A brand new API integration dedicated to PostNL.

We helped PostNL rebuild their existing plugin and expand their services to Belgian customers, amongst others. 

The Brief

PostNL, formerly known as TNT Post, is a mail, parcel and e-commerce corporation that operates in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Their proud history in delivering mail and parcels dates back 220 years – but long gone are the distant days of post delivered on horseback!

Trusted with shipments to over 190 countries, as a modern company PostNL continues to evolve its methods and technology in order to provide the best possible service in today’s demanding marketplace.  

That’s why, with a desire to expand the services available to Belgian customers, PostNL turned to Progressus for help.

For WooCommerce, until recently, PostNL relied upon an integration which had been built by its parent company, MyParcel. This version of the integration only functioned with Dutch customers and PostNL was keen to make this service available to Belgian clients. Essentially, they required a brand new integration with a new API dedicated to PostNL in order to do this. 

They needed a company with expert experience in the nitty gritty of WooCommerce Shipping Integrations. Given our experience and proven track record building shipping plugins for the likes of DHL and Automattic, choosing Progressus for this project was a no-brainer and we were able to rise to the challenge and help them build this new integration with great success.

Originally the timeline was to release a plugin around November, but due to internal changes we pushed it back to February. This is because we were originally planning to use the existing repository within WordPress.org as opposed to a brand new one. So we wanted to give the merchants time to use the existing integration before forcing them to upgrade to the new one.

Summary
  • We helped PostNL rebuild their existing plugin, utilising a brand new API integration which allowed them to expand their services.
  • Added functionalities including address verification at the check-out, the option to create return shipments and expanded the services to include Belgian customers, amongst others.
  • Rebuilt a standalone plugin to replace the previous hybrid plugin that didn’t connect directly to the PostNL API.
  • We migrated the existing customers from the old plugin to the new without any major technical issues.
Market

B2C Shipping/Payments/Retail etc.

Technology
  • REST API
  • PHP
  • AJAX
  • Javascript
  • HTML
  • CSS
Services
  • Frontend Development
  • Backend Development
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Visit Plugin

The Approach

Given our wealth of experience building plugins, it was clear to us that the best solution for PostNL would be to develop a brand new modular build, separating the API integration and functionality within WooCommerce.

By integrating numerous API end-points, we enriched the plugin functionalities to provide setting pages, individual labels and a bulk order feature as well as meta boxes for each order.  We successfully integrated everything they required of us to meet the needs of their Belgian customers and the different services available on the front end of their site. Our plugin allows you to define account parameters and return label settings. In addition to this, within each order clients can peruse various options for their shipping labels, create labels in bulk and the information is then sent to the customer.

The Results

The release has been a great success with no major patches required since launch, virtually unheard of for complex plugin projects. Users are currently migrating to the new plugin – almost 50% to date – and feedback has been very positive.

We have documentation available, provided by PostNL and we’re now helping them maintain the plugin, available to fix any bugs or issues that may arise. In the meantime we are continuing to develop additional features for them, making sure PostNL remains best-in-class and well ahead of the game – watch this space!

50%

users already migrated

3000+

Active Installations

We are very happy with Progressus, especially Shadi, as a WooCommerce integration partner. They keep the project organized, communicate clearly and understand the wishes well. We recommend Progressus to anyone who wants to develop a plugin for WooCommerce.

Linda van der Mark, PostNL

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