Skip to main content
Sendcloud’s APIs are designed to mirror real-world shipping workflows while keeping automation, scalability, and flexibility at the core. If you’re already familiar with logistics concepts, this section explains how those concepts map to Sendcloud’s API model. If not, it provides a concise overview focused on how shipping is represented and handled within the platform. Understanding the relationship between orders, shipments, and parcels will help you design cleaner integrations, avoid duplicated logic, and take full advantage of Sendcloud’s automation features.

​
Orders: the commercial layer

In Sendcloud, an order represents the commercial side of a purchase. It answers questions such as:
  • What was sold?
  • Who is the customer?
  • Where should the purchase be delivered?
From an API perspective, an order is the structured representation of everything required to prepare a purchase for shipping. It typically contains:
  • Order identity and timestamps
  • Customer identification and contact details
  • Billing and shipping addresses
  • Line items with quantities and prices
  • Payment status and totals
  • Metadata about the source system (webshop, marketplace, ERP, or custom backend)
Orders are usually created from your upstream systems and synced into Sendcloud using the Orders API. They remain editable while they are in the preparation phase, making it easy to correct addresses, adjust line items, or update statuses before shipping begins.

​
Shipments: the fulfillment decision

A shipment represents the transition from order preparation to fulfillment. In Sendcloud’s model, creating a shipment means deciding how something will be shipped. This includes:
  • Which carrier service is used
  • Whether shipping rules or defaults apply
  • How many physical packages are required
  • What branding, contracts, and delivery preferences apply
Shipments are created via the Shipments API. This step applies Sendcloud’s automation layer — such as Shipping Rules and Shipping Defaults — and prepares the shipment for label generation and carrier handover. From an integration standpoint, shipments are where operational shipping decisions are finalized.

​
Parcels: the physical execution

Parcels represent the physical packages that are handed over to the carrier. In Sendcloud, parcels are defined as part of a shipment. Each parcel describes a single package and can include:
  • Weight and dimensions
  • Contents (items)
  • Insurance values
  • Label notes or carrier-specific instructions
This separation allows Sendcloud to accurately model both single-package and multi-package (multi-collo) shipments. For multi-collo shipments, each parcel can be configured independently, enabling precise control over packaging and carrier requirements. Once created, parcels are used to generate shipping labels and tracking information and form the basis for communication with carriers.

​
How the concepts fit together

At a high level, Sendcloud models shipping using three related — but not strictly dependent — layers: Orders describe the commercial context of a purchase: what was sold, to whom, and where it should be delivered. Shipments define how something will be shipped: which carrier service is used, where it ships from and to, and how many packages are involved. Parcels represent the physical packages that are handed to the carrier. These layers can be used together or independently, depending on your integration:
  • You can create shipments directly when you already have shipping-ready data and don’t need to store commercial order details in Sendcloud.
  • You can use orders as an upstream layer when you want to synchronize commercial data first and apply shipping decisions later.
  • Parcels always belong to a shipment, but a shipment does not require an order.
This flexible model allows you to keep commercial data, fulfillment decisions, and physical shipping details clearly separated — while still fully automating the end-to-end shipping workflow through the API, with optional visibility and manual intervention via the Sendcloud platform.