Extensions › OptimalShip
OptimalShip Extension
DHL Express rates from your Optimal Logistics account at checkout, with your markup, insurance and delivery days. 7 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:WP Admin › EasyCart › Extensions › OptimalShip
Getting started
Connect OptimalShip
What you need and the account number every quote is priced with.
Before you start
What the extension needs, and your OptimalShip account number
no stored settingsWhat you need. A Premium license, with OptimalShip installed from EasyCart › Extensions, which also installs WP EasyCart Premium. WP EasyCart PRO, because DHL is a live rate. The settings page needs WP EasyCart 6.0.2 or newer, and quoting DHL alongside your other live rates needs WP EasyCart PRO 6.0.2 or newer. And an account with Optimal Logistics, the DHL Express reseller behind OptimalShip.
Your account number. It is the export/import number Optimal Logistics gave you. Paste it into Connection below, pick the country you ship from, save and press Check connection.
Live rates. Under Settings › Shipping, the store’s rate method must be Live shipping rates. DHL then shows on Settings › Shipping rates as a read-only row with a Settings link. You do not add it by hand.
International only. OptimalShip quotes shipments that leave your ship-from country. Set up another live carrier for orders at home, or those shoppers see no DHL choice.
💡 Note: Without a current Premium license the settings are read-only, but DHL keeps being quoted with the settings you saved.
Connection
The account OptimalShip prices your DHL shipments with.
4 settingsAccount number
Your export/import number from Optimal Logistics. Letters, digits and dashes only; spaces are removed. Saving asks OptimalShip for a sample quote and warns you if the number is turned down. It still saves, so fix it before you rely on DHL.
Ships from
The country your DHL shipments leave from, and the one DHL prices from. OptimalShip reads weights in pounds from the US and Puerto Rico and in kilograms from everywhere else. WP EasyCart converts your product weights and sizes for you.
Ship-from ZIP
Shown when you ship from the US. Only needed if you ship from Florida; leave it empty otherwise.
Check the connection
Check connection asks OptimalShip for a sample quote with your saved settings: a 12×10×6 inch parcel to London, or to New York when you ship from the UK. It answers with the price, the zone and the days in transit, or with OptimalShip’s reason for turning it down. Save the account number first.
At checkout
Price DHL your way
Where DHL is offered, what you add to it, and how the cart is boxed and insured.
Rates at checkout
Where DHL is offered and what shoppers see. Delivery days show when Settings › Shipping shows them for live rates.
5 settingsOffer DHL at checkout
Adds a DHL choice next to your other live rates. Turn it off to hide DHL without losing your settings.
Name at checkout
What shoppers see next to the price. Leave it empty for DHL Express Worldwide.
Countries
Where DHL is offered: All international, Only these countries, or All except some. DHL is never offered inside your ship-from country.
Which countries
The countries for Only these or All except. Shown when one of those is picked.
Free DHL over
A cart subtotal at or above this ships free by DHL. OptimalShip is still asked, so a country it does not serve still gets no DHL choice. Leave it empty to always charge.
⚠️ Careful: OptimalShip quotes US shipments in US dollars. If your store uses another currency, checkout shows OptimalShip’s amount as it is, and the status line says so. Ask Optimal Logistics which currency your account quotes in.
Pricing
OptimalShip adds these to the rate it returns.
6 settingsFuel surcharge
The fuel surcharge OptimalShip adds, as a percentage: 12.5 means 12.5%. Leave it empty to use OptimalShip’s current rate.
Your markup
Your own margin on top of DHL’s price. OptimalShip adds it before the rate reaches checkout, so shoppers only ever see the total. Flat adds an amount, Percent a share.
Markup amount
The amount for a flat markup, or the percentage: 10 means 10%. With this empty, no markup is added even when Flat or Percent is picked.
Added to
What the markup is added to. Total includes fuel and fees; Base rate is DHL’s rate before them, so a percentage on it comes out smaller.
Pay duties and taxes for customers
DHL’s duties-paid service. DHL bills you the destination’s duties and taxes instead of the customer at the door, and the quote includes DHL’s fee for the service.
Neutral delivery
Leaves prices and your details off the paperwork the recipient sees. Use it when you drop-ship for another seller.
💡 Note: Markup, fuel, duties-paid and neutral delivery are sent with every quote and priced by OptimalShip. Use Try a quote to see the total a shopper would pay.
Insurance and packing
What each quote covers and how the cart is boxed.
4 settingsInsure shipments for their value
Adds DHL’s Shipment Value Protection to every quote, priced into the rate shoppers pay.
Minimum insured amount
Every shipment is insured for at least this, in whole US dollars like OptimalShip’s quotes. Leave it empty for no minimum. Stores moved over from version 1.0 start with a $300 minimum, which is what 1.0 always insured.
Share of the order value to insure
How much of the order value to insure. 100% insures the value of the items shipped; the minimum above still applies when this comes out lower.
Quote your boxes
Your boxes packs the cart into the boxes on Settings › Shipping and quotes each box as its own DHL piece. One box quotes the whole cart as one piece. Without boxes set up, the cart is one piece either way.
Checking and fixing
Test before you go live
Quote any destination, and what to do when DHL goes missing.
Try a quote
Quotes any destination with your saved settings: markup, insurance and fuel.
no stored settingsPick a country, enter a postcode, city, weight and size, and the order value, then press Get quote. Weight and size are in your store’s units. The size starts as your default box; leave it empty to quote by weight alone.
The answer shows the total under your checkout name, then OptimalShip’s breakdown: base rate, each fee, the chargeable weight, the country zone, days in transit and the amount insured. When the order value is over Free DHL over, it says checkout would show DHL free. The request sent is shown too, with the account number masked, which helps when you ask Optimal Logistics about a price.
It uses your saved settings, so save changes first. A country OptimalShip does not serve answers with its reason.
When DHL does not show
The status line, pauses, refused countries and the log
no stored settingsThe Status line at the top of Connection says what is wrong:
Not set up: no account number yet.
Off at checkout: Offer DHL at checkout is off.
Account number not accepted: OptimalShip turned the number down. DHL stays off checkout until it is fixed.
Paused: OptimalShip did not answer, so DHL is left out until the time shown.
Last quote failed: with the reason and when.
Live rates off: Live shipping rates is not the store’s rate method.
Update needed: WP EasyCart PRO is missing or older than 6.0.2.
Checkout keeps working. Each quote waits at most 10 seconds. When OptimalShip is slow or down, DHL is left out for 5 minutes and every other rate shows as usual. A turned down account number pauses DHL for 15 minutes at a time, and the other EasyCart screens show a notice with a Check settings button until it is fixed. Remind me in a week hides that notice for you for a week.
Refused countries. When OptimalShip says it does not serve a country, DHL is not offered there for a day. Saving the account number, ship-from country or ZIP clears the pause, the refused countries and the last error.
Failed quotes are written to Settings › Logs under optimalship, with the request and the account number masked.
Keep going
Related panels
Boxes, the rate method and live rates.
Where DHL shows beside your other live rates.
Why a DHL quote failed.
Try the PRO features free for 14 days
Anything marked PRO comes with WP EasyCart PRO or Premium. Take the whole thing for a run on your own store before you decide.