Shipping API Integration by Alpha Expansion
Shipping API Integration01Rates at checkout02Labels from orders03Tracking sharedBook a call

Shipping API Integration

LABELS ANDTRACKING,NO COPYING

We connect your store, ERP or warehouse system to the carriers you ship with, so rates appear at checkout, labels print from the order and tracking reaches the customer without anyone copying a number.

Rates at checkoutLabels from ordersTracking shared

Rates at checkoutLabels from ordersTracking shared

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01Our Approach

Every parcel carries a tracking number that the customer wants and the support team needs, and neither should have to ask for it.

02Overview

Your orders connected to the carriers you use

  • 01Rates at checkout
  • 02Labels from orders
  • 03Tracking shared

Shipping API integration links the system that holds your orders to the interfaces of your carriers. At checkout it asks for delivery options and prices for the basket and destination. When an order is ready, it books the shipment, receives the label and stores the tracking number. As the parcel moves, status events flow back to the order and on to the customer. Returns are booked the same way.

It suits businesses that have outgrown typing addresses into a carrier's website or use several carriers for different destinations. Every carrier's interface is different in its services, address rules, label formats and reliability, and some regional couriers offer only a basic one. We build one layer inside your systems that hides those differences, so that adding or replacing a carrier does not mean changing your store.

Talk to us about your project
03What We Do

Capabilities, End to End

01
Rates and options

Delivery services and prices are requested for the basket's weight, size and destination, with your own rules for free delivery, surcharges and excluded areas applied on top.

02
Label creation

A shipment is booked from the order with the right service and packages, and the label is returned in the format your printers use.

03
Tracking events

Status updates from each carrier are translated into one set of states, stored on the order and passed to customer messages and your support screens.

04
Address checks

Addresses are validated against what the carrier accepts before a label is requested, and problems are sent back to the customer or an agent to correct.

05
Carrier selection rules

Rules choose the carrier by destination, weight, value, cash on delivery and service level, with a fallback when the first choice refuses the shipment.

06
Failure handling

When a carrier's interface is slow or down, requests are queued and retried, orders are not lost, and staff see which shipments are waiting.

04In Production

What It Looks Like When It Ships

app.atlasfreight.io/overview
Live
Atlas Freight
Shipments / Live
Search...
⌘K
MC
WORKSPACE
Shipments
Fleet
Routes
Customs
MORE
Analytics
Partners
Settings
Usage
72% of plan
Overview
Updated 2m ago
7d30d90d
Export
Active shipments
1,082
+9%
On-time rate
97.4%
+1.1%
Fleet utilisation
83%
+5%
Exceptions
14
-6
Active shipments over time
This periodPrevious
1,082JanFebMarAprMayJunJul
Breakdown
46%
Sea
46%
Road
38%
Air
16%
Activity
SHP-20481 cleared customs
3m ago
Driver assigned - route 12
16m ago
Customer
Detail
Amount
Status
S
SHP-20481
Rotterdam - Dubai
In transit
ETA 2d
S
SHP-20477
Riyadh - Jeddah
Out for delivery
Today
S
SHP-20466
Hamburg - Doha
Customs hold
Action
S
SHP-20452
Beirut - Amman
Delivered
Done
Rates at checkout
Labels from orders
Tracking shared
Checkout ratesShipment recordTracking timelineWaiting queue
05What You Receive

Handed Over, Ready to Run

SCROLL
01
Carrier requirements review
02
Integration layer with source code
03
Rate rules for checkout
04
Label printing from orders
05
Unified tracking states
06
Returns booking flow
07
Error queue and monitoring
08
Runbook and warehouse training
06How It Runs

From Kickoff to Launch

01
Review shipping
02
Define the rules
03
Build and test
04
Launch by carrier
01
Review shipping

We list your carriers, services, destinations and exceptions, obtain interface documentation and test accounts from each, and watch how the warehouse team prepares a shipment today.

02
Define the rules

Carrier choice, packaging, cut-off times, cash on delivery and what the customer is shown at checkout are agreed with your operations lead and written down as rules.

03
Build and test

Each carrier is connected behind one internal interface and tested with real addresses, awkward parcels, refused bookings and outages, using the carriers' test environments where they exist.

04
Launch by carrier

One carrier is switched on first, labels and tracking are checked against live parcels, and the other carriers follow once the warehouse team is comfortable with the routine.

07Technology

The Stack We Use

Carrier sideCarrier REST APIsLabel formatsTracking webhooksRate servicesIntegration layerNode.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLMessage queuesCarrier sideCarrier REST APIsLabel formatsTracking webhooksRate servicesIntegration layerNode.jsTypeScriptPostgreSQLMessage queues
Order sideShopify APIsWooCommerce REST APIERP and WMS APIsCustom store APIsOperationsError queueShipment dashboardCarrier health checksAlertingOrder sideShopify APIsWooCommerce REST APIERP and WMS APIsCustom store APIsOperationsError queueShipment dashboardCarrier health checksAlerting
08Who It Is For

Built for Teams Like Yours

FLAGSHIP
Your team books every shipment by hand

Warehouse staff retype addresses into a carrier portal, print the label, then paste the tracking number into the order. Customers email to ask where things are. A second carrier would help with remote areas, but nobody wants to double the manual work.

Online stores shipping daily
Businesses using several carriers
Wholesalers with pallet freight
Stores offering cash on delivery
Sellers shipping across borders
Warehouses serving many brands
09Questions

What buyers ask before they start

If yours is not here, ask us directly. The first conversation is free and useful whether or not we work together.

Book a call

Any carrier or courier that offers an interface you are entitled to use. International carriers publish documented interfaces. Regional couriers vary, from full interfaces to file exchange or none. We start by collecting each carrier's documentation and a test account through your own contract with them. Where a carrier has no usable interface, we say so and suggest what can still be automated around it.

Often it is the faster route. Aggregators offer one interface to many carriers and handle labels and tracking, for a fee and with the carriers they support. Direct integration makes sense when you have negotiated rates the aggregator cannot use, need a carrier it lacks, or want no dependency on a third party. We compare both against your carriers and volumes before recommending either.

Yes, where the carrier offers a rate service and it answers quickly enough. Live rates are accurate but add a dependency to your checkout, so we cache common answers and fall back to your own rate table if the carrier is slow. Many stores prefer fixed delivery prices by zone and use the carrier's rates only to check that those prices still cover costs.

The amount to collect is sent with the shipment booking where the carrier supports it, and collection is confirmed back through tracking events or a settlement report. We reconcile what each carrier collected against what it paid out, order by order, since differences here are common. Carriers differ in limits and in how they report, so each one is mapped separately.

Carriers revise and retire interface versions from time to time, usually with notice. Because all carrier calls sit behind one layer in your systems, a change affects that layer only and your store carries on. We subscribe to the carriers' developer notices, test against their new versions ahead of deadlines and include such updates in a maintenance arrangement.

10Related services

Often built together

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Premium digital product and engineering studio. We build high-performance web platforms, SaaS applications, mobile apps, and 3D experiences for high-growth companies.

Alpha Expansion is a premium digital product and engineering studio specializing in React development, Next.js development, full-stack development, mobile app development, UI/UX design, and 3D interactive experiences.

We serve industries including SaaS, FinTech, Healthcare, E-commerce, Logistics, and Real Estate.