Integration of an Online Store with Courier and Logistics Services in Moldova

At a Glance

Once a customer has paid for an order on your website, processing it shouldn't turn into a series of manual tasks — re-entering the delivery address and product details in the courier company's account, calling a dispatcher, or filling out shipping documents by hand. With a courier service API integration, all these steps can be automated: as soon as an order is placed and paid for, the system automatically creates a shipment and generates an AWB (electronic waybill) with a barcode. All that's left is to print the label and either drop off the parcel at a courier branch or parcel locker, or use the same API to request a courier pickup from the specified address. In Moldova, Poșta Moldovei (through its Curier Rapid service) and Nova Post (formerly Nova Poshta, with parcel lockers throughout the country) offer publicly documented APIs for online stores. FAN Courier Moldova does not provide public API documentation, but technical integration is still possible — we've already implemented it for one of our clients. If a business operates its own delivery service, as in our flower delivery project yesflowers.md, the same automation can be achieved through a dedicated mobile app for couriers rather than an external carrier's API. Our technical integration with a single courier service starts at €800. Shipping charges and cash-on-delivery fees are paid directly to the carrier and are not included in development costs. Delivery delays and a frustrating checkout experience are genuine business concerns: according to Baymard Institute, 39% of users abandon checkout because of unexpected additional costs, including shipping, while 21?andon their orders because delivery takes too long.

Courier and Logistics Services in Moldova: What They Offer Online Stores

1. Poșta Moldovei — Curier Rapid with an Open E-commerce API

Moldova's national postal operator provides a dedicated, extensively documented API for online stores (ecommerce-api-documentation.posta.md), available through its Curier Rapid service. The API supports creating, retrieving, cancelling, and tracking shipments, calculating delivery costs in advance, generating AWBs in three formats — PDF, ZPL (for thermal label printers), and ESC — and accessing reference databases of cities, towns, streets, post offices, and parcel drop-off terminals. Access is granted through a customer account and requires a valid contract with Poșta Moldovei. Authentication is handled through a token included in the request header. Among the publicly available courier APIs in Moldova, this one offers the most comprehensive technical documentation.

2. Nova Post (Formerly Nova Poshta) — API, Parcel Lockers, and Ready-Made Plugins

Ukrainian logistics company Nova Poshta operates in Moldova under the local Nova Post brand and provides a dedicated developer portal with an API for generating electronic shipping documents, along with ready-made modules for popular e-commerce platforms, including a WooCommerce plugin. Business customers also have access to a separate platform, "Мій Nova Post", where they can create shipments and track parcels without interacting directly with the API. The company also offers fulfillment services, including inventory storage and order processing at the carrier's warehouses. One of the network's key advantages is its own parcel locker infrastructure (automated collection points), which can reduce delivery costs compared with door-to-door courier delivery.

3. FAN Courier Moldova — Nationwide Delivery and Shipping to Romania

Romanian courier company FAN Courier operates in Moldova through its local domain, fancourier.md. Its services include nationwide delivery of documents and parcels weighing up to 30 kg within 24–48 hours, cash-on-delivery payments transferred to senders within 2–3 business days, fulfillment services (FAN Fulfillment), and road freight delivery from Moldova to Romania. The company's public services page does not provide technical details about API integration for online stores. Unlike Poșta Moldovei and Nova Post, FAN Courier does not publish open API documentation. Nevertheless, integration is possible: we have already implemented such a connection for one of our clients. The difference is that technical access and integration requirements must be arranged individually with a company representative rather than through a public developer portal.

4. In-House Delivery Services — When Businesses Handle Deliveries Themselves

If a business operates its own fleet of couriers instead of working with an external carrier, automatic order transfer works differently. Rather than sending a request to a courier company's API, the order is forwarded to the business's own courier mobile app. Instead of generating a third-party carrier's AWB, the system creates an internal document, such as an electronic proof of delivery. This is how our project yesflowers.md works. The flower delivery service operates in Chișinău and more than 30 other cities across Moldova. Customers place and pay for their orders on the website, the orders are automatically transferred to the courier app, and couriers confirm delivery directly at the destination. The difference compared with integrations through Poșta Moldovei or Nova Post APIs is not the underlying principle — automatically transferring orders without manually duplicating data — but the fact that the entire process takes place within the business's own system rather than through an external courier provider's API.

How Automatic AWB Generation Works When Processing an Order

From a technical perspective, the process is similar for most courier service APIs, including those provided by Poșta Moldovei and Nova Post:

• Order paid → shipment created automatically. The website sends order details to the courier service through its API, including the recipient's address, parcel weight and dimensions, and the cash-on-delivery amount if applicable. There is no need for a manager to enter the same information manually in the carrier's account.
• The AWB is generated immediately, without an additional step. The API returns the shipment number and the electronic waybill, usually as a PDF or in a format suitable for thermal label printers (ZPL). From this point, there are two ways to dispatch the parcel.
• Option one — print the label and drop off the parcel yourself. A manager prints the generated AWB, attaches it to the parcel, and takes it to the nearest carrier branch or drop-off terminal. Since the shipping document has already been created, there is no need to re-enter the shipment details at the drop-off point.
• Option two — request a courier pickup through the API. Instead of dropping off the parcel, the store can use the courier service's API to request collection from its warehouse or retail location. The AWB must still be printed and attached to the parcel before the courier arrives — without a shipping label containing a barcode, the carrier will not accept the parcel. The difference between the two options is not the shipping document itself, but who transports the parcel to the carrier: the courier collects it from the warehouse or store instead of an employee travelling to a drop-off location.
• Delivery status updates automatically. As the parcel moves through the delivery network, the carrier provides status updates through its API (accepted, in transit, delivered). These updates can be displayed in the customer's account, allowing buyers to track their orders without contacting customer support to ask where their parcel is.

Choosing between dropping off parcels yourself and arranging courier pickups usually depends on shipment volume. If an online store handles only a few orders per day, taking parcels to a nearby branch may be simpler and more cost-effective. However, as the number of shipments grows, arranging pickups directly from the warehouse or store becomes more practical, since frequent trips to the carrier's location consume valuable employee time.

How Much Does Courier Service Integration Cost?

Technical website integration with a single courier service — including API connectivity for AWB generation, order transmission, and delivery status synchronization — starts at €800. This is more expensive than a standard payment gateway or CRM integration (starting at €300), because courier APIs typically cover more processes at once: shipping rate calculation, AWB generation in multiple formats, separate courier pickup requests, delivery status synchronization, and, when cash on delivery is used, payment reconciliation. If several carriers need to be connected — for example, Poșta Moldovei for regional deliveries and Nova Post for cities with parcel lockers — the overall cost increases with the number of integrations, but not as a simple multiple of the initial price. Some of the system's functionality, such as order creation and delivery status management, can be reused across integrations.

Shipping fees and cash-on-delivery processing charges are paid directly by the business to the carrier and are not included in development costs. Exact rates should be confirmed with each carrier before launch. However, according to publicly available sources, indicative prices for 2026 are as follows: Poșta Moldovei offers the lowest delivery costs (25–35 MDL), but also has the highest cash-on-delivery commission (approximately 3%, or a fixed minimum of 5–8 MDL), with delivery taking 2–4 business days; Nova Post charges more for delivery (40–55 MDL), but offers a lower cash-on-delivery commission (approximately 1.5%, minimum 10 MDL), as well as a more affordable parcel locker delivery option; FAN Courier charges from 50–60 MDL for the first kilogram, with a cash-on-delivery commission of approximately 1–1.5% plus a fixed fee of around 5 MDL. These figures have not been verified directly against the carriers' official price lists and should be confirmed before being presented as established facts (see the publication notes for further details).

When Is Delivery Automation Necessary, and When Can You Manage Without It?

• Low order volume (a few orders per day) — API integration may not be necessary. Shipping documents can be created manually through the carrier's online account or mobile app. This approach does not require development work, but an employee must spend time processing each order.
• Automation becomes cost-effective when repeatedly entering the same information (addresses, products, amounts) into the carrier's system starts taking up a significant amount of managers' time, or when manual data entry has already caused errors, such as incorrect delivery addresses or missing cash-on-delivery amounts.
• Working with multiple courier services simultaneously is almost always a strong reason to introduce integration. Without automation, managers must remember which carrier's account to use for each region or order type, increasing the risk of mistakes.
• Cash on delivery and payment reconciliation are another reason to automate. When some orders are paid for upon receipt, automatically synchronizing delivery statuses and payments received from carriers eliminates the need to manually check which orders have been paid for and which payments are still outstanding.

How We Implement Courier Integrations at ilab.md

We integrate courier service APIs directly into the application code using PHP/CodeIgniter, following the same approach we use for payment gateway integrations and data exchange with 1C. This avoids relying on third-party, ready-made modules that may not support the required carrier or certain features, such as requesting courier pickups rather than simply printing shipping labels. If a client operates an in-house delivery service instead of working with an external carrier, we develop a dedicated mobile app for couriers using React Native. This approach is used in our yesflowers.md project, where couriers receive orders and confirm deliveries through the company's own application rather than a third-party carrier's account. We determine which solution — an external courier service API integration or a custom courier mobile app — best suits each business during the project assessment stage, rather than recommending the same approach to every client.

Sources

Posta Moldovei E-Commerce API — documentation
Nova Post — developer integration platform
Nova Post Moldova — official website
FAN Courier Moldova — services
Curierat și logistică e-commerce în Moldova: ghid integrări și tarife — Keywords.md
How to Reduce Cart Abandonment — Baymard Institute