Carrier prepaid shipping

Partner Discussions
1

Hello, I need to make an application where once a customer buys a product and pays for shipping, I need the merchant to pay the shipping to the carrier to be able to deliver it, is this possible?

2

I asked the .dev assistant for help with this, and this is the advice given:

Yes, it is possible to create an application where the merchant pays the shipping cost to the carrier after the customer has purchased a product and paid for shipping. This can be achieved using Shopify’s GraphQL Admin API and related tools. Here’s how you can approach this:

  1. Customer Purchases and Pays for Shipping:
  • When a customer completes a purchase, the shipping cost they pay is determined by the delivery profiles and shipping rates configured in the Shopify admin. You can use the DeliveryProfile object to manage shipping rates and destinations.
  1. Merchant Pays the Carrier:
  • To facilitate the merchant paying the carrier, you can integrate with Shopify’s carrier services or use third-party APIs to calculate and pay for shipping. Shopify provides the CarrierService API to fetch real-time shipping rates from carriers.
  • Alternatively, you can create a custom app that interacts with carrier APIs to generate shipping labels and pay for shipping. The app can use the FulfillmentOrder and FulfillmentService objects to manage and fulfill orders.
  1. Implementation Steps:
  • Step 1: Use the FulfillmentOrder API to retrieve the details of the order and the shipping method selected by the customer.
  • Step 2: Integrate with a carrier API to calculate the shipping cost and generate a shipping label.
  • Step 3: Use the FulfillmentService API to mark the order as fulfilled and provide the tracking information to Shopify.
  1. Optional Features:
  • You can use Shopify Functions to customize delivery options and methods at checkout, such as renaming or reordering delivery options.
  • If you need to manage reverse deliveries (e.g., returns), you can use the reverseDeliveryCreateWithShipping mutation to handle shipping costs for returns.

By combining these tools and APIs, you can build a seamless workflow where the merchant pays the carrier for shipping after the customer has completed their purchase. Let me know if you need help with specific GraphQL queries or mutations for this process!