How to add Shipping Rules
Within the E-commerce Management, in the Shipping Rules panel, you can set the price of your shipments using various parameters:
- Country of receipt of the order;
- Region of destination (only for Italy);
- City of destination;
- Order amount;
- Weight of the order.
It will also be possible to set special rules, to be used when the location of the customer who made a purchase is not included in the rules set. In this particular case, you can choose not to complete the order or offer a fixed rate, through the Basic Settings section.
This panel allows you to add more than one rule, giving you all the freedom to decide the price based on the established parameters. During checkout, the customer will be shown the one that best matches the order in progress, based on the rules entered.
You can then choose to set the rate to be applied according to the country, subsequently defining weight and / or price ranges for the application of the rule. In addition, for the same rule you can decide to apply more options, differentiating them based on weight, cart total or cap, each with its own price.
For example, let's try to set up shipments for Belgium with two rates (normal and fast), without weight limits but with limits on the amount based on the following scheme:
- Normal with spending between € 0 and € 50, without weight limits: Simple Shipping = € 50
- Normal with spending over € 50, without weight limits: Simple Shipping = € 35
- Fast with purchases between 0 € and 50 €, without weight limits: Express Shipping = 60 €
- Fast with spending over € 50, without weight limits: Express Shipping = € 50
First you need to create the general rule regarding shipping to Belgium. Click on New rule to enter the first data, and after filling in the necessary data, click on Save.
The general rule regarding Belgium will now be present in the panel.
In the box, it will be possible to add new rules related to this nation.
Click on New Rule in the box and enter the new criteria based on the order price.
Remember to click on the Add Shipping Options button to enter more options (in our case: Simple Shipping and Express Shipping)
The compilation window will be identical to the previous one, with the nation already assigned, so it will be sufficient to fill in the missing data with the new criteria. Finally click on Save.
After adding all the rules, they will be visible in the section dedicated to Belgium.
The shipment panel allows you to go down to a level of detail higher than the simple country, allowing you to customize destinations for individual locations through the ZIP Codes.
By setting different rules per location using the Create variants by regions button, the system will automatically check to assign the appropriate shipping cost based on the location of the customer who made the purchase on your site.
For Italy it is also envisaged to be able to set rules that will be adopted both at the level of individual regions and at the level of the city, for the latter eventuality we will have to act by setting the postal codes of the postal areas that identify the destinations of our interest.
Let's see the case of the setting of a general rule for the Lazio Region, followed by a specific rule for the city of Rome.
So let's take the example of wanting to set separate shipping rules for:
Italy;
Lazio region;
City of Rome.
As a first step we need to create the general rule relating to the nation, in this case Italy.
Just like the procedure carried out for Belgium, the same will apply to Italy.
Once the general rule has been created, select the item Create variant by regions.
In the screen that will appear, it will be possible to select one or more regions to which to apply the new rule.
The system will propose the previously generated shipping rules, when creating the rules for countries, it will then be possible to decide which of these to make available for the selected regions and at what price.
As a last step, you can configure the individual postal areas in detail, by adding rules that take into account the postal codes.
To do this, add a new variant by clicking again on Create a new variant by regions, and select the option to create a rule based on zip codes, assigning a name to this rule to remember it.
At this point you will only have to add the list of Rome ZIP codes, separated by commas, for which the rule will be valid.
Also in this circumstance it will be possible to decide which shipping options to adopt and at what price.
Once this step is completed, during the checkout phase of the order and in the event that a customer has set Rome as the location for the shipment of the purchased product with its postal code, the shipping cost relating to Rome that was previously set will be added to the cart.
If the location selected for the shipment had been another city in Lazio, such as Frosinone, the shipping cost inherent to the Lazio Region would have been added.
If the selected city does not belong to the Lazio region, such as Milan, in this case the system will show the shipping cost for the rule set for the country of Italy.
All the rules created are flanked by icons depicting a pencil and a basket, which allow you to access functions to modify the rule or delete it.
For countries other than Italy, the features are similar to those seen previously, but it is not possible to set rules based on regions.
Good to know: if the option Do not allow purchases is checked on Basic Settings, the system will allow you to proceed with the purchase only for those customers who meet one or more shipping rules.
If the seller has set only a rule concerning Italy, with the option Do not allow purchases, any non-Italian user could not complete the purchase.