What you need before connecting Smartpost
You need a business customer contract with SmartPosti. The contract comes with API access that the store uses to register shipments and create labels. If you still have an old Itella contract, check that the access is valid before the integration starts.
- A business customer contract and API access
- Sender details: address, phone, contact person
- Product dimensions and weights in the store
- A clear idea of which countries you want to ship to
The shipping price depends on the contract and parcel size. The current price list is published on the SmartPosti website.
How the buyer picks a locker
- The buyer selects a Smartpost parcel locker at checkout
- They find a locker by city or by the name of a shopping centre
- The store saves the chosen locker with the order and adds it to the confirmation email
- Once the shipment is registered the buyer receives a tracking number
- When the parcel arrives the buyer gets a message with a code
The delivery method name at checkout should be one the buyer recognises. Some people still look for the word Smartpost, others already for SmartPosti, so we often use both in the name.
WooCommerce, Shopify and custom stores
On WooCommerce we use a plugin with the Smartpost delivery method, which shows the locker list and creates the label from the order screen. On Shopify the solution depends on the app: the standard checkout does not allow delivery methods to be freely rearranged, so we agree on how the picker is shown beforehand.
In a custom Next.js store we load the locker list through the SmartPosti API, keep it on our own server and refresh it with a scheduled job. Checkout then does not wait for an external service and works even when the carrier's API is temporarily not responding.
Testing and typical problems
We test an order end to end: locker selection, delivery price, label and the tracking number in the email. Separately we check what happens with products that do not fit into a locker compartment.
- The locker list is outdated and the buyer picks a locker that no longer exists
- Checkout shows the old delivery method name and the buyer does not recognise it
- A bulky product is allowed for locker delivery because no size limit is configured
- The phone number is in the wrong format and shipment registration fails
