Retail3000 has a feature to announce saleorders at parcel services like Post NL. At this moment only Post NL is available, and 'RetailVista' itself. The last one is used as a kind of dummy parcel services. The reason for that parcel service type is that it's possible to send an email to the final customer of a webshop order, as soon as the order has been announced at a parcel service. When no contract with (for example Post NL) is available, the usage of 'RetailVista' as a fake parcel service still makes it possible to send an email to the final customer, with the details of the parcel to be sent.

In Parcel Maintenance, it's possible to activate the sending process of an email, as soon as a parcel has been announced at that parcel service. Just simply check the option 'Send email announcement'. The preferred way to announce a parcel at a parcel service is by importing the reservation in RetailVista POS and closing that transaction. From that moment, the reservation is announced at a parcel service. A parcel service like Post NL will respond with a 3S track and trace barcode, but also with label data to be printed.

After a succesfull announcement, Retail3000 will send a parcel announcement email. The email being sent isn't going directly to the final user. Instead, it has XML content with all metadata about the parcel(s) to be sent. That mail should be translated into a nice looking email by a social media branding partner, perhaps with company logo etcetera. The content of the mail exists of a plain xml body text, based on an xsd schema. In store maintenance in RetailVista, the 'from' email address and 'to' email adresses can be configured, together with the requested xsd schema to be used when composing a message. The configured xsd schema won't change in future updates, so even when newer and possible richer versions of announcement xml's become available, it's up to the RetailVista user to change the xsd schema in store maintenance to a more recent xsd.

Below is an example of the plain textbody of a parcel announcement email. Please be aware that not all elements are required elements, some are optionally available, based on the parcel to be sent. Check the parcel announcement xsd to see which elements are required and optional.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Announcement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ns="http://retail3000.net/ParcelAnnouncement/ParcelAnnouncementXsdV1">
  <StoreInfo>
    <CompanyNumber>33</CompanyNumber>
    <CompanyName>POS4All conversie (company)</CompanyName>
    <StoreName>Vestiging 1</StoreName>
    <StoreNumber>1</StoreNumber>
    <ContractNumber>8229</ContractNumber>
  </StoreInfo>
  <ParcelInfo>
    <ParcelPartnerType>PostNL</ParcelPartnerType>
    <DeliveryProductCode>3085</DeliveryProductCode>
    <NumberOfParcels>1</NumberOfParcels>
    <MainParcelBarcode>
    </MainParcelBarcode>
    <ReservationNumber>1548</ReservationNumber>
    <CustomerReference>2014.11.0007</CustomerReference>
  </ParcelInfo>
  <SendingCustomer>
    <Name>NedFox</Name>
    <Contact>jkl, Fam. wj jkl </Contact>
    <Email>mark@nedfox.nl</Email>
  </SendingCustomer>
  <SendingAddress>
    <Address>Techniekweg 10-2b</Address>
    <AddressDescription>adres regel 2</AddressDescription>
    <AttentionOf>
    </AttentionOf>
    <County>Flevoland</County>
    <ZipCode>8304AW</ZipCode>
    <City>EMMELOORD</City>
    <CountryDescription>Nederland</CountryDescription>
    <CountryIsoCode>NL</CountryIsoCode>
  </SendingAddress>
  <DestinationCustomer>
    <CustomerNumber>150001</CustomerNumber>
    <Name>Fidder, Dhr. J</Name>
    <Email>jos@nedfox.nl</Email>
    <CellPhone>
    </CellPhone>
    <LandLinePhone>
    </LandLinePhone>
  </DestinationCustomer>
  <DestinationAddress>
    <Address>Vierkom 23</Address>
    <AddressDescription>Tegenover fruitkraam</AddressDescription>
    <AttentionOf>
    </AttentionOf>
    <County>Zuid Holland</County>
    <ZipCode>8322MZ</ZipCode>
    <City>HAARLEM</City>
    <CountryDescription>Nederland</CountryDescription>
    <CountryIsoCode>NL</CountryIsoCode>
  </DestinationAddress>
  <AlternateDeliveryAddress>
    <Address>Antwerpsestraatweg 165-B</Address>
    <AddressDescription></AddressDescription>
    <AttentionOf>
    </AttentionOf>
    <County>Zuid Holland</County>
    <ZipCode>8582KQ</ZipCode>
    <City>AMSTERDAM</City>
    <CountryDescription>Nederland</CountryDescription>
    <CountryIsoCode>NL</CountryIsoCode>
  </AlternateDeliveryAddress>
  <ParcelRows>
    <ParcelRow>
      <TrackTraceBarcode>3STEST262799755</TrackTraceBarcode>
      <AnnouncementDateTime>2014-11-24T13:19:13.5184074+01:00</AnnouncementDateTime>
    </ParcelRow>
  </ParcelRows>
</Announcement>