An order is not complete until the goods reach the customer, and getting them there is the business of delivery methods and shipping carriers. This piece is about them in Odoo.
Delivery methods
A delivery method, in Odoo, is a way that goods can be delivered to a customer. A business may offer more than one delivery method, different ways or speeds of getting goods to customers, and a delivery method is chosen for an order. Delivery methods are how the options for getting goods to customers are represented in the system, so that an order can be fulfilled by a defined delivery method rather than delivery being unstructured.
Shipping carriers
Many businesses deliver goods through shipping carriers: the carriers that physically transport the goods to customers. Odoo supports integrating with shipping carriers, so that delivery through a carrier is connected to the system. Carrier integration can support things like determining the shipping for an order through the carrier and generating the shipping documentation and tracking. The point of carrier integration is that delivery through a carrier is handled within the connected system rather than as a separate, manual activity alongside it.
Why this matters
Delivery methods and shipping carriers matter because delivery is the final step of fulfilling an order, the step where the goods actually reach the customer, and it is the step the customer experiences most directly. Delivery handled well, with the right methods offered and carriers integrated, means delivery is a managed, tracked part of the order rather than a loose end. Delivery handled poorly, unstructured, disconnected from the system, means a fulfilment step that is hard to manage and hard to give the customer good information about. Setting up delivery methods and shipping carriers is part of making fulfilment complete and managed.
Delivery as part of the connected flow
The value of handling delivery within Odoo is that delivery becomes part of the connected order flow. An order, once confirmed, flows into fulfilment, the goods are picked from inventory, and the delivery, by a chosen delivery method, possibly through an integrated carrier, gets them to the customer, and that whole flow is connected and tracked. The business can see, for an order, how it is being delivered and whether it has been. Delivery is not a disconnected final activity; it is the last part of the connected quote-to-delivery flow. Setting up delivery methods and carrier integration is what brings delivery into that connected flow.
Setting it up to match how the business delivers
The practical work is to set up delivery methods and carriers to match how the business genuinely delivers: the delivery options it genuinely offers, the carriers it genuinely uses. Set up to match the genuine delivery operation, the delivery methods and carrier integration let Odoo handle delivery as the business actually does it. A business should be clear about how it delivers and configure accordingly.
The takeaway
Delivery methods and shipping carriers in Odoo handle the physical getting of goods to customers. Delivery methods represent the ways a business can deliver, so an order is fulfilled by a defined method. Shipping carrier integration connects delivery through carriers to the system, supporting shipping and tracking. Together they make delivery a managed, tracked part of the connected order flow rather than a disconnected final activity. Set them up to match how the business genuinely delivers. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.