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How to set up shipping methods for my store?

So you've set up your products but now need to define the shipping fees, or perhaps you also want to offer local delivery and even a pick up point? Read below to configure each of these options.

Video tutorial

If you prefer following the video guide instead of having to read a bunch of text, you're in luck, we've got one recorded just for you!

To set the shipping fees for your products, you need to navigate to Shipping Methods section inside your admin.

Initial setup

By default, you'll be presented with Shipping Regions and Domestic Shipping considering the country you selected for your store. Click on Edit to set it up properly

First step is to rename the region and select the countries you're going to ship to. Some countries will allow you to exclude/include specific cities or states

If you don't plan to ship to certain areas of a particular city or state, click on Exclude regions and input the zip codes you want to exclude

To make it easier, you can create patterns to cover larger areas by using asterisks in the zip codes format. Each asterisk is equal to one character, so if you want to exclude from 81000 to 82000, you should input 81***.

Defining the shipping rules

The shipping rules determine to which products and under which conditions a certain shipping fee will be applicable to the purchase. You can create as many rules as you want by clicking on this button placed at the bottom of the page

The rules have some fields in common with the same usage:

  • Enter name of shipping method. You're free to name each rule differently and that is the name that will be displayed to customers at checkout and at the customer portal.
  • Duration. This information is also displayed to the customer and refers to how long it will take for the purchase to be delivered to their doorstep. Write the number and days.
  • Price. Shipping fee charged at the moment of checkout and renewal.

And a couple of optional toggles:

  • Multiply price by shipment number. If one of your subscription products is what we consider a pre-paid plan, i.e. the customer is paying upfront for a period that includes several shipments, make sure to enable Multiply price by shipment number toggle so each order has the necessary shipping fees added.
  • Free shipping when a customer buys over specified amount. When enabled, you'll be able to input a certain amount that if reached, the customer will be eligible for free shipping. One common use case would be if they are purchasing a combined cart (subscription product + one time product).

Now, let's dive in-depth into the four different rules you can create:

  1. By Flat price

This is the simpler configuration. When having a flat price, the same shipping fee will apply to every product of your store. In the example below, it would be $6

Having flat price enabled would contradict any other type of rule given that it applies to your store globally.
  1. By Weight

If the shipping price depends on the weight of the products, you will also need to use our inventory tool.

When creating the SKUs that you'll attach to the subscription or one time product, you'll see an option to add weight (in kilograms) to them

That is what will be taken into account for the weight range of the shipping rule

Thus, basically, the shipping fees will depend on the weight of the SKU that was added to the product in question.

By default, the ranges are multiples of 10 but you can update that by inputting a different number in the From field of the second line and add additional ranges as well!

  1. By Price

Similarly to the rule above, this one will apply the shipping fees based on ranges of price. For example, you might want to charge a fee of $10 for every product between $0-$35, but fee is $15 for anything above $35

  1. By Products

This is perhaps the most common rule given that it gives you the possibility of creating groups of products and assign a shipping fee to each of them. Let's say you want to charge a fee of $10 for subscription products and $5 for one time products, then the setup will look something like this

Combinations are endless of course and you can keep creating more groups by clicking on Add new product group.

When adding subscription products with different pricing plans, note it's the pricing plan what should be added to the group. And for one time products, it's the variant that has to be attached.
If one of the subscription pricing plans or frequencies is a pre-paid plan, the shipping fee must consider all the shipments of the period.

Now, what if you want to charge $12 for shipping one of your products but the rest will always be $5? In that case, you can simply use the Other products field. This one comes handy in situations like the one described, so you can easily classify every product that was not selected into a group and apply a certain shipping fee to it

This type of rule also provides additional flexibity for a combined cart (more than one product in the cart at the moment of checkout) that have different shipping fees. At Shipping price for multiple products you can decide:

  • If the shipping fee that is going to apply should be the cheapest, the most expensive one, or the sum of every fee, or
  • If the customer cannot pay more than the maximum shipping price you set, regardless of the products in the cart. Any input on this field overrides the option above.

Make sure to enable your rule and your method by clicking on the toggle next to each name and save changes!

If you need to apply different shipping rules to one of the places you're shipping to (e.g. California will have different options than New York, or US will have different fees than Canada), you will need to create a new region and follow the same steps that have been explained. Therefore, you can't have the same city, state, or country on two different regions at the same time.

Local Delivery

If your coverage area is limited to certain zones of your city, this is the option for you.

Go to Local Delivery section of shipping methods and click on Add new local delivery shipping

Besides the basic settings of Name, Duration, Price and Multiply price by shipment number that have been explain in the method above, you have two new fields

  • Delivery areas selected. This is where you will add the postal codes that you plan to ship to.
Remember you can create patterns by using asterisks in the zip code format. Each asterisk is equal to one character, so if you want to add from 23001 to 23009, you can input 2300*. One other example with a difference structure (e.g. UK) to limit LU1 1AA to LU2 0AA, would be LU1****.
  • Delivery details. You can add provide additional information to your customers regarding the delivery. Comments written here are shown at checkout.

Local Pickup

When having a brick and mortar store, it definitely makes sense to use it as pickup point for your customers.

Go to Local Pickup section of shipping methods and click on Add new local pickup shipping

You'll be presented with the fields to input the address of your pickup point including working hours and additional comments. On top of that you might opt for adding a Price to this method in which case you can also enable Multiply price by shipment number toggle

You can add as many pickup points as you need.
Using the local pickup method will ask the customer on checkout for the name of the person that will actually pickup the product.

FAQ

How many shipping methods can I have active at the same time?

All of them! It's mandatory to have at least one method active so your customers can place an order and move forward with the shipping step on checkout. If offering various options, customers are able to select the method that suits them better as part of the process

Only exception are membership products because they don't generate any shipments.

How do I change the shipping method for a customer?

Navigate to the profile of the customer and to the subscription in question. Then click on the three dots to the right -> change shipping setup

You will be presented with the methods available based on the address of the customer or what you have configured on the backend

You can also do this in bulk from the Subscriptions section -> Selecting subscriptions ->Actions menu

If you have switched the customer to a product that has a different shipping fee, you will also need to switch them to the correct shipping setup.

Can customers change the shipping method by themselves?

Yes, they can do it by logging into their customer portal as explained here.

Can I edit/delete a shipping method or rule?

You can edit a method or rule at any moment and changes will be effective starting immediately for new purchases and on the next renewal for existing subscriptions.

However, you can't delete a shipping method or rule that has or has had subscribers (the trash can will be greyed out). You can tell by looking at the icon besides the on/off toggle

Best approach in this scenario is to disable the method so it stops showing on checkout.

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