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Shipping Methods: SendCloud and All Functions

  • Updated

Table of contents

In this article you will find information about the connection of the shipping service provider SendCloud to xentral. If you already have existing contracts with one or more shipping providers, you can add them to SendCloud and continue to ship at your conditions. More information about SendCloud can be found here. 

A general overview of the shipping methods and parcel labels you can use in xentral can be found here.

Features

Sendcloud offers you the following features: 

  • Booking extra insurance 
  • Selection of the product used by the respective shipping service provider

Connection of SendCloud to xentral

To connect SendCloud to xentral, you first need to make some settings in your SendCloud account:

  1. Navigate to https://www.sendcloud.com/ and log in with your existing account. Now you need to add your shipping providers. By default, UPS and DPD are displayed as shipping service providers. For all other shipping service providers, such as DHL, you must create an extra contract. 
  2. Add xentral under the connected shops and generate the API keys. You can always find your API Public Key and API Secret Key in your Sendcloud backend and customer portal respectively. 

For further information please check the helpcenter of Sendcloud.

Settings in xentral

In order to use SendCloud in xentral, you must first create a new send type. To do so, navigate to the interface via Administration → Settings → Shipping methods → Overview → "+NEW" → Sendcloud. If you use multiple shipping providers via Sendcloud, you need to create a separate shipping type for each provider, e.g. Sendcloud DHL, Sendcloud DPD, Sendcloud UPS.

Fill in the following fields:

  • Designation → Freely select a designation for the shipping method. This is displayed in xentral, among other things, in the order for selection in the drop-down menu
  • Type → Enter the type/field name, but do not use special characters or spaces. You can generally choose this as long as it is not necessary for the store mapping or other mappings. Ideally, however, you should keep the default setting
  • Module → Select "Sendcloud" from the drop-down menu
  • Project → Optionally select a project, provided that a separate Sendcloud shipping type is created for each project
  • Active → Tick the checkbox to activate the send type and make it visible and usable
  • No postage check → By checking this box, no postage check will be performed in the order
  • Printer Parcel Label → Select from the drop-down menu the default printer that prints the parcel labels
  • Printer Export → Select from the drop-down menu the default printer that prints the export documents
  • Shipping Mail → From the drop-down menu, select the behavior of the shipping mail. "Default behavior" means that a default tracking mail will be sent, "no shipping mail" means that no tracking mail will be sent for this shipping type, and "custom text template" means that a custom shipping confirmation text template will be used for this shipping type, regardless of project and logistics process
  • Public Key → Enter your API Public Key from the customer portal
  • Secret Key → Enter the API Secret Key from the customer portal
  • Standard Height → Enter the standard height of your shipments in cm. This will be filled automatically in the shipping dialog
  • Standard width → Enter the standard width of your items in cm. This will be filled automatically in the shipping dialog 
  • Standard length → Enter the standard length of your items in cm. This will be filled automatically in the shipping dialog
  • Standard weight → Enter the standard weight of your shipments in kg. This will be filled automatically in the shipping dialog
  • Shipping address → Select from the drop-down menu the handling of the shipping address stored via API in the customer portal. Optionally, it will be loaded automatically from the customer portal. If you specify this option, the shipping address will be provided when fetching the product list 
  • Product → Select the product for the corresponding weight from the drop-down menu, e.g. DPD Classic 0-5kg. However, save the access data beforehand. You can view the shipping products in the customer portal. Alternatively, you can select the product each time you print a parcel label
  • Tracking number from position → To apply the tracking number correctly, you need to specify the correct position of the tracking number in the SendCloud shipping method. The specified number of characters will be truncated at the beginning of the tracking number (e.g. if there are 4 and "abcdef", "ef" will be left)
  • Tracking no. length → Enter the length of the tracking number. If you leave the field empty, the tracking number will be used until the end
  • Apply Tracking → If you check this box, the tracking number will be automatically inserted into the field after the package tag is created and you don't have to scan it from the package tag anymore
  • Disable extra insurance → By ticking this box you disable the extra insurance. This will hide all insurance related fields in the package tag dialog. These can otherwise be used to provide details about the insurance amount

Finally, click on the "Save" button at the bottom right.

Note: If you use DPD as shipping service provider, you have to enter an "8" in the field "Tracking-No. from position". 

Parcel stamp printing

Once you have made all the settings as described above, you can test the parcel stamp printing in the shipping center or in a single delivery bill. To do this, select the "SendCloud" shipping method from the drop-down menu in the "Delivery bill" tab of the delivery bill.

Click on the "Save" button before navigating to the package mark dialog.

Click on the "Parcel mark" tab in the delivery bill and use "Print parcel mark" to print a parcel mark for the included items.

After your test print is complete, you can cancel the parcel stamp in the SendCloud business portal.

This is what a SendCloud parcel label looks like:

Shipping outside the EU

For shipping outside the EU, additional data must be provided, otherwise parcel mark printing is not possible on the Sendcloud side. Therefore, for each item to be shipped (Master data → Items → Properties), you must store the country of origin and the corresponding Harmonized System code.

Via "+New property" under "Actions" you add the properties Country of origin and HSCode.