You can create shipments from orders, and it is possible to create multiple shipments from a single order. A shipment represents a grouping of order line items that you can ship to a customer.
The V2 Shipping API allows you to manage shipping zones, shipping methods, and shipping carrier connections.
The Order Shipments resource creates a shipment for an order. You can specify the shipping provider, tracking number, and shipping address ID when creating a shipment.
The REST Storefront Checkout API, GraphQL Storefront, and REST Management Checkouts API provide methods for managing a checkout up until the point when you finalize it into an order. Because you can only create shipments from finalized orders, you cannot create a shipment from Checkout API endpoints.
However, all of the listed APIs provide methods for creating a consignment that specifies the line items that should ship to a particular address. Creating a consignment corresponds with the actions that a shopper might take when filling out the storefront checkout page and assigning the items in their basket to their respective shipping destinations.
A checkout will always have one consignment assigned to it, which is the first shipping address. A consignment supports multiple shipping addresses, with each address having its own line items.
The Order Shipping Addresses endpoint allows you to view the shipping addresses on an order. An order can have more than one shipping address.
You can configure shipping zones in the control panel or use the API to designate where a merchant ships their products and with which shipping methods should be available in each geographic region.
An example of a shipping zone might be North America. Within that shipping zone, the shipping methods might be Free Shipping, Ship-by-Weight, and USPS.
BigCommerce offers native integrations with many real-time shipping carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and USPS. The Shipping Carrier Connection resource allows you to connect an account for one of our natively supported shipping carrier integrations.
For a list of all supported carriers, see Real-Time Quote Providers.