I am just about to open my online store after working on it for nearly a year. As I was going through the CS Cart Knowledge Base on setting up the shipping with Canada Post and after contacting Canada Post to get a merchant ID number, I have learned that they no longer issue merchant ID numbers as of August 28, 2012. Merchants must become “developers” and figure out the complex platform and integration or hire a developer. Canada Post has no idea how to set the online store integration up. Th The agent I talked to does not even know if it has been set up or used by anyone yet! What do new CS Cart merchants do to get Canada Post shipping enabled? Do we have to hire a developer? What does it cost?
I have learned that the Canada Post settings have a manual option to set up. The Canada Post developers website for E-commerce platforms is still very new. Fortunately CS Cart allows for many options in relation to the shipping settings. The other factor to consider is that when a shopping cart is integrated with Canada Post, there is no credit given to your local post office for the mailed items. For those who have an interest in supporting their local post office, the Canada Post E-Commerce integration means that all the profit margin on the parcels you mail goes straight to Canada Post, regardless of where you drop off the packages. So far, the Canada Post developers website has seemed the least user friendly of all the steps involved in setting up the store thus far. Regardless, I still believe that I chose the right shopping cart.
I discussed this with the CS-Cart Helpdesk team and was told that the new Canada Post API will be integrated in a future update of CS-Cart by their developers.
I know it doesn't help you right now, but it's something.