Key concepts
Merchant
The merchant represents the e-commerce platform of the Delivery Gateway user. When configuring merchants, you tell Delivery Gateway information about your own webshop/platform. This includes things like sender information for shipments, the delivery methods you offer, and the default mode for shipments.
You can have multiple merchants on the same Delivery Gateway account.
Provider
Providers are logistics providers: companies that ship your products to your customers. Delivery Gateway provides a single point of integration for a wide network of providers. Instead of managing separate contracts, APIs, and dashboards for each carrier, you can connect to your preferred partners through the Delivery Gateway platform.
Operator
Operators are companies that operate pickup points. The operator can be the same as the provider, for example, in the case of parcel lockers of delivery companies. A shop where you can pick up deliveries is also an operator.
Stores
Your own store(s). You can set up your own stores in the system if you want to enable store pickups for your customers via the Delivery Gateway interface.
Pickup points
A pickup point is a location where a customer can pick up their order. Each logistics provider has its own pickup points.
You can enable pickup point delivery for each provider separately. Pickup point delivery means the customer can select a pickup point from a list of locations provided by the logistics provider and their order will be shipped to that location.
Pricing rules
Pricing rules allow you to associate pricing options with delivery methods and providers. When a customer selects a delivery option on your website, Delivery Gateway parses all pricing rules and assigns the first rule that matches the delivery option.
Shipments
A shipment is a scheduled delivery of items from a single origin to a single destination on a specific date.
When an order is ready to go, you can create a shipment. The Shipment object contains all relevant information about a shipment, including:
- Its unique identifier.
- The name of the recipient.
- The logistics provider delivering the shipment.
- The address of the destination.
- The status of the shipment.
- The contents of the shipment.
- The time of creation.
Waybills
A waybill is a document containing the most important information about a shipment. It facilitates customs clearance, and is crucial for documentation and statistical purposes. A waybill usually includes:
- The contents of the shipment.
- The point of origin.
- The intended route.
- The destination.
- A unique tracking number.
The tracking number allows the item to be tracked in real time. However, the waybill does not prove ownership of goods.