How to Easily Get e-Stores’ Data to Generate Tracking Numbers
Tags: shiping, trackingnumber, logistics, storedata
Published: 2022-08-25 07:41:28

Online retailers have been significantly benefitting from B2B SaaS solutions. The ability to automate eCommerce operations and streamline business processes have made these solutions popular among the masses. For example, shipping management solutions are known for their functionality to create shipping labels, generate tracking numbers, track shipments, etc. In addition, the software provides many other features.

However, the point of discussion is the software's ability to perform its core functions using the data related to orders, customers, products, categories, etc. If they do not have such data with them, such functionality is impossible to provide. To generate tracking numbers, shipping software needs the data related to orders. 

Such data is only available on the merchants' online stores, which are based on the eCommerce platforms and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, etc. Therefore, to retrieve data from these platforms, you need to [integrate your shipping management solution with them](https://api2cart.medium.com/shopping-cart-shipping-integration-how-to-develop-cd3a75060245). 

As a matter of fact, integration is a complex process and involves many challenges. This article will walk you through the procedure to generate tracking numbers with the help of integration. You will also learn how to overcome the integration challenges using a third-party integration development solution. 

## What is a Tracking Number?

Before we get you started with the process to generate tracking numbers, it is imperative to know the fundamentals of **a tracking number**. 

In simple terms, when packages or products from an online store are shipped, the shipping management software assigns a [tracking number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_number) to them. An item is shipped when it leaves the warehouse of the online store owner or supplier. 

Having said that, it is easy to understand that tracking numbers allow tracking the movement of the product/package across different states or even countries. It is in the format of a unique ID or code printed on shipping labels in the form of a barcode. A barcode scanner can easily scan this code and update the details in the software for store owners, giving them real-time updates on the package's location.
 

![tracking number](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zdv8iuccb97s7ys516vz.png)
[Image source](https://uspstrackingfun.com/usps-tracking/)

Shipping software follows a specific format to generate tracking numbers. A tracking number is a formatted combination of letters and numbers. It consists of characters ranging between 8 to 40 and includes groups of characters depending on the carriers’ requirements. 

Carriers like the United States Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx use different formats of tracking numbers. For instance:

- FedEx and Express use a 12-digit tracking number. It can even expand to 14 characters.
- UPS uses an 18-character long tracking number for the movement of domestic packages across the United States. These 18 characters include shipper number (6 characters), service level indicator (2 digits), and package identifying number (8 digits). 
- Universal Postal Union has the first 2 letters as the type of the package and the last 2 letters represent the country code. 

## How to Generate Tracking Number and Work with Shipments Using an iPaaS?

Shipping software can generate tracking numbers for all the formats mentioned above, provided it has the data related to orders from the online stores. For that to happen, the software needs to integrate with eCommerce platforms. 

There are a lot of eCommerce platforms you might need to connect with in order to get store data from all your clients’ stores. However, establishing individual integration with each of these platforms can be challenging and consume all your time, money, and resources in the process.  
To ease the process and save on your organization’s assets, you need a cost-effective solution to help you establish integrations. 

[API2Cart](https://api2cart.com/how-it-works/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=generatetrackingnumberkh.ol) is a unified API solution that allows B2B software vendors to integrate with more than 40 eCommerce platforms and marketplaces at once. 

![api2cart](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/2m0yx8kjw689qy9mnsny.gif)
It provides the vendors with the following API methods to generate tracking numbers and get required store data:

1. [order.shipment.add](https://docs.api2cart.com/post/interactive-docs?version=v1.1#/order/OrderShipmentAdd)
 
With this method, you can add all the shipments associated with the order to the clients’ order information. You can check the [API documentation](https://docs.api2cart.com/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=generatetrackingnumberkh.ol) to look for the request and response parameters you will need for using this method. 

2. [order.shipment.tracking.add](https://docs.api2cart.com/post/interactive-docs?version=v1.1#/order/OrderShipmentTrackingAdd)

Using this method, you can enable your software to add tracking numbers and tracking URLs to the shipments. 
Using these methods, it is easy to retrieve all the order-related information from the client stores and generate tracking numbers.