Register a Merchant as a Known Shipper¶

HTTP Request¶

POST /v2/developers/{developerId}/merchants/registration

Summary¶

This operation registers a merchant as a known shipper with Pitney Bowes and provides the merchant with a unique Shipper ID. Use this operation if you use a Pitney Bowes Bulk Postage Account to manage funds on behalf of your merchants. A merchant must have a physical U.S. address to obtain a Shipping ID. Merchants cannot use P.O. Boxes as addresses.

To learn more about Bulk Postage Accounts, please contact Client Support at ClientSupportTechServices@pb.com. See also Merchant Enrollment Models.

Request URLs¶

Sandbox: https://shipping-api-sandbox.pitneybowes.com/shippingservices/v2/developers/{developerId}/merchants/registration
Production: https://shipping-api.pitneybowes.com/shippingservices/v2/developers/{developerId}/merchants/registration

Path Parameter¶

Name

Description

developerId

Required. Your Pitney Bowes developer ID.

Request Headers¶

Name

Description

Authorization

Required. OAuth token generated using the Generate an OAuth Token API.

Content-Type

Required. The media type of the request entity. Set this to application/json.

X-PB-UnifiedErrorStructure

Recommended. Set this to true to use the standard error object if an error occurs.

Request Elements¶

Name	Data Type	Description
name	String	Required. The merchant’s first and last name.
email	String	Required. The email address.
company	String	The name of the company. The company field is required if the merchant is incorporated. It should be left out if the merchant is not incorporated. Include this field only if the merchant is incorporated. Required if the merchant is incorporated.
phone	String	Required. A valid 10-digit number. The string should contain 10 numeric characters and no additional characters. For example: `"8442566444"`
addressLines	Array[String]	Required. Street address, including apartment number if applicable. You can specify up to 3 address lines. The address cannot be a P.O. Box.
cityTown	String	The city or town name. Required if `postalCode` is absent.
stateProvince	String	The state or province name. For US addresses, use the 2-letter state code. Required if `postalCode` is absent. In some cases where `cityTown` is a unique name within the country, this can be left out even if `postalCode` is absent, but the best practice is to include this field when `postalCode` absent.
postalCode	String	The Postal or ZIP code. For US addresses, either the 5-digit or 9-digit ZIP code. Required if `cityTown` and `stateProvince` are absent.
countryCode	String	Required. Two-character country code from the ISO country list.

Response Elements¶

Name	Data Type	Description
postalReportingNumber	String	The unique ID used to identify the merchant. This value is the merchant’s Shipper ID. You must specify Shipper ID when creating a shipment.
developerId	String	Your Pitney Bowes developer ID.
fullName	String	The merchant’s full name.
company	String	The merchant’s company.
email	String	The merchant’s email address.
registeredDate	Number	The date the merchant’s account was created, shown as milliseconds since the Unix Epoch. You can convert the date to human-readable form by rounding from milliseconds to seconds and then using the Unix timestamp conversion algorithm, or by using a website that converts milliseconds since the Epoch.
deactivatedDate	String	This field is `null`.
paymentAccountNumber	String	The identifier for the PB Postage Account.
enterpriseAccount	String	An enterprise account number associated with the merchant.
subscriptionAccount	String	Any subscription account that the merchant might have.
merchantStatus	String	The merchant’s status. This is set to `ACTIVE`.
merchantStatusReason	String	This field is `null`.
merchantType	String	This is set to `KNOWN_SHIPPER`.
paymentServicesAccountId	String	This field is `null`.
paymentServicesAccountIdActive	Boolean	This is set to `false`.

Sample Request¶

curl -X POST ".../v2/developers/12345678/merchants/registration" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <oauth_token>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-PB-UnifiedErrorStructure: true" \
-d '
{
    "name": "James Wright",
    "email": "james@example.com",
    "company": "Supplies Inc",
    "phone": "6070000000",
    "addressLines": [
        "1 Atwell Rd",
        "Unit 302"
    ],
    "cityTown": "Cooperstown",
    "stateProvince": "NY",
    "postalCode": "13326",
    "countryCode": "US"
}'

Sample Response¶

{
    "postalReportingNumber": "902455555",
    "developerId": "12345678",
    "fullName": "James Wright",
    "company": "Supplies Inc",
    "email": "james@example.com",
    "registeredDate": 1600705393223,
    "deactivatedDate": null,
    "paymentAccountNumber": "1234567",
    "enterpriseAccount": "2345678",
    "subscriptionAccount": "3456789",
    "merchantStatus": "ACTIVE",
    "merchantStatusReason": null,
    "merchantType": "KNOWN_SHIPPER",
    "paymentServicesAccountId": null,
    "paymentServicesAccountIdActive": false
}

Error Codes¶

For a list of all error codes returned by the PB Shipping APIs, please see Error Codes.