Deliver to Post Office Part 2: Implementing Deliver to Post Office on your e-commerce site

Are you planning to add the Deliver to Post Office delivery solution to your e-commerce site?

To set up Deliver to Post Office, several key steps are required. In this post, we provide an overview of the steps you need to follow.

Please note: Completing each step in the set-up process is essential to enable your e-commerce site to pass key customer and post office information to your shipping system and Canada Post.

This information ensures that the item will be delivered to the right post office and that they can contact your customers when the item arrives.

Before you begin: check to see if your shipping system has integrated Deliver to Post Office. This is required to offer this option on your e-commerce site. Find out if your system supports Deliver to Post Office.

How Deliver to Post Office works – from checkout to pickup

1. Offer shoppers Deliver to Post Office during checkout

For any Xpresspost™ or Expedited Parcel™ items, you can offer shoppers the option to have their purchases delivered to a post office of their choice. Ask shoppers to enter a postal code or an address near where they want to pick up their item.

2. Display post office locations and allow shoppers to select one

Use Canada Post web services to get a list of valid post offices near the location your shopper entered - not all post offices accept these deliveries.

In your checkout, display several locations on a map and in a list so that shoppers can select one. Read more about how to get valid Deliver to Post Office locations and display them in your checkout.

3. Gather required shopper and post office information and pass to your shipping system

This is a critical step. During checkout, ask shoppers to provide their personal contact information including name, address, email and phone number. Note that their address must match what appears on the identification they will use when they pick up their parcel.

Save the office ID number of the selected post office. Then ensure your e-commerce site passes the shopper contact information and the post office ID to your shipping system.

If you do not pass the contact information and the post office ID to your shipping system, parcels will not be delivered successfully. Canada Post needs this information to notify your customers when their parcel arrives. Without this information, parcels will be returned to sender.

4. Print a Deliver to Post Office compliant shipping label

After you’ve followed all steps described above, your shipping software will produce a Deliver to Post Office shipping label. The label:

Contains the address of the post office.
States “Deliver to Post Office” in the attention section.
Includes a barcode with the necessary encoding to ensure your shoppers are notified when their parcel arrives at the post office.

5. Barcode scan at post office triggers email to shopper

When the barcode on a Deliver to Post Office shipping label is scanned at the destination post office, it triggers an automatic notification process: your shoppers receive an email notifying them that their items are ready for pickup.

The email includes hours of operation and tells them to bring government-issued photo ID to pick up their items. All steps described above are necessary to ensure that your parcels are delivered successfully and that your shoppers are notified.

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Deliver to Post Office Part 2: Implementing Deliver to Post Office on your e-commerce site

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