Custom carrier integration and shipping label software development
Appfront builds the integration between your own system and the carriers you use: PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS, or a combination of these. Your order is registered, the label comes back in the format your printer expects, and the carrier's status updates flow back into your system automatically. No retyping, no separate portals.
What is carrier integration and shipping label software?
A carrier integration is the link between your own system and a carrier's API. Your system registers the shipment with the address, weight, dimensions and chosen service. The carrier returns a tracking number and the shipping label, usually as a ZPL file for a label printer or as an A6 PDF. The carrier then sends status updates: registered, sorted, in transit, delivered or recipient not at home.
Without an integration, this work is done by hand. Addresses are retyped into the carrier's portal, tracking numbers are typed back into the order system, and a customer calling about their parcel means searching two screens. An integration removes those steps and makes shipment status part of the order record.
We build that integration to measure, because the difference lies in your process. Which service applies to which order type, when shipments may be combined into multi-parcel consignments, what happens with a deviating address, and which exceptions an employee may resolve themselves. These are decisions a standard package makes for you, and we prefer to define them with you.
Registering and labelling
The shipment goes to the carrier's API and the label returns as ZPL for a Zebra printer or as a PDF for a standard printer.
Returns and customs
Return labels, pick-up points and, for shipments outside the EU, the customs data for CN22 or CN23, including the commodity code and EORI number.
Status back in your system
Webhooks or status files from the carrier write back to the order, so your customer service team does not need to check the carrier's portal.
How we build your carrier integration and shipping label software
We start with your shipping process as it runs today, including the exceptions nobody writes down. Then we build the integration carrier by carrier, with that carrier's test environment as the first step.
Which carriers, which services, which order types and which exceptions. We walk along the packing bench and note what goes wrong: addresses without a house number addition, shipments that do not fit on one pallet, customers with their own pick-up arrangement.
Each carrier has its own API, its own service codes and its own way of returning labels. We build and test carrier by carrier in their test environment, so that a fault does not surface on a live shipment.
The label must come out of the right printer, at the right point in the packing process. We arrange the control of label printers and ensure that a reprint remains possible without registering a second shipment.
Status updates flow back to the order, and exceptions get a work queue: failed bookings, addresses the carrier rejects, and shipments that get stuck. After that, we take over management of the integration.
What carrier integration and shipping label software does in practice
The functionality depends on what you ship and to whom. These are the components that appear in almost every carrier integration.
Register shipment
Address, weight, dimensions and service go to the carrier. If an address is incorrect or incomplete, the operator receives a notification before the label is printed.
Labels in the right format
ZPL for label printers, PDF for office printers, and multiple labels per shipment for multi-parcel consignments. The label layout follows the carrier's requirements.
Return labels
Include a return label with the parcel, or generate one only when the customer registers a return, optionally through your own returns portal.
Customs documents
For shipments outside the EU, the integration fills in the customs data: commodity code, value, country of origin and your EORI number.
Track and trace
Status updates arrive via webhook or polled file and are written back to the order, with a branded tracking page for your customers.
Exceptions list
Failed registrations, rejected addresses and shipments without a status update land in a work queue rather than in a log file that nobody reads.
Who we build carrier integration and shipping label software for
This integration is worth considering once your shipment volume outgrows what someone can comfortably process by hand, or once you use more than one carrier.
Webshops and D2C brands
You ship parcels every day and want an order to receive its tracking number automatically once packed, including a tracking page in your own branding.
Wholesalers and manufacturers
Your shipments are heavier and more often multi-parcel or pallet. The integration needs to handle parcel allocation, consignment notes and customer-specific agreements.
Fulfilment providers
You ship on behalf of several clients, each with their own carrier contracts. The integration needs to work per client, with the correct account and service.
Businesses with their own WMS
Your warehouse system determines when a shipment is ready. The integration connects to that, rather than adding a separate portal alongside it.
Technology and integrations
We build directly on the carrier's API, using your own contract numbers and services. If you are looking for a broader shipping platform that compares and manages rates across multiple carriers, see our page on multicarrier shipping software. This page is about the integration and the label workflow itself. For the stock side, we connect with warehouse management software.
For the shop floor, with scanning and printing at the packing station, there is our app for shipping labels and carriers.
Why choose Appfront for carrier integration and shipping label software?
A carrier integration is rarely complicated when things go to plan. The real work lies in the exceptions, and that is where we look first.
Exceptions first
An integration that only works with a complete address and a two-kilo parcel is not finished. We build the error paths together with the people who resolve them today.
Your contracts, your rates
You integrate with your own carrier accounts. We do not sit between you and your carrier contract.
Your own code, no lock-in
The integration runs in your own environment and the code belongs to you. Adding a carrier means an extension, not a migration.
Security and privacy for carrier integration and shipping label software
Recipients' address details are personal data. The integration only sends what the carrier needs to deliver, and retains no more than necessary for your own records and for handling later queries.
Access to carrier accounts runs through keys held in a managed environment, not in the code. All calls are logged with shipment number and timestamp, so that in a dispute with a carrier you can show what was registered and when.
Frequently asked questions about carrier integration and shipping label software
The questions we hear most often about carrier integration.
A carrier integration is the link between your own system and a carrier's API. Your system registers the shipment with the address, weight and service, the carrier returns a tracking number and a shipping label, and then sends status updates on the delivery. That removes the need to retype data in a portal and to look up tracking numbers by hand.
In the Netherlands, PostNL, DHL, DPD, GLS and UPS are the most common, and we integrate with their APIs directly using your own contract number. If you work with a carrier not listed here, we review their documentation before making any promises. The setup is broadly the same for each carrier; only the service codes and label formats differ.
Usually ZPL, the format that label printers from Zebra and similar brands process directly. It gives the sharpest result on a thermal label. If you don't have a label printer, carriers can also supply the label as an A6 PDF, which you can print on an ordinary printer.
Yes. You can include a return label in the parcel, or generate it only once the customer registers a return, which can reduce costs. For shipments outside the EU, the integration completes the customs data: commodity code, value, country of origin and your EORI number, in the format the carrier requires for CN22 or CN23.
The shipment then goes onto an exceptions list rather than quietly stalling. The team member sees what the carrier reports, corrects the address and resubmits the shipment. We make that work queue deliberately visible, because failed submissions otherwise only come to light when a customer calls.
Yes, and that is usually the starting point. The integration hooks in at the moment your system signals that a shipment is ready, and writes the tracking number and status back to the order. We work with what you have, including an older package with a limited API.
Yes. We regularly take over existing integrations, including those built by another party. We first review how error handling and logging are set up, as that is usually where the backlog of maintenance sits, and based on that we propose what to tackle first.
Connect your carriers to your own system?
Tell us which carriers you use and where the shipping process currently gets stuck. We will look at how you work today and show you what an integration would concretely deliver in your situation.