Using shipping quotes
Learn how to provide your customers shipping options and process their selection
This page explains how to use the Shipping Quotes API in versions
2020-12-17, 2020-02-23, and 2021-03-23 as part of a Digital River coordinated fulfillment.
In versions 2021-12-13 and higher, the /shipping-quotes endpoint has been repurposed for use in our Global logistics solution.In Digital River coordinated fulfillments, you call the Shipping Quotes API during the checkout process to provide customers with shipping options.
In a shipping quotes request, you need to describe the items you'd like to ship and where those items are going.
In the response, we give you back an array of shipping quotes, each describing the quote's service level, shipping costs, signature requirements, estimated delivery times, inventory availability and ship from addresses.
These shipping quotes can then be displayed to the customer. Once the customer makes a selection, you can use a shipping quote's data to continue processing the checkout.
In third party coordinated fulfillments, the checkout's shipping information needs to be obtained from your logistics partner.
In a
POST/shipping-quotes request, you need to provide the currency used to pay for the shipping, the items to ship, as well as their destination and delivery type.This call to the Shipping Quotes API typically occurs late in the checkout process, after customers have finalized their carts and you've collected their shipping address. So, much of the data you need to define the request can be retrieved from the checkout.
Checkout | | POST/shipping-quotes |
currency | ➔ | currency |
items[].skuId | ➔ | items[].inventoryItemId |
items[].amount | ➔ | items[].price |
items[].quantity | ➔ | items[].quantity |
shipTo.postalCode | ➔ | shipTo.postalCode |
shipTo.state | ➔ | shipTo.state |
shipTo.country | ➔ | shipTo.country |
POST/shipping-quotes
curl --location --request POST 'http://dispatch-test.digitalriver.com/shipping-quotes' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <API_key>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
...
--data-raw '{
"currency": "USD",
"shipTo": {
"postalCode": "11111",
"state": "BU",
"country": "JP",
"type": "standard"
},
"items": [
{
"inventoryItemId": "78fd6209-91e7-4347-aadc-af73edb8b18b",
"price": 9.99,
"quantity": 1
}
]
}'
You must provide an array of products in your shipping quotes request. Each element of the
items array represents a specific inventory item. For each inventory item, you're required to specify its unique identifier, price, and quantity.In Digital River coordinated fulfillments, your SKUs and inventory items form synchronous pairs. So the checkout's
items[].skuId can be used to set the shipping quotes'items[].inventoryItemId.In order for Digital River to return accurate shipping quotes, you need to specify the
shipTo block's state, country, and postalCode.You can also use
shipTo to set type. This parameter represents the final step in the fulfillment process, actually delivering the products to a customer. The type options are standard(default), access_point, or cash_on_delivery. The delivery type affects the returned service levels.A
standard delivery type is the most common and consists of the shipping carrier bringing the goods directly to the customer's home or place of business.With
access_point deliveries, customers pick up their products at stand-alone lockers located in high traffic areas like shopping centers and train stations. Alternatively, the goods can be delivered to so called "parcel shops", such as convenience and grocery stores, where the customer picks them up.When you specify
cash_on_delivery, end customers must pay the shipping carrier for the goods at the time of delivery. This cash on delivery (COD) payment method is particularly popular in Japan, China, Mexico, Indonesia, Germany, Spain, Turkey, UAE, Russia and other countries.If you set
type to cash_on_delivery, once physical fulfillment is initiated, we send this data downstream to the fulfiller who, in turn, notifies the shipping carrier to collect COD.A successful
POST/shipping-quotes request returns a quotes array. Each object of that array represents a shipping quote. This object always contain a unique identifier associated with a shipping service level, as well as information on shipping costs, where the items are shipping from, and product availability.Depending on your configuration, you may also get back data on signature requirements and estimated delivery times.
Every shipping quote contains a unique
id which is associated with a shipping method. This shipping method is designated by serviceLevel. That service level is, in turn, associated with the delivery type you specify in the request.Shipping quotes
{
"shipTo": {
...
"type": "standard"
},
"quotes": [
{
"id": "IC",
...
"serviceLevel": "InternationalStandard",
...
"total": 10.0,
...
},
{
"id": "IS",
...
"serviceLevel": "InternationalExpress",
...
"total": 20.0,
...
}
],
...
}
The following table lists these enumerated shipping quote identifiers, their associated service levels, and the delivery type they support.
As an example, if you specify a
shipTo.type of access_point in the POST/shipping-quotes request, you'll get back a maximum of two shipping quotes. That is the number of service levels this delivery type supports.Identifier | Shipping service level | Supported delivery type |
|---|---|---|
A1 | accessPointExpress | access_point |
AG | accessPointStandard | access_point |
D1 | expressNextDay | standard |
D2 | expressSecondDay | standard |
IH | inHome | standard |
IC | internationalExpress | standard |
IS | internationalStandard | standard |
SG | standard | standard |
COD | standardCOD | cash_on_delivery |
A shipping quote provides you order-level and item-level
shipping and handling costs. We aggregate these amounts into both an item total and an order total.We also give you information on any
fees incurred for non-standard services that may have been applied to the order.A shipping quote's
signatureRequiredType indicates whether a signature is needed upon delivery, and, if it is, what type of signature is required. It's commonly used to prevent the theft of high-dollar items from a customer's doorstep after the goods have been delivered.The value indicates whether the shipping carrier requires an
adult to sign for delivery or a standard signer of any age is acceptable.If
signatureRequiredType is not contained in the response, it means that no delivery confirmation is needed for any of the products in the shipping quote.Shipping carriers typically charge for performing this signature collection service. If you decide to pass this cost on to customers, then the amount the carrier charged is reflected in
handling.On orders with split shipments, meaning items are going to different addresses or arriving at the same address at different times ,
handling indicates the total signature collection cost for all the different shipments.The order shipped notification you send customers should indicate whether they are required to provide a signature upon delivery.
You'll need to contact your account manager to configure and enable the signature required feature.
The configuration process involves several steps. First, specific products within your channel's catalog need to be flagged. When these flagged products are included in an order, they trigger the signature required feature.
You can also set item-level and order-level amount thresholds. These tell us when to activate the feature. Let's say you have a product that is not flagged for signature collection. But a customer places an order for enough of these products to exceed your pre-defined amount threshold, thereby triggering a mandatory signature collection.
And finally, you'll need to tell us whether you or the customer will pay the cost the shipping carrier charges for providing this service.
The
estimatedMinimumDeliveryTime and estimatedMaximumDeliveryTime represent estimated minimum and maximum delivery times (in minutes) for this shipping method.For each item in a shipping quote, we provide you its
inventoryItemId as well as its quantity, availableQuantity, and availableTime.In a shipping quote, each element of the
items array provides you a shipFrom address. This indicates the location of the warehouse where that specific product is shipped from. This allows you to build checkouts with products that ship from different addresses in different countries.Shipping quotes
{
...
"quotes": [
{
"id": "SG",
...
"items": [
{
"inventoryItemId": "f785a6ac-d37b-46ca-92ed-2bea6f9dd14a",
...
"shipFrom": {
"address": {
"line1": "27081 Aliso Creek Rd",
"city": "Aliso Viejo",
"postalCode": "92656",
"state": "CA",
"country": "US"
}
},
...
}
]
},
...
],
"liveMode": false
}
In Digital River coordinated fulfillments that use either the distributed model or orchestrated model, after you receive an array of shipping quotes, present them to the customer.
Specifically, you should retrieve the shipping quote's
id and total and use these values to set the checkout's shippingChoice.serviceLevel and shippingChoice.amount.If all of a shipping quote's ship from values are identical, you can use this one address to specify the checkout's
shipFrom. However, when describing a checkout's items, you have the ability to set shipFrom at the line-item level. So, if the shipping quote contains items with different ship from addresses, pass each of these unique values to the checkout's corresponding line item.Shipping quote | Text | POST/checkouts/{id} |
|---|---|---|
quotes[].id | ➔ | shippingChoice.serviceLevel |
quotes[].total | ➔ | shippingChoice.amount |
quotes[].items[].shipFrom | ➔ | shipFrom or items[].shipFrom |
Last modified 1yr ago