Important Update: USPS Rate Calculations in PDshop
Important Update: USPS Rate Calculations in PDshop
For many years, PDshop relied on the legacy USPS Web Tools API to provide real-time shipping rates directly within your online store. This integration allowed merchants to display accurate USPS shipping options to customers during checkout, ensuring transparency and convenience.
What was the legacy USPS API?
The USPS Web Tools API was a set of HTTP-based services that returned data in XML format. Merchants authenticated with a USPS Web Tools User ID. By sending an XML request over HTTPS, the API would return shipping costs, available services (Priority Mail, First-Class, Express, International), and estimated delivery times. PDshop and many other e-commerce platforms integrated this service to calculate rates automatically.
Why is it no longer working?
USPS is retiring its legacy Web Tools APIs. These older endpoints depended on basic User ID authentication and XML responses, which no longer meet modern security and performance standards. As a result, PDshop can no longer connect to USPS to retrieve rates. Any attempt to calculate USPS shipping costs through the old API will fail.
What’s the replacement?
USPS now provides modern REST APIs. They use secure authentication methods, return results in JSON, and offer improved performance, error handling, and long-term support.
What this means for PDshop merchants
USPS rates will no longer appear automatically in PDshop checkout. Merchants must either switch to flat-rate or table-based shipping within PDshop, or integrate USPS’s new REST API through custom development or third-party connectors.
Our recommendation
If USPS shipping is critical to your business, we recommend reviewing your current shipping setup in PDshop, considering flat-rate or weight-based shipping rules as an interim solution, and planning a migration to the USPS REST API for long-term compatibility.
Closing note
We understand this change may cause disruption, but it is driven by USPS’s retirement of their legacy Web Tools API. PDshop remains committed to helping merchants adapt, and we encourage you to explore modern shipping integrations to keep your checkout process seamless.
For many years, PDshop relied on the legacy USPS Web Tools API to provide real-time shipping rates directly within your online store. This integration allowed merchants to display accurate USPS shipping options to customers during checkout, ensuring transparency and convenience.
What was the legacy USPS API?
The USPS Web Tools API was a set of HTTP-based services that returned data in XML format. Merchants authenticated with a USPS Web Tools User ID. By sending an XML request over HTTPS, the API would return shipping costs, available services (Priority Mail, First-Class, Express, International), and estimated delivery times. PDshop and many other e-commerce platforms integrated this service to calculate rates automatically.
Why is it no longer working?
USPS is retiring its legacy Web Tools APIs. These older endpoints depended on basic User ID authentication and XML responses, which no longer meet modern security and performance standards. As a result, PDshop can no longer connect to USPS to retrieve rates. Any attempt to calculate USPS shipping costs through the old API will fail.
What’s the replacement?
USPS now provides modern REST APIs. They use secure authentication methods, return results in JSON, and offer improved performance, error handling, and long-term support.
What this means for PDshop merchants
USPS rates will no longer appear automatically in PDshop checkout. Merchants must either switch to flat-rate or table-based shipping within PDshop, or integrate USPS’s new REST API through custom development or third-party connectors.
Our recommendation
If USPS shipping is critical to your business, we recommend reviewing your current shipping setup in PDshop, considering flat-rate or weight-based shipping rules as an interim solution, and planning a migration to the USPS REST API for long-term compatibility.
Closing note
We understand this change may cause disruption, but it is driven by USPS’s retirement of their legacy Web Tools API. PDshop remains committed to helping merchants adapt, and we encourage you to explore modern shipping integrations to keep your checkout process seamless.
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