Introducing Google Routes for Commerce

We recently had the opportunity to work on an interesting integration for Commerce: building a shipping method based on the Google Routes API. Today we're excited to release that as a new free extension.

Special thanks to Ravenflight for sponsoring the work on this extension.

The Google Routes API is fairly new, and will replace the Directions API offered on the Maps platform. It is currently in preview, and will be Generally Available on March 8th.

With our new shipping method for Commerce, you configure your origin address, a base price, and a price per mile/kilometer. The price is automatically calculated based on distance to the customers' shipping address.

This extension is particularly well suited for use cases like local food or grocery delivery.

In addition to the fee per mile/km, you can also set a minimum and maximum total fee, as well as the minimum and maximum distance the shipping method will be available for to mix & match different options.

The Google Routes API will be billable starting March 8th. See pricing information here. Each lookup from the shipping method falls under the Basic SKU, and is cached per address. Maps Platform offers $200 free credits per month, so that's 40,000 free lookups monthly.

The free Commerce extension is now available in our package provider, and also on GitHub. Documentation can be found here.