Purpose: Learn how to connect your DHL carrier contract with your Sendcloud account in three easy steps.
Become a DHL customer now! The only requirement is a valid DHL business customer contract, which you can obtain directly here, with a minimum of 200 national and/or international parcels per year.
Step 1: Activate your Sendcloud subscription
Sendcloud offers three subscriptions with which you are able to use your own transport contract: Lite, Growth and Premium plan.
For more information regarding which plan is best for you and the needs of your business, you can always contact us via the support section of your Sendcloud account or click here.
Step 2: Enable your carrier contract
Once you have activated a Sendcloud subscription, you can connect your carrier contract.
- In your Sendcloud panel navigate to Shipping > Carriers.
- Go to the My contracts tab and find DHL from the list.
- Click Add contract. Here you can add the credentials needed to validate the connection to DHL.
Step 3: Enter your DHL contract details
Complete the form with the information below and click Save when you are done.
- DHL Business Customer Portal Username: The username which you use for the DHL Business portal (Geschäftskundenportal)
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DHL Business Customer Portal Password: The password which you use for the DHL Business portal (Geschäftskundenportal)
Important: The DHL Business Customer Portal password expires after 365 days and must be updated to avoid shipping issues. Contact your DHL DE Account Manager for help with password updates, as Sendcloud cannot assist with this. - You can choose to enable DHL address validation to help avoid relabelling fees if an address is not correct
- Label format (this must be added so that the correct label format can be selected): You can find the format in the DHL Geschäftskundenportal > Parcel & Products > Shipping > Settings > General settings. Make sure to select the same format in Sendcloud. For more information, please check this help center article.
- Shipper Reference: Based on the shipper reference, DHL retrieves your logo to be printed on the label. You can create/find the reference in the DHL Business Customer Portal > Parcel & Products > Shipping > Address book > Sender.
- Billing number Paket: You can find the billing numbers in the DHL Business portal (Name of your account > Contract data)
- Billing number Paket International
- Billing number Warenpost National
- Billing number Warenpost Gogreen
- Billing number Warenpost/International/International Premium
- Billing number Warenpost International Gogreen
- Billing number Europaket
- Returns & Receiver ID: You will find the respective names of the return recipients (Receiver ID) listed in the DHL customer portal under the menu item Returns > Settings under the entry Receiver ID.
Step 4: Enable domestic and international returns
In order to be able to receive returns from different countries, please retrieve the country Receiver ID which can be found in the DHL business customer portal.
- Go to DHL Geschäftskundenportal > Parcel & Products > Returns > Settings.
- In the Receiver and country overview, your account manager will define all countries from which you want to receive returns (per country = one line).
- Copy the Receiver ID to the Sendcloud contract settings for each country that you want to enable returns for. In the example below, under the outlined yellow box you can see the Receiver ID is here named as "BE" for returns to Belgium.
- In your Sendcloud account, navigate to Settings > Carriers & Pricing > My contracts > DHL DE
- Scroll down the page until you see the Returns section on the DHL DE contract settings page
- Select your return country from the dropdown menu and then enter the Receiver ID exactly as it appears in your DHL portal
- To add additional countries, click ± and repeat the process
- Press the Save button when all countries are added
Once you have filled in the receiver ID’s per country in the Sendcloud contract settings the following methods are supported on the Sendcloud platform:
DHL Retoure (formally DHL Paket Return) and DHL Mobile Retoure (formally DHL Retoure Online).
With the Servicepoint routing, you have the option of redirecting the shipment to the nearest DHL Servicepoint in case the shipment cannot be delivered or because the customer's specified address cannot be located. The customer can easily pick up his shipment at the DHL Servicepoint.
Please be sure to enter the recipient or sender's email address for the notification so that the customer can be informed accordingly.
Step 5 (optional): Upload your own DHL contract prices
If you've followed the steps above, your DHL contract is now successfully linked to your Sendcloud panel, and you can start shipping with your own DHL rates. When you create a label with a DHL shipping method, the label price will now show as 0.00 EUR in your account.
If you want your own prices to be visible in your Sendcloud account, you can upload the contract prices. After adding your DHL contract, you can go to 'My contracts' and click on 'Add prices'.
You'll then see a detailed form that is divided into multiple sections:
- Paket
- Warenpost
- Paket International
- Warenpost International
- Paket Connect
- Retoure
- Retoure online
In the form, you only need to fill in the sections that match your specific DHL contract details. Don’t worry about losing any of your changes because all the information you enter will be saved automatically. The surcharges and extra costs have already been filled in for you. Make sure to review these amounts and adjust them if you have special rates that you’ve negotiated with DHL.