Shipping Checkout: How It Works and How to Integrate

CDON is introducing the new Shipping Checkout together with our partner Ingrid, a new delivery experience that shows customers clearer, more specific delivery information directly in the checkout: a concrete delivery date, the carrier and delivery method, and — where possible — a choice between delivery options.

What a customer sees for your products is determined entirely by the delivery data you provide. The more complete your data, the richer the experience. You set this up in Merchant Center, with no development work required. This article explains how Shipping Checkout works, how the delivery level is determined for each order, and exactly what you need to do to be ready.

Why this matters

The delivery step is one of the most decisive moments in the purchase. When customers know exactly when and how their order will arrive, they are more likely to complete the purchase, more likely to be satisfied after delivery, and less likely to contact support.

A more complete delivery experience tends to lead to:

• Higher conversion — fewer customers abandon checkout when the delivery promise is clear and specific.
• Higher post-delivery satisfaction — realistic, concrete promises reduce disappointment and disputes.
• Fewer "where is my order?" tickets — customers who know the date and carrier ask fewer questions.

The three delivery levels

Shipping Checkout renders the highest level your data supports for each article and order. There are three levels, each building on the one below it.

Level 1 – Delivery Date (base level / fallback)

The customer sees an estimated delivery date (a date range).

• What the customer sees: "Estimated delivery: 12–14 Sept"
• What drives it: your configured shipping times for the market, including both handling and transit time.
• This is the minimum level. As long as your articles are correctly configured, every order gets at least a delivery date.

Level 2 – Delivery Details

Everything in Level 1, plus the carrier and delivery method, so the customer knows how the item arrives.

• What the customer sees: "Estimated delivery: 12–14 Sept · PostNord · Home delivery" or "… · Pickup point"
• What drives it: Level 1 data plus one shipping configuration applying to the article.

Level 3 – Delivery Choice

Everything in Level 2, plus the ability for the customer to choose between delivery options (different carriers and/or methods and/or pickup points) directly in the checkout.

• What the customer sees: a set of selectable options, e.g. "PostNord — Home delivery, 12–14 Sept" vs. "Instabox — Pickup point, 11–13 Sept".
• What drives it: Level 1 data plus two or more shipping configurations applying to the article.

How the delivery level is determined

You never choose a level directly. Shipping Checkout derives it from how many of your shipping configurations apply to the article in that market:

Two or more configurations apply → Level 3 (Delivery Choice)

One configuration applies → Level 2 (Delivery Details)

No configuration applies → Level 1 (Delivery Date), built from your existing shipping times

You will never block a sale by having incomplete data. If no configuration applies, Shipping Checkout falls back to Delivery Date. The trade-off is simply a less compelling delivery experience — and, at Level 3, the loss of the conversion benefit that comes from letting customers choose.

The level is evaluated per market and can differ from article to article, because it depends on which configurations apply to that specific article and destination. 

What you need to provide

Shipping times work exactly as they do today and are set where you set them today. Shipping configurations are new, and are created in Merchant Center.

Carrier information is already part of CDON's delivery policy — see Delivery Policy - Carrier and Tracking ID.

Setting up your shipping configurations in Merchant Center

A shipping configuration describes one way you ship to a market — for example "PostNord home delivery to Sweden" or "Instabox pickup point to Sweden". You create one configuration per delivery option you want to be able to offer.

To create a configuration:

1. Log in to Merchant Center and go to Shipping. 
2. Select the market the configuration applies to.
3. Choose the carrier and delivery method from CDON's list of supported options. You select from this list rather than entering a carrier freely — it's the same list Ingrid uses to resolve delivery options in the checkout.
4. Set the show by default toggle (see below).
5. Save.

Create one configuration per delivery option, per market. Configurations don't contain delivery times — the dates the customer sees still come from your delivery times.

Show by default

Each configuration has a show by default toggle. Configurations with the toggle on make up your default set: any article you haven't mapped explicitly offers exactly those options.

This lets you keep a configuration available without offering it everywhere. For example, if you offer home delivery that only makes sense for bulky articles, create the configuration but leave show by default off, then map it to just those articles.

Choosing configurations per article

By default, every article inherits your default set. You can override this per article and market:

• Use default — the article offers your show by default configurations. This is the starting state.
• Choose configurations — the article offers exactly the configurations you pick.

You'll find this control on the article in Merchant Center. If you manage articles through the article API, you can set the same mapping there using the shipping configuration field, with the configuration IDs from Merchant Center.

Note that this is a single setting with two ways to edit it, not two separate settings: whichever you change last is what applies. The configurations themselves are always created in Merchant Center.

Keeping configurations current

Because configurations now drive what the customer sees in the checkout, review them whenever the carriers or delivery methods you use change. An article that ends up with no applicable configuration falls back to Delivery Date — the sale still goes through, but you lose the richer experience.

How to integrate

Most merchants don't need to integrate anything. Shipping configurations are created in Merchant Center, and mapping articles to them can be done there too. If that's how you work, the section above is all you need.

If you manage articles through the article API: you can set the per-article configuration mapping in your feed instead of in Merchant Center, using the configuration IDs from Merchant Center. Field definitions and formats are in the CDON Shipping Checkout API documentation.

If you use an integration partner: your configurations are still set up in Merchant Center. Contact your partner only if you want the per-article mapping handled in your feed rather than in Merchant Center.

Worked example

Say you sell to the Swedish market. It takes you 2 days to process and ship an order, and you use two carriers:

• PostNord — home delivery, 3–5 days transit
• Instabox — pickup point, 2–4 days transit

Your shipping times should reflect the full end-to-end time, not just the carrier's transit:

• min: 4 (your 2 days handling + 2 days fastest transit)
• max: 7 (your 2 days handling + 5 days slowest transit)

In Merchant Center you create two configurations for Sweden — one for PostNord home delivery, one for Instabox pickup point — and leave show by default on for both. Because two configurations now apply to your articles, they qualify for Level 3, and the customer can choose between the two options in the checkout.

If you created no configurations at all, the same order would fall back to Level 1 — a delivery date only. The sale still goes through, but you lose the conversion benefit of letting the customer choose.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a developer to reach Levels 2 and 3? No. Configurations are created in Merchant Center, and articles can be mapped to them there. Feed and API access is an alternative for the per-article mapping, not a requirement.

Why do some of my articles only show a delivery date (Level 1)? No configuration applies to that article in that market — either you haven't created any for the market, or the article is mapped to Choose configurations with nothing selected, or your default set is empty because no configuration has show by default on.

Can I control which carriers are offered? Yes, by choosing which configurations you create and which of them are shown by default or mapped to an article. You select carriers and delivery methods from CDON's list of supported options, so you can't add a carrier CDON doesn't support.

Can I choose which level my articles get? Not directly. The level follows from how many configurations apply — one gives Delivery Details, two or more gives Delivery Choice.

I edited the mapping in Merchant Center but my feed changed it back. The per-article mapping is one setting with two edit paths, so the most recent write applies. If you manage it in your feed, make the change there.

Will incomplete data stop my products from selling? No. Shipping Checkout always falls back to the highest level your data supports. Incomplete data only means a less complete delivery experience, never a blocked sale.

Does this change how I configure shipping times? No. Shipping times continue to work exactly as before. Shipping Checkout builds on top of them. Keeping them accurate is more important than ever, because they now drive the date customers see in the checkout.

Quick checklist: Are you ready for Shipping Checkout?

• Have you created a shipping configuration in Merchant Center for every delivery option you offer, in every market you sell to?
• Have you set show by default on the configurations you want offered on all articles?
• For articles that should differ, have you mapped them explicitly with Choose configurations?
• Do you have two or more configurations applying per market where possible, so customers get a choice (Level 3)?
• Are your shipping times accurate and set per market, including both handling and transit time?
• Have you double-checked that your delivery dates are realistic, so the checkout doesn't promise more than you can deliver?