Shiplab — Shopify App for UPS & DHL Express Shipping

At a Glance

Shiplab is an embedded Shopify app that connects your store to UPS and DHL Express and covers the entire shipping cycle: real-time rates at checkout, label creation (single, bulk, or automatic), thermal printing, tracking, return labels, pickup scheduling, customs documents, and third-party billing. Everything runs directly inside Shopify Admin — no switching between carrier portals.

Who It's For

• Shopify merchants shipping with UPS and/or DHL Express.
• Stores with international shipping and customs documentation needs.
• Sellers with multiple warehouses and multiple carrier accounts.
• Businesses that need live carrier rates at checkout instead of flat rates.
• Teams that need flexible price rules, schedules, blackout periods, and product-level conditions.

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Key Features

1. Real-Time Rates at Checkout (Carrier Service API)

Shoppers see live UPS and DHL rates at checkout — calculated in real time based on weight, dimensions, origin, and destination. Multi-currency support: rates are automatically converted into the store's presentment currency at the current FX rate.

• Carrier Service auto-registered on app install.
• HMAC validation of Shopify requests.
• Concurrent rate calculation across carriers.
• Default-address fallback for incomplete checkout addresses.

2. Label Creation: Single, Bulk, or Automatic

Multi-step wizard for creating labels from Shopify orders: address selection, packaging, rate calculation, service selection, generation. Multi-package support — multiple boxes per shipment (parent/child labels), merged PDF for downloading all pages as a single file.

• Single — create from order page.
• Bulk — mass-create from Shopify order list with service selection.
• Automatic — auto-generation by triggers (e.g. on payment).
• Manual — step-by-step wizard.

3. 3D Bin Packing

A 3D bin-packing algorithm automatically distributes items across boxes by dimensions and weight. Pre-packed products (ready-made bundles) are handled separately. If items don't fit one box — automatic split into multiple packages.

4. Label Printing

• Formats: PDF, ZPL, EPL, SPL, STARPL, PNG, GIF.
• DPI: 203, 300, 600 — for any thermal printer.
• ZPL/EPL preview: via Labelary API + EPL/ZPL → PNG converter.
• Network printing: via QZ Tray and el-Print server (print directly from order page).
• "Print label" action on Shopify order page — extension with a direct button.

5. Return Labels & RMA

• Forward + return generated together in one order.
• Return-only — a separate label for an existing order.
• Customer Return Labels — labels for customer-initiated returns.
• Each return label is linked back to its original outbound shipment.

6. Tracking

Automatic sync of tracking numbers and status updates to Shopify orders. Both merchant and customer see up-to-date delivery status from pickup to delivery without manual entry.

7. Pickup Scheduling

Schedule carrier pickup directly from the app — automatically after label creation (UPS) or manually. One screen, one click, no carrier portal login required.

8. Customs Documents (International Shipping)

• DHL Paperless Trade (PLT) — electronic commercial invoices.
• UPS Paperless Invoice — supported via UPS Paperless API.
• Digital signature on the invoice.
• Auto-detection of documents vs non-documents for DHL.
• Customer barcode for DHL ship requests.

9. Landed Cost (Duties & Taxes)

Calculate full landed cost — duties, taxes, and import fees — before shipping. Avoid surprise charges at delivery and let customers pay the full DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) total upfront.

• UPS Landed Cost API — duties, taxes, and broker fees per shipment.
• DHL Landed Cost API — DDP/DAP terms with itemized duties and taxes.
• Per-line HS code, country of origin, and value passed to carrier.
• Returned breakdown stored with the shipment for reconciliation.

10. Flexible Price Rules

Magento 2-style condition builder — build conditions from any attribute: weight, cart total, country, SKU, product/variant ID, category, custom Shopify attributes, EU country, product subselection with nested condition groups.

• Modes: all / specific / minprice / maxprice.
• Schedules — rules active only on configured dates/times.
• Blackout rules — global shipping blocks on dates/directions.
• Handling fees, discounts, free-shipping thresholds, carrier rate override.

11. Multi-Location & Multi-Account

• Multiple Shopify locations — each with its own carrier account and settings.
• Auto-routing of shipments to the correct origin.
• Location webhooks (create / update / delete) — real-time sync.

12. Scoped Settings (Default → Direction → Country)

Cascading configuration: set a default, override per direction (domestic / export / import), then per specific country. Inheritance UI with "use default" checkboxes — no duplication.

13. Third-Party Billing

Bill shipping to a third-party account — for both UPS and DHL. Full support for third-party accounts with their own billing country and postal code.

14. Dashboard & Audit Log

Home page with metrics: label counts, recent activity, quick actions (sync products / orders / webhooks). Audit log of all settings changes with collapsible JSON cells.

15. Shopify Flow

Pre-built blocks for Shopify Flow:

• Trigger: Label Created.
• Action: Create Shipping Label.

Automate any workflow — for example, "when an order over $500 is paid, create a UPS Worldwide Express label and email the manager".

16. Full Shopify Sync

• Products — initial + incremental sync with cursor tracking.
• Collections — for rule conditions.
• Customer attributes — for condition builder.
• Orders — synced in real time on creation and updates; old orders auto-pruned after 60 days.
• Locations — synced in real time + ship-from address selection.
• Countries and shipping zones — multiselect filtering by the store's actual zone.
• Currencies — filtered by the store's presentment currencies.

17. Order Page Integration

• Order details action link — "Create Shipping Label" button on the order card.
• Order bulk action — mass label creation.
• Auto fulfillment — Shopify fulfillment is created automatically on label generation.
• Order tags — automatic tagging after label creation.

18. DHL Express — Value-Added Services

• Saturday delivery / pickup
• GoGreen (carbon-neutral)
• Delivery confirmation (per shipment level)
• Bespoke shipment notification
• Customer barcode
• Third party as payer

19. UPS — Extended API Coverage

• Shipping (label creation)
• Rating (rate calculation)
• Tracking
• Pickup
• Paperless (customs documents)
• Address Validation
• Time In Transit
• Landed Cost
• OAuth

20. Localization

Full English / Deutsch / Français support — 561 translation keys per locale. Auto-detect Shopify Admin locale + Polaris locale sync.

21. Billing & Plan

• Subscription billing via Shopify GraphQL Billing API.
• Per-order pricing model + carrier add-ons.
• Usage-based billing for carriers.
• Test mode for unpublished apps.

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Built for Reliability

• Fully managed cloud: no server setup, no maintenance on your side.
• Built on Shopify's latest API standards.
• Strict data isolation: each store's data is fully separated — no cross-shop leakage.
• GDPR-compliant: data requests and deletion handled automatically.
• Fast checkout: heavy work runs in the background, never slowing down customers.
• High-performance caching for sub-100ms checkout rate responses.

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Security

• All requests between Shopify and Shiplab are cryptographically signed and verified.
• Strict per-shop data isolation — your data is never visible to other merchants.
• GDPR-compliant data handling.
• Encrypted storage for orders, addresses, and labels.

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What You Get

• Fully managed cloud service — we host, monitor, update, and back up everything.
• Embedded Shopify app — installed in one click from a private install link.
• All shipping features (UPS + DHL Express): rates, labels, tracking, pickups, returns, customs.
• Auto-updates — new features and carrier API updates rolled out automatically.
• Multi-tenant isolation — your data is scoped per shop, never mixed with other merchants.
• EN / DE / FR localization out of the box.
• Email support from the development team.

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Supported Carriers

Carrier	Rates	Labels	Tracking	Pickup	Customs (Paperless)	Third Party	Return Labels
UPS	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
DHL Express	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓ (PLT)	✓	✓

More carriers (USPS, GLS, DPD, etc.) can be added on request.

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What You Need

• A Shopify store (any plan).
• A UPS and/or DHL Express account with API access.
• (Optional) QZ Tray or el-Print for network thermal printing.

No server setup. No database. No deployment. We host everything.

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Pricing & Support

• Subscription-based — billed via Shopify's billing system, charged on your Shopify invoice.
• All updates and new features included — no extra cost.
• Email support from the development team.
• Free trial available — try the full feature set before subscribing.

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FAQ

Is Shopify Plus supported?
Yes — including multi-location, B2B, multi-currency, and Shopify Flow.

Where is my data stored?
On our managed cloud servers, isolated per shop. Labels are kept in object storage; configuration and order data in encrypted databases. GDPR webhooks are handled automatically.

Are COD, insurance, and taxes supported?
Yes: Cash on Delivery, carrier insurance, duty/tax handling with TIN fields — all configurable per shipment.

How long does setup take?
Install the app from Shopify in one click. Connect a carrier account: about 15 minutes per carrier. Configure rules and directions: from one hour, depending on logic complexity.

Can I request a new carrier (USPS, GLS, DPD, etc.)?
Yes — the carrier architecture is built for extension. Contact us with your requirements; new carrier integrations are added on a roadmap basis.

Is there a free trial?
Yes. Install the app and use the full feature set during the trial period before any charges apply.

What happens if I uninstall?
Shopify keeps a 48-hour grace period in case you reinstall. After that, all shop data is permanently deleted from our systems per GDPR.