About Ship from Anywhere

Ship from Anywhere lets you run carrier selection and generate labels for shipments that leave from locations you haven't configured individually in your network. Instead of setting up an origin for every store, vendor, or drop-ship location, you supply the ship-from address on each API request.

The feature is primarily used for API-based carrier selection and label generation when shipping from a store or similar location. It also works when small vendors ship directly from their own locations to your customers without routing through one of your fulfillment centers.

Ship from Anywhere is also called At Large. The Shipium Console uses both names: a fulfillment context of this type is labeled At Large, while the Print Labels tool offers Ship from Anywhere. In API requests, the value is at_large.

This page covers domestic US Ship from Anywhere shipments. If you plan to use Ship from Anywhere for international shipments, contact your Shipium team member.

Configure your Shipium account to support Ship from Anywhere

Ship from Anywhere requires an At Large fulfillment context. Your Shipium team member enables the feature for your organization and works with you to configure it. They'll need the following from you:

• The return address that should appear on Ship from Anywhere labels
• The return-to address that should be used for communication with the carrier, if different from the return address shown
• The carriers and service methods you want available for Ship from Anywhere shipments

An At Large fulfillment context has an origin, like any other fulfillment context. That origin supplies the shipping schedule, cutoff times, and contact details that apply to your Ship from Anywhere shipments. What it doesn't supply is the ship-from address, which comes from each API request instead.

Which carriers are available

Any carrier configured on your At Large fulfillment context can be used, provided that carrier has zone coverage for the location you're shipping from.

Because the ship-from address changes with each request, carrier availability can vary between shipments. When a carrier service method has no zone for a given ship-from postal code, it's excluded from that shipment's carrier selection. Other configured service methods continue to compete normally.

If no configured service method has zone coverage for the ship-from location, carrier selection returns a status of no_decision.

Coverage is broadest with national carriers and more variable with regional carriers. Non-contiguous states and US territories may have narrower coverage than the contiguous US, so if you ship from those locations it is worth confirming which methods are available before you rely on them.

Cutoff times and ship dates

Cutoff times apply to Ship from Anywhere shipments, and they follow the same precedence as any other shipment. If you have a carrier schedule configured for the carrier and service method being considered, that schedule's shipping days and cutoff times are used, and they override the origin schedule rather than adding to it. If no carrier schedule matches, the shipping days, weekday cutoff, and weekend cutoff on the origin schedule are used.

Whichever schedule applies, cutoffs are evaluated in the time zone of the ship-from address on the request, not the time zone of the configured origin. A single schedule with a 5:00 PM cutoff behaves as 5:00 PM local time at every location you ship from. A shipment leaving a store in Los Angeles and a shipment leaving a store in New York on the same day are each measured against 5:00 PM in their own time zone.

Estimated delivery dates

Estimated delivery dates are calculated for Ship from Anywhere shipments using Shipium's time in transit sources.

Carrier selection rules

Carrier selection rules apply to Ship from Anywhere shipments. Because these shipments don't originate from a specific configured origin, rules that match on origin won't apply to them. To scope a rule to Ship from Anywhere shipments by location, use the Use Ship From Country/Region/Postal Codes option in Origin Matching.

Generate a Ship from Anywhere label

If you aren't already familiar with Shipium's Carrier Selection APIs, start with the Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API documentation, as this document assumes familiarity with the standard API. Ship from Anywhere requests use that API with two additions: the at_large value for fulfillmentType, and a shipFromAddress.

As with other API calls, this assumes you're using one of the authentication mechanisms detailed in our authentication documentation.

Example cURL call

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.shipium.com/api/v1/shipment/carrierselection/label \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header $AUTHSTRING \
  --header 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data 'INSERT REQUEST BODY FROM BELOW'

Example request body snippet

To use Ship from Anywhere for a shipment, add "fulfillmentType": "at_large" to shipmentParameters (or multiParcelShipmentParameters for multiparcel shipments) and provide a shipFromAddress. Both are required. For a multiparcel shipment, the ship-from address is supplied once for the whole shipment rather than per parcel.

{
  "shipmentParameters": {
    "fulfillmentType": "at_large",
    "shipFromAddress": {
      "addressType": "commercial",
      "city": "Albuquerque",
      "company": "ACME",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "name": "L. Merfudd",
      "postalCode": "87121",
      "state": "NM",
      "street1": "123 Main St.",
      "street2": "Suite 42"
    },
    "destinationAddress": {
      "countryCode": "US",
      "postalCode": "53719"
    }
  }
}

Specify a fulfillment context

If your organization has more than one At Large fulfillment context, include fulfillmentContextIds in your request to identify which one to use. You can supply either the Shipium-generated fulfillment context ID or your own partner provided ID, both of which are described in Fulfillment Contexts.

{
  "shipmentParameters": {
    "fulfillmentType": "at_large",
    "fulfillmentContextIds": ["d7e7cda6-9948-43fb-b595-f8b230f6b1a8"],
    "shipFromAddress": {
      "addressType": "commercial",
      "city": "Albuquerque",
      "company": "ACME",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "name": "L. Merfudd",
      "postalCode": "87121",
      "state": "NM",
      "street1": "123 Main St.",
      "street2": "Suite 42"
    }
  }
}

If you send fulfillmentType set to at_large without fulfillmentContextIds, Shipium identifies the context by type. This works when your organization has exactly one At Large fulfillment context. If your organization has more than one, the request fails because the correct context can't be determined.

Generate a Ship from Anywhere label in the Shipium Console

You can also create Ship from Anywhere labels using the Print Labels tool in the Shipium Console.

In the Addresses step, leave the fulfillment context field empty, select Ship from Anywhere from the Fulfillment Type dropdown, and enter the address you're shipping from. Name, address, city, state, and postal code are required.

FAQ

Q: Which features of the Carrier and Method Selection & Shipment Label API work with Ship from Anywhere?
A: Carrier selection, rate shopping, label configuration and augmentations, third party billing, shipment tags, tenants, packaging, shipment lanes, returns settings, and delivery promise all work with Ship from Anywhere. Injection shipping is not configurable on an At Large fulfillment context.

Q: Can I set a cutoff time for Ship from Anywhere shipments?
A: Yes. Cutoff times configured on your At Large fulfillment context's origin schedule apply to Ship from Anywhere shipments, as do any carrier schedules that override it. Whichever applies is evaluated in the time zone of each shipment's ship-from address.

Q: Can I have more than one At Large fulfillment context?
A: Yes. Include fulfillmentContextIds in your request to identify which one to use. If you have exactly one, you can omit it.

Q: My request returned an error about the ship-from address. What's wrong?
A: Ship from Anywhere requests require a shipFromAddress containing a postal code. A request with no shipFromAddress fails with "Cannot proceed with at_large shipment with no shipFromAddress provided." A request with a shipFromAddress whose postal code is empty fails with "null or empty fromPostalCode detected."

Q: Carrier selection returned fewer carriers than I expected, or no decision at all. Why?
A: A carrier service method is excluded from a Ship from Anywhere shipment when it has no zone coverage for the ship-from location. To see which methods were excluded and why, go to Delivery Reporting → Shipment Search in the Shipium Console and open the shipment. In the Service Method section, an excluded method shows a Selection Status of Filtered along with the reason. Note that methods filtered this way are not included in evaluated service methods in the API response. If no configured service method has coverage for the ship-from location, carrier selection returns no_decision.

Resources

Your Shipium team member is available to help along the way. However, you might find these resources helpful:

• Terms and Definitions

• Troubleshooting Guide

• Contact Shipium Support