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DHL eCommerce Europe sends parcels through DHL’s European parcel network: to the door across Europe, to over 220 countries through DHL’s postal partners, small parcels up to 2 kg, business parcels and pallets, and returns with a label or a QR code. The fields that every carrier shares are on Carrier credentials. DHL has three carriers in Zippendo, each with its own DHL account. Use this one when DHL eCommerce Europe gave you a customer ID and eConnect API access. If you ship from the Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg with keys from My DHL eCommerce, use DHL Parcel Benelux. For express shipments, use DHL Express.
Two parts of DHL eCommerce Europe are not available yet: tracking events and DHL’s service point search. Zippendo turns both on later. Until then the shipment’s Tracking timeline stays empty, and you can’t use DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint. Every other product works. See “Service point delivery” and “Pickups, tracking and cancelling” below.
You do not pick a sender address on this form. Add your addresses under the organization menu → Manage → Addresses. You choose the sender address on each shipment or in a shipping rule. DHL eCommerce Europe ships from the DHL eCommerce Europe countries listed below. DHL Parcel Connect, DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint and DHL Parcel International also ship from the United Kingdom. Return shipments come back to an address in a DHL eCommerce Europe country.
The DHL eCommerce Europe countries are the 25 EU countries other than Ireland and Malta: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Before you start

  • A business account with DHL eCommerce Europe and its customer ID: the EKP or local customer number, for example 5012345678.
  • eConnect API access from DHL eCommerce Europe. DHL issues it, and you can’t create it yourself. The steps are under “Get your carrier credentials” below.
  • For Fetch label: DHL must turn on label reprint for your customer ID. Ask for it when you request API access.
  • For pickups from France or Italy: DHL must turn on courier pickup for your customer ID.
You can connect DHL eCommerce Europe more than once, for example one connection for test credentials and one for live credentials. Give each one its own Carrier name.

Get your carrier credentials

1

Ask DHL for API access

Contact your local DHL eCommerce sales representative and ask for access to eConnect, DHL eCommerce Europe’s API. Learn more on the carrier card opens DHL’s Parcel Connect page, which links to DHL’s contact form.
2

Test first

DHL sends test credentials first: a client ID and a secret for its test system. Connect them with Test mode on and send a few test shipments with the carrier products you plan to use.
3

Let DHL approve your shipments

DHL’s experts check the data and the labels of your test shipments.
4

Go live

DHL then sends live credentials. Connect them with Test mode off, as a new carrier or by editing the test one.

Connect DHL eCommerce Europe

1

Open All carriers

In the sidebar, click Carriers, then open the All carriers tab.
2

Find DHL eCommerce Europe

On the DHL eCommerce Europe card, click Connect.
3

Fill in the form

The Connect carrier window opens. Enter a Carrier name, your Client ID, Client secret and Customer ID. The account number, the pricing reference, the cash on delivery bank account and Test mode are under Optional fields.
4

Connect the carrier

Click Connect. You see “Carrier connected”, and the carrier appears on the My carriers tab.

Fields on the form

Connect does nothing until Carrier name, Client ID, Client secret and Customer ID have a value. Cash on delivery needs the account holder, the IBAN, the BIC and the bank name. The bank city is optional. Your VAT number, EORI and IOSS are not on this form. They come from Organization settings, or from the brand when it has its own customs identifiers. Tick Test mode only for DHL’s test credentials, and leave it off for real orders. Live credentials don’t work with Test mode on, and test credentials don’t work with it off. See Test mode.

After you connect

The carrier appears on My carriers with a Connected badge. You choose the product on each shipment or in a shipping rule, not on this form. See Carrier products and services. A product that is not on your DHL contract is refused when you send, with DHL’s reason. Every parcel needs a weight.

One parcel per shipment

Every product except the two Connect PLUS products carries one parcel per shipment. DHL can’t cancel a shipment once it has it, so Zippendo does not send several of these parcels one by one. Split a shipment with more parcels into one shipment per parcel (Split and move parcels), or use DHL Parcel Connect PLUS, which carries up to 999 parcels in one shipment.

Connect PLUS

DHL Parcel Connect PLUS and DHL Parcel Connect PLUS Pallet need:
  • the receiver’s phone number, and it must be a valid one
  • the receiver’s email address
  • the length, width and height of every parcel or pallet
Parcels and pallets go on separate shipments: DHL Parcel Connect PLUS for up to 999 parcels, DHL Parcel Connect PLUS Pallet for up to 5 pallets of 31.5 to 1,000 kg each. DHL prints one label per parcel or pallet.

Extra details for the carrier

Fill these in on the shipment or in a shipping rule, under Extra details for the carrier. Each product lists only the details it offers. Every checkbox is unticked until you tick it. Reason for export and Shipping fee are used only when the shipment needs a customs declaration. A Letter format must fit the parcel’s weight. A detail that a product does not list is ignored. Services, ticked under Services on the shipment or in the shipping rule: A service that a product does not offer is refused when you send. So is a Cash on delivery amount without the Cash on delivery service.

Labels

Zippendo asks DHL for 10 x 15 cm labels in the Label format you chose, or PDF when it is empty. The label is added to the shipment’s documents when you send it. If DHL’s answer has no label, Zippendo asks DHL to print it again straight away. If that fails too, the shipment is sent with a warning and offers Fetch label. On Connect PLUS, if DHL’s answer does not number its parcels so that each label can be matched to one of your parcels, the shipment keeps only DHL’s shipment number, gets no labels and shows the same warning, so no label goes on the wrong parcel. Fetch label works only while DHL still keeps the label, which is 10 days, and only when DHL has turned on label reprint for your customer ID.

Service point delivery

DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint is not available yet. It needs DHL’s service point search, which Zippendo turns on later. Until then the service point search for this carrier shows “The carrier’s settings are incomplete or not valid. Check them under Carriers.” Nothing is wrong with your carrier settings. Send to the receiver’s door with DHL Parcel Connect in the meantime. Once it is turned on:
  • Choose the service point in the Service point section of the shipment before you send. See Pick a service point and Service points.
  • The receiver needs an email address. DHL emails the receiver when the parcel is ready to collect.
  • Service points in Luxembourg, and DHL Packstations in Germany, hand parcels only to receivers who are registered with DHL. The service point search lists neither of them, and it leaves out service points that DHL lists without a postcode or city. To send to one, create the shipment through the Zippendo API with the service point’s DHL ID, and fill in DHL Postnummer with the receiver’s DHL registration number. A developer can also send that number as a receiver attribute named postNumber.
  • The service point must be in the same customs area as the receiver’s address. For example, a Swedish service point for a receiver in Norway is refused.
  • If DHL’s service point search does not answer when you send, DHL gets nothing and you see “The carrier did not respond. Try again in a moment.” Send the shipment again.

Return shipments

A return shipment brings a parcel from your customer to you. Create it with the Inbound type, with your customer as the sender. See Inbound and returns. DHL Parcel Return Connect works three ways:
  • With a label: send your customer the label from the shipment’s documents. Your customer hands the parcel in at a DHL point in their country.
  • With a QR code: tick the service QR code return (no printed label). DHL returns a QR code instead of a label to print. The shipment shows it under Tracking information as QR code, with Open QR code. Send it to your customer, who shows it at a DHL point. QR codes work only for customers in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. For a customer anywhere else, Zippendo creates the return with a printed label instead and shows the warning “The carrier issued the label but couldn’t produce one of the accompanying documents. Check the shipment’s documents before handing the parcel over.”, with the reason underneath. Send your customer the label from the shipment’s documents.
  • Collected by DHL: tick Collect from the customer, and DHL collects the parcel at your customer’s address.
DHL Parcel Return International sends the return through DHL’s postal partners. Your customer hands the parcel in at a post office with the label. DHL needs the house number in its own field. Zippendo takes it from your customer’s first address line, or from the start of the second line, and moves a floor, door or flat written after it (“3º B”, “3. tv”, “m. 12”) to DHL’s second address line. When Zippendo can’t split the address, it sends the first address line as written, with its first number as the house number. Only an address with no number at all is refused. If undeliverable tells DHL what to do with a return it can’t deliver. On both return products, Consolidate returns has DHL collect your returns at a return location DHL set up for you, instead of sending each one to your address. Return location ID sends the return to that DHL return location instead of your address, with or without Consolidate returns. With Consolidate returns ticked and Return location ID empty, DHL uses your default return location. Return products carry no customs declaration. A return from a place outside the EU’s customs area, such as the Canary Islands or Åland, is refused.

Customs

Zippendo builds the customs declaration from the order lines and checks it before anything goes to DHL. Which shipments need one depends on the product: When a shipment needs a customs declaration, every order line needs:
  • a description
  • an HS code (tariff number) of 6 to 10 digits. Dots and spaces are fine.
  • a quantity
  • a value greater than 0
  • a currency, the same on every order line
  • a country of origin on DHL Parcel Connect and DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint, and on every shipment to the United States
More rules:
  • United Kingdom: on DHL Parcel Connect and DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint to or from the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland included, Zippendo makes a commercial invoice from the order lines, sends it to DHL with the customs data, and adds it to the shipment’s documents as Commercial invoice.
  • United States: a DHL Parcel International or Connect Light parcel to the United States needs the receiver’s state. Fill in Receiver’s state, for example NY. A Connect Light parcel to the United States also needs Manufacturer ID (MID). A developer using the Zippendo API can also send the state as a receiver attribute named state. Through the API, the field’s key is recipientStateOrProvinceCode, the same key FedEx and UPS use.
  • Connect Light: goods declared in EUR may be worth 350 EUR at most. Above that, use DHL Parcel International.
  • Weights: on DHL Parcel Connect, DHL Parcel Connect ServicePoint, DHL Parcel International and Connect PLUS shipments that need a customs declaration, Zippendo rounds each parcel’s weight up to the next 10 g, so the weight DHL records matches the declared weight. A parcel can be sent up to 9 g heavier than you entered.
  • Terms of trade: on Parcel Connect and Connect PLUS, a shipment with the term of trade DDP is declared DDP, and any other term is declared DAP. Connect Light is always declared DAP.
  • Your numbers: your VAT number, EORI and IOSS come from Organization settings, or from the brand when it has its own customs identifiers. DHL takes at most 35 characters for each. A longer one is refused before anything goes to DHL. Zippendo declares the IOSS only on parcels from outside the EU to consumers in the EU, when the goods are declared in EUR and worth 150 EUR or less. The receiver’s EORI comes from Receiver’s EORI number on the receiver.
  • Invoices: for DHL eCommerce Europe, the shipping rule hides Generate proforma invoice and Generate commercial invoice. Zippendo makes no proforma invoice and no other commercial invoice for these shipments. The only invoice is the one for the United Kingdom above. See Customs and documents.
Zippendo sends the customs data to DHL right after DHL has the shipment. If DHL does not accept it, the shipment is sent with the warning “The carrier accepted the shipment but refused its customs data, so the parcel can’t clear customs. Don’t hand the parcel over; contact the carrier.” Underneath, the warning gives DHL’s reason when DHL gave one, or why the data could not be sent. Zippendo can’t send the customs data again for that shipment, and DHL can’t cancel it, so contact DHL eCommerce Europe with the tracking number.

Pickups, tracking and cancelling

  • Pickups: you can book DHL eCommerce Europe pickups under Pickups, for pickup addresses in France and Italy only. See Schedule a pickup. The pickup form has no time fields for DHL eCommerce Europe. DHL collects between 09:00 and 17:00, local time at the pickup address. Pick today or a later date. A pickup for today starts no earlier than the next quarter hour, and once today’s window has passed, choose a later date. The pickup address needs a name, street, postcode, city and a valid phone number for DHL’s courier, and the pickup needs the parcels’ total weight. DHL receives your Special instructions (optional). DHL must have turned on courier pickup for your customer ID. You can’t cancel or change a DHL eCommerce Europe pickup in Zippendo. To cancel, contact DHL with the Carrier reference.
  • Other countries: hand your parcels to DHL as your agreement with DHL describes. A DHL eCommerce Europe shipment has no pickup window you can set.
  • Tracking: tracking events are not available yet. Zippendo turns DHL tracking on later. Until then the shipment’s Tracking timeline stays empty. Each shipment still has its tracking number and a Tracking link to DHL’s tracking page. DHL Parcel Connect Light (untracked) gets no Tracking link, because DHL does not track it, and Zippendo never fetches events for it. Once tracking is on, Zippendo fetches DHL eCommerce Europe tracking for one parcel every 5 seconds, so with many open parcels an update can take longer than an hour to appear. There is nothing to set up. See Carrier tracking webhooks.
  • Cancelling: you can’t cancel DHL eCommerce Europe shipments in Zippendo. Contact DHL eCommerce Europe with the tracking number.

Change or remove the connection

To change it, open Carriers → My carriers and click Edit carrier on the card. The Edit carrier page has two sections:
  • General: Carrier name, and Brand if your organization has brands.
  • Carrier settings: the same DHL eCommerce Europe fields as on the connect form, including Test mode.
Click Save. You see “Carrier updated”. To remove it, click Delete on the same page, type the carrier name in capital letters, and click Delete. Shipping rules that use this carrier are deleted with it. Shipments you already sent keep their labels and tracking numbers.

Common problems

A shipment that fails shows the message below with DHL’s or Zippendo’s reason underneath. A warning means DHL has the shipment. More help: Carrier authentication failures.