Click & Drop API - How Would I go about getting a custom solution made

[Sparetoolparts]

Hi Guys

I'm using Royal Mail Click and Drop and in general it is working fine, but It is very time consuming because I need to manually print each label one at a time as I need to change the dispatch for each order, let me explain:

You see I print my labels on a Tuesday evening and then pack on the Wednesday morning, however Click & Drop have a nightly Manifest on their system which can't be turned off. This causes a world of hurt, as my Post Office needs the dispatch date to match when I left the parcels in for collection. As mentioned above my only solution is to change the dispatch date by a few days I can then manifest on the Wednesday after I'm finished packing.

But having to update over 150-200 parcels each evening is a massive waste of my evening/time off. So I need work around/ custom code that will do everything that Click & Drop currently does but allows me to select all my order at once and change the dispatch date.

I have looked at off the shelf options like Shipstation etc. But they don't use Click & Drop API, and the way they work isnt suitable for my needs.

Who would I need to reach out to about building my own custom interface?

 

[Solve My Problem]

From someone who has experience with this and codes for a living

Get a Royal Mail business account (OBA) and then get something like shipstation

 

[Solve My Problem]

Royal Mail have the manifest on a timer system which means it has to be submitted.

Using ShipStation you can pull in the orders and print/pack as you go. You can then manifest as you go along, you will probably find with that volume you can get a RM collection for free as well saving you going to the post office.

 

[Sparetoolparts]

I have an OBA account but my issue with Shipstation and others is, they effectively creating tracking numbers and shipping confirmations for my customers as soon as my label is printed. But I often have to print blind without knowing what is or isn't instock/arrivied in from supplier.

My problem would then be having to explain to my customer that even though I told you my order has been sent, it really hasn't and I'm still waiting on a few widgets to arrive in.

With click and drop it doesnt manifest until the end of day or when done manually which by that stage I have cancelled the labels which can't be shipped

 

[Solve My Problem]

That seems like a ton of work when it would make more sense to just ship the orders you have stock of

How do you deal with items not there yet having told the customers it's shipped?

There are ways to deal with this but feels like a change of how you deal with the orders may make more sense

 

[Sparetoolparts]

PM'd you

 

[antropy]

So I need work around/ custom code that will do everything that Click & Drop currently does but allows me to select all my order at once and change the dispatch date.

Feel free to email us to discuss further: [email protected]

Paul.

 

[AlanJ1]

That seems like a ton of work when it would make more sense to just ship the orders you have stock of

How do you deal with items not there yet having told the customers it's shipped?

There are ways to deal with this but feels like a change of how you deal with the orders may make more sense

This is the one constraint we have with Ship Station - We dispatch orders in the morning as an example, but if we go out of stock we need to cancel / contact customer and let them know if they want to swap. With Ship Station they have already been given the tracking number.

We have a very small cancellation rate (less than 0.1% of orders) so we just get on with it, but I can imagine someone else could have a major issue with this.

 

[Trapbarn]

I might be missing something but I can't see the problem if you go into C&D setting and enable advance despatch dates.
That way you can select an advance date for despatch and then print the labels. When that advance date arrives the do the manifest for all batches/orders. So if you despatch one day a week then you can select that day as the despatch date. Then proceed to apply postage and print labels on a day by day basis on the 6 days preceding your despatch date.

For all the orders I receive over the weekend I print the labels on Sunday night and do the manifest the following Monday morning. I drop them at the PO at 9am.

 

[Sparetoolparts]

Hello @Trapbarn

From my understanding I need to manually change days for each label I print, I normally need to print 150 odd labels on my dispatch days, so this does take up quite a bit of time.

If I select multiple order and go print it will over-ride my weights and parcel size etc and ask me to add new ones. so everything will have the same weight and size.

How do you get around this?

I basically am doing what your suggesting now, but the manual date update is what is sucking up all my time @AlanJ1 I would have a 3-5% cancellation/postponement rate. That is why I've been trying to find another solution before I go down the ship station route.

 

[Trapbarn]

Looking at your website it appears you are handling an enormous list of items and I guess you would be unable to pre-pack anything in advance of receiving the order. So I'm guessing you dont know the weight and size of the order until you physically pack it. It would appear that most of the items are small and suitable for letter or small parcel packing. Hence grouping into batches in C&D would make sense rather than processing individually.

That said, out of the 150 you despatch, how many are in the same weight band and in the same service type ( ie BPL or CRL etc)

 

[Sparetoolparts]

Hi @Trapbarn

You have just inspired me!

I know the majority of the weights of my products and have been working hard on the sizes as well, so I could use Ship Station etc.

I could look at adding a few columns to my order dispatch .csv file, which would include the weight and parcel size, then as you say group the orders by weight band and size. This could theoretically allow me to print in batches of 15-30. So saving me time.

this has me excited to go and play with the data now and see if I can come up with something that will work.

I'll be in touch with an update when I've either succeeded or failed

 

[Trapbarn]

I'm guessing from your responses that you are not using SKU identifiers because of the wide range of manufacturers with different part numbering formats . If that is the case , I would create a list of SKU's and allocate a SKU number/reference for each weight or volume category. If necessary extend this by the service used eg First class., 2nd Class etc . Then allocate the appropriate SKU

Then if If you register all your SKUs in C&D then the API will carry the weights etc for each forward into your "new orders" in the dashboard. Then you can sort them with one click so that the similar SKUs into groups called batches. Then apply postage to each batch. That way you only select the date once for each batch..
If you are uploading your order list into C&D from a spreadsheet, then just allocate the SKU to each order before uploading.
If you use C&D on its own without Shiply etc it will only advise the customer of the tracking and despatch details when the 2D barcode on the label is scanned at the RM collecting depot. Works for me on Woocommerce and Ebay. In Woocommerce, a small tweak is required to ensure the tracking advice is sent correctly.
Last question, have you adjusted the settings in C&D to allow advanced despatch dates to be entered.?

 

[Sparetoolparts]

Hi @Trapbarn

So my system has a weight and size for each item I'm selling, they are all being pulled into C&D from my website. So now all I'm doing is manually weight and sizing banding my orders in a spreadsheet based on RM bands, then selecting all labels in each band and printing them all at once. This is a work in progress and is being fine tuned with each print day I go.

But so far it is saving me a min of 30-45 minutes per day on printing and the more I refine my work flow the more time I'll save. So thank you so much for this

 

[UkAppCoder]

Hi Guys

I'm using Royal Mail Click and Drop and in general it is working fine, but It is very time consuming because I need to manually print each label one at a time as I need to change the dispatch for each order, let me explain:

...

I don't know whether the information below will help you because I'm not familiar with your industry.

ShipStation has a REST API. Quote from their website:

"Our REST API is available for any plan and allows for read access to almost all data in your account, and write access to create specific objects, like Orders, Customers, and Products. The API is a great way to get data directly to and from ShipStation, like creating orders, customers, and querying order & shipping data."

Read more at:

https://help.shipstation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025856212-ShipStation-API

I haven't inspected their API (I don't have an account), but I would imagine that this would enable you to create just about anything you need for your business. You would not need to create an application which does everything that the ShipStation or Royal Mail applications do, you would only need to create the bits you need, such as your drag-n-drop interface.

So, your custom software would get the data via their API, and you would have your own application, (which could consist of user interfaces, controllers, models, databases, etc.) to do the custom work which is not possible using the ShipStation and Royal Mail apps. In other words, your custom system would be an extension of their systems, and you would be able to extend it further as and when you require.

You can check out the Royal Mail API at:

https://www.royalmail.com/business/parcels/shipping-solutions/api-shipping

Furthermore, you would be able to create and develop software to run on mobile devices, websites and desktops, and it may turn out that your current system can be automated a lot further than you realise. Spread the costs by starting small with the most important time-consuming features, then develop your software according to requirements as they pop up in the future. You could even sell services to other businesses in your industry.

If you would like to discuss this further, then feel free to give us a shout. We have industry standard application architectures for Android mobile devices, LAMP and desktop. These are our own systems which we've developed over many years, so the cost of custom software is much reduced because much of the programming is already done. We use Java for our Android apps which means we can also provide desktop applications for Windows, Mac and Linux if required.

I hope this helps, and all the best!

 

[UkAppCoder]

Just to clarify the meaning of an API in layman's terms:

An Application Programming Interface (API) enables you to interact programmatically with a software system. You can use all the functions available via the application's GUI, plus a lot more.