Deliver to Post Office Part 3: How to display valid Deliver to Post Office locations in your checkout

You’ve decided to offer the Deliver to Post Office delivery solution to your customers - now it’s time to implement this option on your e-commerce site. As the IT manager or developer, you’ve checked that your shipping system can handle Deliver to Post Office deliveries and you’re ready to get started.

Your shipping system must have Deliver to Post Office integrated, so that it can accept shoppers' contact information and the ID number of the destination post office.

This is necessary to produce the correct shipping label. You can only offer Deliver to Post Office if it’s integrated into your shipping system. Find out if your system supports Deliver to Post Office.

In this post, you’ll learn how to use Canada Post web services to find post offices near your shopper’s desired location and how to present the choices in your checkout. Note that you’ll need to be a member of the Canada Post Developer Program. Join now.

Give shoppers the option of picking up their parcels at the Post Office

In the checkout phase where you present shipping and delivery preferences, offer shoppers the option of having their parcels delivered to a post office of their choice. Ask shoppers to enter a postal code or address to find a pickup location near them.

Use web services to get valid post offices

Perform a web service call to Get Nearest Post Office. In your request to the web service, include the postal code the shopper entered and set the d2po flag to true. This flag ensures only locations that accept Deliver to Post Office parcels will be returned in the response. These locations may change and the list is updated daily.

Example request to Get Nearest Post Office:
GET https://ct.soa-gw.canadapost.ca/rs/postoffice?d2po=true&postalCode=K1Y1T8

By default, the web service will return the 10 closest post offices to the postal code you provide, along with address details for each location.

Display a map and list of pickup locations

Use the information provided in the response from Get Nearest Post Office to present shoppers with a map and list of the post offices near the location they specified. Ask them to select a pickup location.

Save post office ID and shopper contact information

Each post office has a unique identifier referred to as an “office-id” in the response from Get Nearest Post Office. Save the office-id of the post office the shopper selects (there’s no need to provide us with the post office address) as well as the shopper’s name, address, email address and phone number.

Please note that the name and address provided must match what appears on the identification your shoppers will use when they pick up their parcel.

This is a critical step. After you’ve saved the post office ID and the shopper contact information, your e-commerce site will need to pass it to your shipping system to create the correct Deliver to Post Office shipping label.

If not, parcels will not be delivered successfully. How you do this will depend on your shipping system: EST 2.0, web services, or a third-party/custom system.

Shipping systems that support Deliver to Post Office
Shipping system	Supports Deliver to Post Office?
EST 2.0	Yes
Third-party or custom	Contact your vendor
Web services	Yes
E-commerce software	View solution providers

Read more on how to produce a Deliver to Post Office shipping label depending on which shipping system you use:

Alternative to web services for enterprise customers

Enterprise customers can request access to the list of valid post offices through a flat file on our secure server. Please contact your Canada Post sales representative for details.

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Deliver to Post Office Part 3: How to display valid Deliver to Post Office locations in your checkout