About subscription timing

If you operate a business that uses a subscription model, a common problem is knowing when to ship product to your customers in order to hit an approximate delivery date. Shipium's Subscription Timing API solves that problem by using information about your business and shipping carrier transit times to recommend when to ship a given customer package.

It's probably obvious, but customers with the same desired subscription delivery date who live different distances from your warehouse may need different ship dates. This API will help you manage the flow of those shipments and hit the times your subscription customers expect.

How the Subscription Timing API works

Based on customer country and postal code, the desired delivery date for the shipment, and where your organization plans to ship the package from, the Subscription Timing API returns a recommendation for when you should ship it and when it should be released to your fulfillment center.

Depending on your organization, you may use one or both of these values as part of your flow. Most Shipium customers load a list of their subscriptions that have desired delivery dates in the next 15 days (or longer, depending on your longest shipping time) and check them against the API to determine whether they need to be dropped to their fulfillment center today or tomorrow. They then send shipment requests for the appropriate subset of shipments that need to be sent and wait on the rest.

Set up subscription timing for your organization

To start using Subscription Timing, you’ll need to complete the following steps. Your dedicated Shipium Implementation team member will assist you with each one.

1. Set up your Shipium account.
   You’ll set up your organization’s account within the Shipium platform.
2. Configure your fulfillment network.
   All warehouse or store origins and origin schedules are set up on the Shipium platform and configured to your organization's exact network properties.
3. Configure your time in transit (TNT) calculation hierarchy.
   Work with your Shipium contact to determine what hierarchy you want to use for TNTs, between Shipium calculated, your company's preferred overrides (if any), and defaults from the carrier. You can read more about TNT estimations here: Time in Transit Estimations.
4. Upload shipment data.
   TNTs are needed for the most accurate estimated delivery date, or EDD. You'll set up your preferred TNT structure and upload your organization’s historical shipment values. Shipium requests that you upload 12 months of data. Your Shipium contact will provide the format for this initial file upload and walk you through the process.

Use the Subscription Timing API

Use cases and sample calls are outlined in the Subscription Timing API documentation:

• Basic subscription timing (primary use case)
• Advanced subscription timing
• Subscription timing with ship option override
• Subscription timing with origin address postal code override
• Subscription timing with origin address override

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