: you don't have to create shipments at your carrier yourself. With a connection, Picqer creates the label using the details that are already in the order.

The shipment then stays linked to the picklist. Picqer stores the track & trace code and, where supported, marks the order as shipped in your store with that code attached. Whether your customer is notified automatically is a per-store setting. So there's nothing to keep track of anywhere else.

How do you set up a shipping provider?

1. Collect your account details

Most shipping providers ask for account details, such as a customer number or an API key. Which ones you need and where to request them is covered in that provider's connection article. A few shipping methods work without an account, such as 'Manual' and 'Postal'.

2. Connect the shipping provider

Go to Shipping providers and click 'Add new shipping provider'. Pick your provider from the list, click 'Connect', enter your account details and click 'Save'.

3. Add shipping profiles

Open the connection you just created and click 'Add shipping profile'. Give the profile a name and fill in the fields this shipping provider offers. Repeat this for every way of shipping you want to be able to pick when creating a shipment. Your shipping provider's connection article explains what goes in each field.

4. Set up your printer

If your shipping provider creates a shipping label, Picqer prints it as soon as you create the shipment. For that you need a label printer linked to a packing station. The guide on printers and packing stations explains how to set that up.

What do you need in Picqer?

To use a shipping provider in Picqer, you need these parts:

• An account with your shipping provider: most providers need account details before Picqer can create labels.
• A shipping provider: the connection in Picqer that holds those credentials.
• One or more shipping profiles: the shipping options you pick from when creating a shipment.
• A packing station with a label printer: where the shipping label comes out when you create a shipment.

Useful additions:

• Rules: to pick the right shipping profile automatically, based on the country or the weight of the order, for example.

What does Picqer handle automatically?

Once your shipping provider is connected, Picqer handles this for you:

• The shipment: when you scan the last product on a picklist, Picqer creates the shipment using your default shipping profile.
• The shipping label: Picqer requests the label from your shipping provider using the address from the order and prints it at your packing station.
• The feedback loop: Picqer adds the track & trace code to the picklist and marks the order as shipped in your store, with that code attached.