CDEK PRO Plus, модуль расчета, оформления и контроля доставки для CMS СS-Cart

Integration module with CDEK transport company, calculation of delivery and paperwork for the CS-Cart Online Store or the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor marketplace creation platform

The module allows you to integrate CDEK's personal account into the administrative panel of your online store and marketplace. You and your suppliers or sellers will be able to manage CDEK delivery without going from the administrative panel of the marketplace to the SDEK website.

The module is presented in two modifications "CDEK PRO" modification "CDEK PRO Plus"

CDEK PRO – connecting the delivery management capabilities of the SDEK transport company to your store.

You will be able to connect an unlimited number of accounts for yourself and your suppliers, who also use deliverySDEK.

CDEK PRO Plus– allows you to connect more than 48 transport companies to your site plus expands the capabilities of the basic module.

Using one module for all transport companies instead of a separate module for each is more convenient and faster.

When loading the checkout (this is the page for choosing delivery and payment), it is necessary to make a preliminary calculation of the cost of delivery for all available transport companies. If you use separate modules, you will have to wait until each of them requests information from the delivery service.

And the more modules are used, the longer the checkout will be loaded. The risk is great. That the buyer will not wait for the download to finish. If you use one module for all transport companies, the checkout loading speed increases significantly. 

In addition, the PRO Plus version includes features not available in the basic version.

Delivery of orders by CDEK transport company

SDEK is one of the largest and most popular transport companies in Russia. Delivery of orders from online stores and marketplaces from door to door throughout Russia from 2 days. More than 1,700 offices across the country, each of them has a fitting room and a table for examining the parcel. CDEK also offers the possibility of issuing orders through postomats.

CDEK is more than 150 tariffs for the delivery of goods of various categories:

• Jewelry products,
• Small-sized goods,
• Medium-sized goods,
• Bulky goods,
• Fragile goods,
• Goods that require special storage conditions.

For large customers CDEK offers discounts for large volumes of shipments. It is possible to pay for services once a month according to the invoice.

Functionality of the SDEC integration module

Delivery of orders to customers is one of the most important parts of online commerce. How quickly orders will be delivered to customers, how convenient it will be for them to receive them, largely depends on whether customers will return to your marketplace.

That is why it is very important to automate interaction with the transport company as much as possible. We have created a unique integration module for CDEK delivery service for you. You and your sellers will be able to manage all your deliveries from the administrative panel of the marketplace.

The module automatically transfers orders for delivery to CDEK, tracks the progress of delivery from delivery to the courier to delivery to the buyer. The module also allows you to track the movement of the order to the buyer.

Another useful function: order validation with verification of the correctness of filling in the departure and delivery addresses, phone numbers, tariff parameters, and so on.

Brief description of the module's functionality

• Calculation of the cost of delivery to checkout;
• Automatic order processing in the transport company; 
•  Order validation before packing; 
•  Delivery on behalf of the marketplace or on behalf of the seller; 
•  Multiple shipments; 
• Using a separate return address for different shipping methods; 
•  Comparison of ApiShip statuses with the statuses of transport companies; 
•  Bulk loading of information about packing orders; 
•  Directory tariffs; 
•  Loading a map of pick-up points in the checkout after pressing the button; 
•  Tracking cargo by track number; 
•  Regular testing delivery methods in the background; 
•  Picking up cargo from the warehouse; 
•  Communication of orders; 
•  Displaying information from the transport company in the order; 
•  Creating delivery methods from templates.

Execution of the contract on behalf of the marketplace or on behalf of the seller

The module supports two formats of working with the CDEK transport company:

• Execution of the contract on behalf of the marketplace;
• Execution of the contract on behalf of the seller.

Below we will look at the advantages of each of these formats.

Execution of a contract with CDEK on behalf of the marketplace

In this case, delivery management takes place entirely on the side of the marketplace:

• The buyer places an order;
• The marketplace receives money for the goods and for delivery from the buyer;
• Information about the order is transmitted to the warehouse of the marketplace or the seller;
• Employees pack goods in the warehouse;
• The order is automatically transferred to CDEK,
• CDEK courier picks up the order from the warehouse and delivers it to the buyer or to the order pick-up point.

The main advantage of this format is a large number of orders from one contract. Since all the deliveries of the marketplace take place under one contract, the total volume of deliveries will be much higher than that of each individual seller. As the volume of deliveries increases, the transport company will reduce the cost of the shipment for you.

Execution of a contract with CDEK on behalf of the seller

Also, each of your sellers can independently issue a contract for the delivery of goods from CDEK. In this case, he will independently manage the delivery of orders to customers.

Usually, the marketplace chooses such a scheme in cases when it is necessary to minimize inaccuracies in calculating the cost of delivery.

Unfortunately, not all sellers are conscientious about the need to fill out a product card. Often, the weight and dimensions of the goods in the card are either not specified at all, or are not specified correctly. To calculate the delivery, the module will take the default dimensions, but they may differ significantly from the real ones. As a result, the cost of delivery may vary quite a lot. As a result, the marketplace incurs losses, sometimes very significant.

Therefore, many marketplaces offer sellers the following scheme: sellers themselves conclude a contract with a transport company on their own behalf. At the same time, they offer their customers free shipping, and the marketplace for this reduces their commission or offers some other preferences.

Calculation of the cost of delivery and data transfer to CDEK

The module automatically calculates the cost of delivery in the checkout, at the stage of the buyer's order. When calculating, the module relies on CDEK tariffs and on the weight and dimensions of the goods in the order. However, from time to time there are situations when, for various reasons, the CDEK website does not work. For example, during maintenance or in case of any problems.

In this case, the module will not be able to request information about tariffs from the site during the buyer's order. And therefore, calculate the cost of delivery. No buyer will wait for the transport company's website to work again.

To avoid such situations, our module stores the latest data on CDEK tariffs in memory. If, when calculating the cost of delivery, the module fails to get information about the tariffs on request, it will extract the latest data from memory. The buyer will receive timely information about the cost of delivery.

Using a separate cargo space

Many sellers have medium and large-sized goods in their assortment. For example, it can be household appliances or furniture. You can't put such goods in a box with others that have more modest dimensions. And such goods, as a rule, do not need additional packaging.

In these cases, it is more convenient to arrange the goods as a separate cargo. To do this, the seller needs to go to the product card and tick the box "Deliver as a separate cargo place".

The module supports the delivery of multi-place items to one recipient. That is, the order can be packed not in one box, but in different ones. At the same time, it will be charged as one shipment.

This feature can be useful in several cases. For example, you received an order from a customer. Some of the goods are in your warehouse, and you immediately prepared them for shipment. And one or more goods should be delivered to you by the supplier in the near future. You wait for delivery, and pack the rest of the goods from the order.

If there are large-sized goods in the order, for example, household appliances. For example, you received an order for three T-shirts, a phone and a microwave. T-shirts and a phone can easily be packed in one box, and the microwave will go as a separate cargo place.

For such goods that require a separate cargo space and do not need additional repacking, you can specify in the settings that when forming an order, separate cargo spaces are immediately formed for them.

Default dimensions

Often import files from sellers do not contain all the necessary information about the product. It is especially critical if there is no information about the weight and size of the goods. In this case, it will be impossible to calculate the preliminary cost of delivery at the time of ordering by the buyer.

In order for the buyer to receive a preliminary calculation in any case, the module substitutes the default dimensions when calculating. These dimensions are specified in the settings by the administrator of the marketplace or the seller, based on the average size of the product in the assortment.

Weight and size restrictions for CDEK

CDEK offers its customers several different tariffs for delivering orders to customers. And for each of them there are their own restrictions on the weight and size of the shipment. The module allows you to create your own delivery method for each of the tariffs, indicating restrictions on the weight and size of the shipment.

The buyer in the checkout will see only the delivery methods that each item in the order corresponds to.

Address labels and acceptance certificate

You do not have to go to the SDEC website to download the accompanying documents. You can request and receive everything you need in the administrative panel of your site.

Before proceeding to the packaging of the order, you need to go into it, clarify the composition, check the delivery parameters specified in the order with the actual ones and, if necessary, make changes.

After you have packed the orders, you select them from the list of orders and order address labels for them. Then they need to be printed and pasted on orders.

When the batch with orders is formed, you need to highlight again all the orders that you have 100% prepared for shipment and request a certificate of acceptance and transfer. The act also needs to be printed out and attached to the batch for transfer to the PVZ or courier.

Protection against accidental actions

We are all human beings, and we make mistakes from time to time. So, your administrator may inadvertently remove from the module a transport company that still has undelivered orders. To avoid this, we have thought out protection against accidental or intentional errors: in the settings, you can specify under which order statuses the removal of the transport company is possible. Thus, it will be possible to disable the contract only after all orders are in the completed status.

Logging type

Choose the type of logging that is convenient for you in the settings:

• File system,
• Database.

All interactions of the module with the registration server and the calculation of the cost of delivery are recorded in the logging files. In case of errors in the module, for example, due to the update of the platform or modules of other developers, its cause can be understood from the logging file.  

The Pro Plus version contains a wider set of error tracking functions.

Tax

Payment modules require information that delivery is also a commodity item that the buyer pays for. And it is also necessary to transfer the tax rate for it. Our module supports the transfer of the delivery tax rate for payment modules (processing of this information takes place on the side of the payment module).

Using a separate return address for different shipping methods

By default, the address from the online store window or the warehouse address is used for the return. However, in some cases it is more convenient for the goods to be returned to another address other than the address of the store or warehouse of departure.

You can specify this address in the delivery method settings in the "Return address" section. You can set up different delivery methods for different categories of goods that require special storage or delivery conditions: bulky goods, medium-sized goods, jewelry, and so on.

Information in the order about the order in the SD

After installing the module, a new tab "Information from the transport company" appears in the order. Immediately after the order is created, the data that the store transmits to the SDEC is displayed there. This makes it easy to track where the error lies if the delivery order does not pass validation.

All addresses involved in the delivery, phone numbers, delivery parameters and other order details. If an error has crept into one of these items, you can easily detect it and fix it. This speeds up the processing of orders.

Delivery Parameters

Delivery parameters: the weight and dimensions of the goods are not always constant. The exact data is not always indicated in the product card, and sometimes the weight and size of the product are not indicated in the card at all. In this case, the default parameters from the delivery method settings are used for the preliminary calculation of the delivery cost.

Then the warehouse staff collects the order, weighs and measures the goods and clarifies the data in the order. In addition, several items can be packed in one box. And when calculating the actual cost of delivery, the weight and dimensions of this box should be used. When the SDEC accepts the cargo, they also weigh and measure it again.

The entire history of changing delivery parameters is also displayed in the order in the "Information from the transport company" tab.

Optimization of the checkout speed when placing an order

When the checkout is loaded, the Maps and Geolocation module loads maps of order pick-up points in the background. When drawing the map, the module uses server resources. As a result, the larger the city, the more points of delivery of goods, the weaker the server, the longer the card will be loaded. In some cases, the download delay may be several tens of seconds. Not every buyer agrees to wait so long for the checkout to load.

To optimize the checkout loading, we removed the map loading under the button. First, the checkout is loaded, the buyer chooses the payment method, enters the address, chooses the delivery method. And only after that, by pressing the button, the map of pick-up points begins to load.

Regular testing of delivery methods in the background

SDEK has only two standard tariffs. That is, you only need to set up two delivery methods, and everything seems to be simple and easy. On the other hand, you may need to create different delivery methods for different regions or with different additional services. And now the number of delivery methods in the online store increases to a dozen or more. And at any moment, one or more of them may stop being displayed in the checkout due to errors.

We will give some examples of why the delivery method may disappear from the checkout or give an error:

• The contract with the transport company is disabled in the settings;
• A new module has appeared that affects the operation of delivery methods, for example: the module "MW: Logistics: fulfillment, cross-docking, your warehouse, PVZ points", which adds the ability to work with warehouses and because of this the ordering model has changed;
• The address of the warehouse to which the delivery method is configured changes;
• The order pick-up point was disabled or its id or address was changed;
• One of the store's administrators changed the contact information: first name, last name, phone number;
• The phone number or address of one of the delivery participants is filled in incorrectly;
• One of the store administrators changed the password to the personal account of SDEK;
• The delivery region is not configured correctly;
• The availability region of the delivery method has changed;
• The delivery parameters are filled in incorrectly: mainly the default weight and dimensions, as well as the maximum and minimum weight and dimensions of the shipment;
• An additional service is connected, which is not supported by the selected tariff.

The question remains, how and when will you find out about it? Perhaps one of the buyers will write a review with a complaint at this point, but most likely you will find out about it by the sharply increased number of abandoned baskets.

In order for you to be able to find out about errors in delivery methods in a timely manner, we have created an algorithm for testing delivery methods in the background. You set up testing, choose the shipping address, the buyer on whose behalf the test is being conducted, the product, the frequency of testing. Then the test will be run automatically according to the specified schedule. This will allow you to find out about errors and their causes in a timely manner, and therefore eliminate them as soon as possible.

This functionality is especially relevant if you have more than one showcase. The more storefronts and websites there are, the more difficult it is to test delivery methods manually. Automated testing will save you time and effort for other, more important and complex tasks.

What is needed to connect the module

First, to conclude a contract with the company SDEK and get from them the data to log in to your personal account. The module supports the connection of an unlimited number of contracts.

Please note that in order to deliver jewelry, you will need to conclude an additional contract and create a second transport company in the module settings.

Secondly, go to the websiteApiShipand register there to gain access to your personal account.

In the PRO Plus version, you can connect more than 40 transport companies.

Connecting additional transport companies with the PRO Plus version

SDEK is a very popular transport company, but this does not mean that it will suit every customer of yours. It is always better to give your customers the best possible choice.

However, the more integration modules you put on your site, the more the load on the site increases. We offer you one module that will allow you to connect more than 48 transport companies through the ApiShip service. One integration module is the minimum load on the server and database. The speed of calculating the cost of delivery and rendering the checkout will not depend on the power of the equipment.

It won't take long: you install the module, register in ApiShip and add any transport companies in the contract settings. After that, you can create delivery methods for different tariffs of transport companies.

Coming soon: Tracking the delivery created on the seller's side

In the near future, the module will be able to track the movement of the order created by the seller by the trend number or order number. To date, tracking the movement of the order is possible only by changing the status of the order: from "Ready for transfer to the transport company" to "Handed over to the buyer".

This is a convenient system, and yet it lacks more detailed information about the movement of the order.

Tracking an order by track number will allow you to:

• Accurately determine the location of the cargo;
• Upload information about the Fair Sign identifier,
• Track the time of delivery of the goods to the buyer;
• Check whether the cargo has been delivered in full or in part;
• Analyze the weight and dimensions of the shipment to make sure that the buyer was sent exactly what he ordered;
• Check the amount of cargo space and so on.