How to Integrate DHL Shipping APIs with your Application?
When it comes to shipping and delivery services, DHL is one of the most prominent shipping carriers with worldwide shipping networks. DHL Shipping services will simplify your entire shipping procedure with quick deliveries and high levels of efficiency.
It is a global logistics company that provides a variety of services, some of which are freight shipping, packages, shipping of documents, international mail, and shipping of cargo.
But the biggest issue when it comes to integrating with DHL shipping services is that it is impossible to manually process, initiate, and track shipments when you are dealing with orders in bulk. You need a system that is automated and streamlined to the point where manual labor is kept to a minimum.
This is where APIs, or application programming interfaces, come into play. These shipping APIs enable eCommerce businesses to access DHL servers and pull shipping rates, and estimated delivery dates, process and track shipments, and act as a bridge between the DHL servers and the website’s shipping application.
In this post, we will demonstrate three simple ways to integrate DHL shipping APIs with your application. However, before we get into that, let’s take a moment to go through a brief overview of DHL shipping APIs.
Overview of the DHL Shipping APIs
The DHL API integrates the advantages of using DHL Express with the shipping methods you already have in place at your business. It helps you run a business that is more optimized and efficient by integrating into your website and connecting with your existing order placement system, stock management system, and other business applications.
When you integrate the shipping capabilities of DHL into your websites, applications for customer care, or order processing systems, it becomes much simpler for you to ship packages and for your customers to get their packages without any hassle.
Through the use of the DHL Express API, you are able to create shipments and schedule pickups from locations all over the world, as well as track shipments, track the progress of your shipments, and pull live shipping rates and estimated delivery timelines.
Key Advantages of DHL WooCommerce Integration
Integrating DHL APIs into your store has many benefits:
- You can access real-time rates from DHL often at discounted rates.
- Compare the rates and corresponding benefits offered by various DHL services.
- Validate shipping addresses to decrease failed deliveries.
- Print labels without ever leaving the WooCommerce admin dashboard; all order information is stored in one central location.
- Generate labels suitable for use in many countries in a few clicks.
- You can print a label and then schedule a free pickup with DHL within minutes, the process is incredibly streamlined.
- Track the progress of your deliveries without having to leave the backend of your WooCommerce store.
Method 1. Integrate the DHL Shipping APIs Directly
Before integrating the DHL shipping API, you must create a DHL business account, and obtain a dedicated shipping account number and an API key from the official DHL website. Create an account to have access to additional features and settings for DHL APIs.
Here’s how to sign up for a developer account with DHL and start using their Shipping API right away:
Sign Up for a DHL Account
Proceed to the signup page.
Enter all of your details, including name, email, company name, and country, and accept the terms and conditions.
Upon entering all of your details, you will receive an email to set your developer account password.
Click the link provided in the email to set your account password, and your account will be set up successfully. Now you can browse through the API catalog list and create an app for the API of your choice.
Once you create the app, you will receive the credentials, including the API key and API secret.
You can now integrate DHL shipping APIs with your application using the generated API key and API secret.
Method 2. Integration via the ReachShip API
Using this approach, you can cherry-pick the API integrations that best suit your needs, making it a highly flexible solution. The ReachShip API Documentation will provide you with a curated set of APIs from which you can choose.
The biggest benefit of using the ReachShip API to integrate with DHL is that you can easily add multi-carrier shipping to your store if needed. You do not need to stick with DHL for all your orders. By enabling multi-carrier shipping, you can browse and compare shipping rates and services from multiple carriers, such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, and more, and choose the best shipping option for that specific order.
To add DHL Shipping using ReachShip APIs:
- Create an account using DHL as mentioned in Method 1.
- Once you create an account, configure it and obtain all the necessary credentials, such as a username, password, API key, and API secret.
- The next thing you need to do is sign up for a ReachShip account by going to the signup page on the website.
- Once you’ve signed up for ReachShip, go to the Dashboard and click the Settings tab.
- Under Shipping Settings, select DHL from the Filter By Carrier Name drop-down menu. Here you will be asked to enter your DHL API credentials, such as Account Name, Account Number, Site ID, and Site Password.
You can fill out the appropriate details on ReachShip with your DHL account credentials
- Click Validate and Save Settings once you’ve entered your credentials. When you do this, your DHL account will be connected to ReachShip.
- Next, under SandBox Mode, select Settings > API > click Create Credentials. A Client ID and Client Secret will be generated.
You can now create an API token using your Client ID and Client Secret.
As soon as your access token has been generated, you will be able to use it to manually integrate the required APIs by going through the ReachShip API documentation.
Method 3. Using ReachShip’s Integration Solutions
Using the ReachShip Multi-Carrier Shipping APIs, we are working on providing solutions that will integrate with a variety of platforms. ReachShip Integrations will allow you to pull real-time shipping rates, estimated delivery dates, bulk label printing, real-time shipment tracking, and much more. It will interface directly with major shipping providers such as UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL, Australia Post, and many others that will be added in the near future.
These services will help you add multi-carrier shipping to your store without having to utilize or read the API developer documentation. ReachShip integration solutions will make it possible for you to immediately integrate DHL Shipping APIs, even if you do not have any prior experience with coding.
To Wrap Up
These were three of the easiest ways to integrate DHL shipping APIs into your application. Although direct integration with DHL APIs will make your shipping process a lot more streamlined, using a multi-carrier shipping API integration such as ReachShip will not only simplify and streamline your shipping and logistics processes, but it will also give you the freedom to pick and choose from among multiple leading shipping carriers.
No matter which method you choose, integrating with DHL shipping APIs will be highly beneficial for your eCommerce business. It will reduce unnecessary manual processes and unify your store’s shipping operations into a single location. If you have any questions regarding integrating DHL shipping APIs, please let us know in the comments section below.
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