This guide is for shops that ship from the Czech Republic with PPL. Once PPL is connected, your customers can choose a PPL pickup point or home delivery, and you can create PPL shipping labels in ShipDock.
You need a business contract with PPL and access to the PPL API. PPL support generates your Client Id and Client secret. If you don't have them yet, ask PPL, for example at [email protected].
Plan: Lite is enough to connect PPL and show PPL pickup points to customers. To create shipping labels through PPL, you need Full.
If you want to test first, ask PPL for test login details. Production login details usually don't work in test mode, and test details don't work in production.
In ShipDock, open Providers and click Create provider. You can also click Add a carrier on the ShipDock home page.
In the country selector, choose Czech Republic, the country you ship from.
On the PPL card, click Select. ShipDock creates the courier and opens its General tab.
In the Connection card, turn on Connect provider throught API.
In Connection mode, keep Production. Choose Sandbox / Development only while you test with PPL test login details.
Enter the Client Id and Client secret from PPL support.
In Sender details, fill in Name, Street, City, ZIP Code, Country, Phone and Email. They are printed on the label as the sender.
Optional: in COD Details, enter an IBAN and SWIFT if cash on delivery money should go to a different account than the one in your PPL contract.
In the Status panel, choose Active.
Click Save.
Note: A new courier starts with Connect provider throught API off and the status Inactive. The Sender details and COD Details cards appear only after you turn the connection on.
Important: In Sandbox / Development the labels go to PPL's test system. PPL will not pick those parcels up. Switch back to Production before you ship real orders.
Open the Pickup points and Home delivery tabs. Under Choose integration, pick how PPL reaches your checkout:
Manual rates mapping: select your existing Shopify shipping rates in Shipping rates mapping. For home delivery, also pick the PPL service for each rate, for example PPL Private (B2C).
CCS - Dynamic Rates: ShipDock calculates the rates for you. Your Shopify plan must allow carrier-calculated shipping rates.
CCS - Nearest Pickup Points (Pickup points tab only): the nearest PPL pickup points appear in checkout as shipping options.
Details are in How to set up shipping rates. To let customers pick a pickup point, add the widget: How to add the pickup point widget to the Thank you and Order status pages, or How to add the pickup point widget to checkout (Shopify Plus).
Each tab also has Automatically generate shipping labels (Order Fulfilled) and Automatically generate shipping labels (Order Created) (Full plan).
PPL Private (B2C): Czech Republic.
PPL Business (only B2B): Czech Republic, business recipients only.
PPL Morning Package: Czech Republic.
PPL Parcel Connect: 19 countries: AT, BE, BG, DE, DK, EE, FI, FR, GR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, NL, PL, SE, SK.
PPL Parcel Connect Plus: 26 countries: AT, BE, BG, CH, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IT, LT, LU, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, SE, SI.
PPL Smart Europe: PL, DE, SK.
Note: ShipDock does not send customs data for PPL. Check with PPL before you ship to CH, GB or NO.
Customers can choose PPL Parcelshops, PPL boxes and Alza boxes in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. To hide a type, open the Pickup points tab and use the Exclusion card (Parcelshop, PPL box, Alza box). The switches work only when the widget display mode is List with Map.
Important: DHL Packstations in Germany are listed among the PPL boxes. PPL delivers to a Packstation only with the customer's DHL Postnummer, which ShipDock sends when the order has an attribute named POSN. The widget does not ask for it. If you don't collect the Postnummer yourself, turn off PPL box in the Exclusion card (this hides PPL boxes in every country).
Home delivery: Yes, see the services above.
Pickup points: Yes, 8 countries.
Cash on delivery (COD): Yes, optional COD Details (IBAN, SWIFT).
Mark COD orders as paid automatically: Yes.
Cancel from the app: Yes, deleting the parcel in Orders also cancels it at PPL.
Test mode: Yes, Connection mode.
Age verification 18+: Yes, per order: Edit order → Verify age when dispensing (18+).
Insurance value: Yes, per order: Edit order → Override insurance value.
Label formats: PDF: Labels, A6 on A6 and Labels, A6 on A4, 4pcs/page (also with packing slips).
You can connect PPL once per store. After that the card shows Used.
The tracking number arrives a few seconds to about a minute after the label is created. ShipDock fetches it automatically, so wait a moment before you print.
If PPL refuses a cancellation (for example because the parcel was already handed over), ShipDock still removes the parcel from the order. Check the shipment with PPL.
"Provider connection is disabled. Please activate API connection with credentials in the provider detail." Turn on Connect provider throught API on the General tab and save.
Authentication or "unauthorized" error when creating a label. Check Client Id and Client secret for extra spaces, and that Connection mode matches them (test details with Sandbox / Development, production details with Production).
"Shopify Shipping Rate (…) in order not assigned in Shipping settings." Map that shipping rate on the PPL Pickup points or Home delivery tab.
"Pickup Point is missing. The user probably did not select it." The customer did not pick a pickup point. Set it on the order in ShipDock, then create the label.
I can't click Create provider or Select. Your store is on the Free plan or has no active subscription.
