Shipping Calculation

Shipping Methods

Navigate to Store Settings > Shipping, from the home page of your admin area.

The Shipping table contains all of the available shipping methods you support. You may configure the current list of shipping methods by setting the Active field to Y to enable the shipping method or N to disable it.

You may add additional shipping methods if needed. The shipping methods will be listed in the drop down list of available shipping choices for the customer.

When editing shipping methods, you may change the Shipping Method Name fields, but DO NOT change the Shipping Method field, which is used by the LIVE shipping calculation system.

Available Shipping Calculation Systems:

LIVE

This calculation system works by direct communication with shipping companies, including UPS, FedEx, USPS and DHL, to give the customer an accurate shipping rate based on the total weight of the order, as well as the customer's shipping address.

You may modify the Shipping Method Name field for each record. For example, by default the UPS Ground shipping method is titled UPS Ground. However, you may rename this Shipping Method Name to Regular Ground Shipping if you'd prefer. Just remember that may you NOT change the Shipping Method field.

UPS and USPS require you to register with them in order to use our Live Shipping Rate Lookup feature. There are no costs involved. To register with these companies:

1. Navigate to Settings > Shipping, from the home page of your admin area
2. Click on the Set & Test Shipping Rates tab
3. Click on the link, Click here to register with UPS / USPS / FEDEX / DHL / CANADA POST . This page displays instructions to follow in order to register with these shipping companies

For example, if you get 5% off the normal rates, you can use the variable Config_ExtraShippingCostPercent and set it to -5 to adjust all LIVE rates down by 5%. Also, please be aware that the other fields on this Setup & Test Shipping Rates page are important factors that influence the rates, such as the pickup type of Daily Pickup vs. One-Time Pickup.

FedEx-Specific Notes:

The variable EnableShippingRates_Residential toggles between two different shipping methods offered by FedEx:

• FedEx Home Delivery
• FedEx Ground

If the variable EnableShippingRates_Residential is enabled, you cannot offer FedEx Ground. If the variable is disabled, you cannot offer FedEx Home Delivery.

If a LIVE shipping company's web service is unavailable at anytime for any reason, your store will revert to using the BaseRate and CostPerPound fields of the shipping method, which normally have no affect on the LIVE calculation.

For example, if USPS doesn't respond with any LIVE rates, and the BaseRate for the shipping method is $10.00 and the CostPerPound is $2.00, the shipping rate for a 5 pound order would be $20.00 (BaseRate * CostPerPound).

BACKUP

This calculation system is very flexible. You can incorporate a combination of rules to determine pricing, such as rules based on Order Price Value, Ship To Location, Product Weight, etc. You can read more about ByOrderPrice and Apply To Locations later in this tutorial. Let's begin by discussing the BaseRate and CostPerPound values which apply only to this BACKUP system.

The BACKUP system uses the following fields in particular:

• BaseRate - A flat fee for the shipment. For example, $10.00
• CostPerPound - A fee multiplied by the weight of the order. For example $2.00.

Using the above parameters, the shipping rate for a 5 pound order would be $20.00 (BaseRate * CostPerPound)

For example, if you would want to offer 3 shipping choices for your customers, you will only need to create three shipping methods as follows:

Shipping Method	BaseRate	CostPerPound
Ground	$10.00	$2.00
2nd Day	$20.00	$2.75
Next Day	$37.00	$3.50

STEP 1:

1. Create a new shipping method (or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to any unique number such as 1001
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to Ground
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive check box
6. Enable the Apply To All check box
7. Set the BaseRate to $10.00, set the CostPerPound to $2.00

STEP 2:

1. Create a new shipping method (or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to any unique number such as 1002
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to 2nd Day
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive check box
6. Enable the Apply To All check box
7. Set the BaseRate to $20.00, and the CostPerPound to $2.75

STEP 3:

1. Create a new shipping method (or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to any unique number such as 1003
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to Next Day
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive checkbox
6. Enable the Apply To All checkbox.
7. Set the BaseRate to $37.00, and the CostPerPound to $3.50

Free

This system is triggered whenever an order qualifies for FREE SHIPPING.

An order qualifies for free shipping if:

1. The product(s) which you which to have Free Shipping for must have weight values assigned to them. If a product does not have a weight value assigned to it, no shipping calculations are done by the system
2. the item/ProductCode itself must be marked as a "Free Shipping Item." If this box is not checked, the system will not give "Free Shipping" as a shipping choice, even when other qualifications are met
3. Your "Free Shipping" Method must be set to Active, and it must apply to the State/Country where the customer would have the item shipped to. You can find this method in the admin part of your store by clicking on Settings, then Shipping and then ensure there is a check mark under "Shipping Method Active" column.
4. You have to enter a value greater than 0 in the "FreeShippingQualifyPrice" field. This field is under Settings, then Shipping, then click on "Setup & Test Rates". Also, depending on whatever you set this value to, the total order cost of items in the cart must meet or exceed this price value. In that situation, any item(s) in the cart that are marked as "Free Shipping Items" will not be included when calculating shipping costs of items that are not marked as Free Shipping Items.

When free shipping is activated, it adds an additional shipping option to the drop down list for the customer to choose from. It does NOT replace the faster shipping methods. Therefore if the customer wants to choose a faster shipping method such as FedEx Overnight, they are still charged for shipping. You may only have one record in your Shipping Methods table that is assigned to the Free system, which by default is:

ID	Shipping Method Name
500	Free Shipping (7 Day Ground)

Download

This system is triggered whenever an order's total weight is ZERO. This can be used for software sales which are distributed to the customer via digital download. Cost is always $0.

You may only have one record in your Shipping Methods table that is assigned to the Download system, which by default is:

ID	Shipping Method Name
501	NONE

Pickup

This system is used by your store's Point-Of-Sale System. Cost is always $0.

You may only have one record in your Shipping Methods table that is assigned to the Pickup system, which by default is:

ID	Shipping Method Name
502	In-Store Pickup

Calculating By Order Price Value:

The following example explains how to set up shipping rates based on the subtotal value of the order. For example, if you want to offer 3 shipping choices based on the following order subtotal values, you will need to create three shipping methods as follows:

Min Order Price	Max Order Price	Shipping Charge
$0	$50	$10.00
$50.01	$100	$25.00
$100.01		$40.00

STEP 1:

1. Create a new shipping method(or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to an unique number such as 1004
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to Standard Shipping
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive checkbox
6. Enable the Apply To All checkbox
7. Set the MinOrderPrice to $0.00, and the MaxOrderPrice to $50.00
8. Set the BaseRate to $10.00

STEP 2:

1. Create a new shipping method(or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to an unique number such as 1004
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to Standard Shipping
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive checkbox
6. Enable the Apply To All checkbox
7. Set the MinOrderPrice to $50.01, and the MaxOrderPrice to $100.00
8. Set the BaseRate to $25.00

STEP 3:

1. Create a new shipping method(or change an existing method) with the following values:
2. Set the System to BACKUP
3. Set the ShippingMethodID to an unique number such as 1004
4. Set the ShippingMethodName to Standard Shipping
5. Enable the ShippingMethodActive checkbox
6. Enable the Apply To All checkbox
7. Set the MinOrderPrice to $100.01, and leave the MaxOrderPrice field as blank
8. Set the BaseRate to $40.00

As you will notice above, we named all 3 methods with the same name Standard Shipping. You can repeat the steps again to create another set of 3 methods all named Rush Delivery 2nd Day for example, and the BaseRate set to a higher price for each method of course.

Applying Shipping Rates to certain locations:

To setup different shipping methods for each location, you will be utilizing the following fields of the Shipping Methods table:

Apply To All	This field means the shipping method is applied to ALL locations
Apply To Entire Countries	Click on Click To Edit to view the list of Countries. Select a Country(s) and click Add
Apply To States / Provinces	Click on Click To Edit to view the list of States. Select a State(s) and click Add
DO NOT               Apply To Entire Countries	Click on Click To Edit to view the list of Countries. Select a Country(s) and click Add
DO NOT               Apply To States / Provinces	Click on Click To Edit to view the list of States. Select a State(s) and click Add

The following example explains how to setup shipping rates based on the the location of the customer

Country	ApplyToAll	Apply To Entire Countries	Apply To States / Provinces	DO NOT               Apply To Entire Countries	DO NOT               Apply To States / Provinces
United States - Continental	N	234			2,11
United States - Alaska & Hawaii	N		2,11
Canada	N	37
Other Countries	Y			234,34

For example, the following combinations are INCORRECT and will cause problems: The reason is because 234 is United States, and 2,11 is Alaska and Hawaii. But if you apply a shipping method to 234 United States then that already applies it to Alaska and Hawaii automatically. Therefore, you do not need to put 2,11 in the apply to.

Apply To Entire Countries	Apply To States / Provinces	DO NOT               Apply To Entire Countries	DO NOT               Apply To States / Provinces
234	2,11
		234	2,11

Troubleshooting Live Shipping Rates

 

If the shipping rates returned by the system are incorrect, follow the steps below to test the shipping rates:

1. Navigate to Settings > Shipping, click on Setup & Test Rates tab
2. Scroll down to the Test Results section, click Save Changes. This will calculate the shipping rates and reload the page
3. Scroll down to the Test Results section again, where you should now see a tan colored box with the FROM and TO addresses. Verify both the From: and To: addresses

For example, CA or California. If California is used, you will need to verify that California is in your States table. To verify this, go to Settings -> States, to view the list of all registered State names and State codes. You can add additional States for other countries as well, by clicking the ADD tab at the top of the page.

Extra Shipping / Handling Cost

To add an additional cost to all shipping rates, modify the configuration variable Config_ExtraShippingCost.

For example, $5.00 will be added to all shipping choices (except shipping choices which are $0).

You may also specify an additional weight to be added to each order. To do this, modify the value of the Config_ExtraShippingWeight variable.

For example, if catalogs are shipped with each order and they weigh 5 pounds each. Set the above variable to 5, to add 5 pounds to each order's shipping calculation.

Multiple Warehouses

To account for split-shipment fees incurred when orders must be shipped from multiple warehouses, due to the fact that some of your products are only stocked in certain warehouses, use the Product table's warehouse field to assign each product to one or more warehouses (separated by commas, no spaces). During shipping calculation, your store will calculate the most efficient shipping schedule to minimize the number of warehouses you must ship from. If the calculation determines that the order will have to be shipped from more than one warehouse, it will add a base rate to each shipping cost. The base rate you can define for each shipping method in the Shipping Methods table.

For example, you may set the base rate for UPS Ground to $10.00, while you will want to set the base rate for UPS Overnight to a higher value such as $40.00. The base rate should usually be equal to the cost to ship a 1 pound item.

When processing an order, in the administration area, you will see which warehouse each product has been assigned to. This assignment is simply what was used when determining the shipping costs, and is only for your reference. It is not used by your store in any other way.

How to assign warehouses to your products:

1. Navigate to Inventory > Products from the home page of the admin area, click an individual product to edit
2. In the field titled Warehouse(s) you can type a list of warehouse codes separated by commas

How do I know what the warehouse code is?

Unlike most features of our store, there isn't a separate table that stores warehouse information. You will need to make up codes for your warehouse(s). If you have a few warehouses, you can simply name them CA, NY, TX and so on. The state has nothing to do with it, you can name them 1, 2, 3 if you'd like. This multiple warehouse system simply looks for how many different warehouses the order must be shipped from.

For example, if you enter CA, NY in a product's Warehouse(s) field, this means that the product can be shipped from warehouse CA or warehouse NY. So, during checkout, the system will check all products in the cart and determine if all the products can be shipped from the CA warehouse, in such case there would be no split-shipping charge. However, if  your order contains a variety of products which need to be shipped from 5 different warehouses, then 4 different base rate charges will be added to the cost of shipping.

Optimizing the Drop-Ship Shipping Calculation

Using the following recommendations will ensure the most accurate shipping calculation for companies that have drop-ship suppliers distributed across the United States.

Set your store's ORIGIN shipping location to Billings, MT 59107

1. Navigate to Settings > Shipping, from the home page of your admin area, click on the Set & Test Shipping Rates tab
2. In the Your Origin - For Shipping Rate Calculation section, fill in Billings, MT 59107
3. Click Save Changes

Note: This is the ideal origin because it is the most equal distance from everyone in the United States. The majority of the United States population is on the either the far west coast near California, or the east cost, or the southern states. See the following US Census Map of Population distribution in the US (April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2005) http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/CO-EST2005-01.html Billings is a city located in the southern center of Montana(MT) state. Since we are using a location in MT state, here is a drilldown map of the population distribution within the state of Montana: http://nris.state.mt.us/gis/gisdatalib/downloads/dens2000.gif

We also recommend to change your ExtraShippingCost_Percentage to 15 to add a minimal 15% extra cost to all calculations. This is due to the fact that choosing MT puts your origin closer to most locations.