General Configuration
A shipping zone depicts a geographical area, where you ship your products. Defining zones give you control over comfortable shipping. As your business expands you can add more shipping zones in your service as required. If the customer enters an address that is not located in one of your defined zones, they will receive a shipping error message.
At OnPrintShop you can define the shipping zones based on countries, country and state, or country and zip code.
These zones will be available when the customer chooses a weight-based or quantity-based method. These zones will help nearby shoppers to also have an added option of Local pickup.
To create shipping zones, set up the shipping zones as guided below –
For setting up the zones, you need to first manage the shipping price setup setting. Click on the "Click here" link mentioned in the notes.
The setting is applicable only for the Weight based and Quantity based shipping method. You can set the shipping price based on any country, state, or zip code.
This will help you set a price for the whole country, i.e. all the states, provinces, or territories. You can add single or multiple countries into a country-wise shipping zone.
- Go to Admin>> Store Configuration >> Shipping Method >> Manage Zone >> +Add button
- Fill in the form:
- Name — an internal name for your zone (like "Europe", “North America”, “South America”)
- Approx. Delivery Days – Enter the approx. delivery days.
- Click on ‘Save and Continue’
- Select a country or a list of countries to include in this zone. You can add countries from all countries list and transfer it to the empty list.
- Once done, click on ‘Save’.
Note: The countries which are not selected in any zone will be considered under Default Zone.
This will help you create a zone that consists of several states/provinces. Keep the shipping price setting to Country and State. Add a custom zone from the zone management button.
- Click on ‘Add’.
- Fill in the form:
- Name — an internal name for your zone (like "Europe", “North America”, “South America”)
- Approx. Delivery Days – Enter the approx. delivery days.
- Click on ‘Save and Continue’. It will redirect you to the page where you can add the states for the selected countries:
- Click on the "Assigned State" link. It will move to the Add State tab:
- Select the country, and add or edit the states for the selected country.
- Click on Save when finished.
- Assign the states to the zone using the ‘Manage States’ tab.
- You can also add multiple states using the Import Function.
Shipping zones created based on zip codes represent a specific geographic area that can be defined for delivery. These zones are useful for customers who want to pick up their items in-store. Zip codes and postcodes include numbers and/or letters.
To create a ZIP/post-code-based zone, set the Shipping Price Setup Based On – Country and Zip codes.
Add a custom zone from the Zone Management button.
- Click on the ‘Add’.
- Fill in the form:
- Name — an internal name for your zone (like “North India”, “Downtown”, “Travis Country”)
- Approx. Delivery Days – Enter the approx. delivery days.
- Click on ‘Save and Continue’.
- Assign the Zip Codes to the zone using the ‘Manage Zip Code’ tab. You can add comma-separated values or use the wild card character '*' to define the zip codes (E.g. – CB23*).
- E.g. Zipcode - 85***, this will cover all the zip codes of Phoenix in Arizona(US) ranging from 85001 till 85055 and can handle all possible future values.
- At the front store, once the customer enters any zip code, then the codes will be searched according to the initial constants. Also, according to the zip codes, the prices will be shown.
- From the entered wildcards, the most relevant zip code will be chosen by the system, to create a match and display prices. For example – according to the picture below if the zip code entered by the customer at the front end is 380005, then the 380*** patterns will be taken into consideration for related processes.
- Click on Save when finished.
These shipping zones created will be displayed with a trash icon, thus making it easy for you to manage a large number of zip codes. This also eradicates the concern/pain of scrolling the zip code list.
With this option you can create Master Packages that can be used in creating packages for all products. You can use these Master Packages in Shipping Package Configuration.
Admin can create multiple master packages with different box size configurations such as – weight, length, width, and height. These master packages can be created for Standard as well as the Custom Size Products.
Create Master Package from – Admin >> Store Configuration >> Shipping Method >> Package Configuration >> Products >> Manage Master Packages:
Add a Master Package
To add a master package click on Add button.
Some of the important fields to fill in while creating master packages are –
- Select Product Type – While creating packages you can select the product type. This will be helpful while creating Product Shipping Packages for both Standard and Custom Size products
- Package Name – This will be displayed (in the drop-down) while creating product packages.
- Weight Class – Define the weight unit for calculating the package weight.
- Max Single Package Weight – Define the maximum weight that can be added to this package.
- Box Weight – This is the package box weight when it is empty. Package shipment charges and label generation will include product weight as well as box weight.
- Material Thickness – The thickness of the material used for manufacturing the product. This will also be used to calculate the total product weight.
- Parcel Length, Width and Height – Define the package’s dimensions.
All the master packages created will be listed down as show below –
Here you can check the package name, type, dimension details, weight details and other information.
The master packages created will be listed in a dropdown while creating Product Shipping Packages.
Selecting any Master Package will automatically fill the box configuration as set while creating Master Package.
Configure product-wise or product option-wise shipping packages, you can enter details such as weight class, max weight, length class, package length, weight, height, etc.
You can also add Box Weight which can be used in the calculation of Package Shipment Weight.
- Here, you can configure multiple packages for a product. Out of the configured packages, the best package combination with minimum wastage will be used for calculations for Shipping rate & label generation.
- Example: You have assigned Three Packages to a Product, with max weight - 40 LBS, 30 LBS, and 20 LBS respectively. If Total Product weight in order is 100 LBS, then the system will auto-pick ‘Two Packages’ of ‘40 LBS’ and ‘One Package’ of ‘20 LBS’. If Total Product weight in order is 110 LBS, then the system will auto-pick ‘Two Packages’ of ‘40 LBS’ and ‘One Package’ of ‘30 LBS’. Thus, leaving no space for wastage.
- For the products not having the packages configured, the default shipping configuration values will be taken.
- There is a revised screen that will show a summary of all the products with the details of their configured package.
- The screen shows all the products with their configured package.
- Click on the edit icon to edit the packages or to configure a new package.
- A Not Set symbol indicates no packages are configured for the product. Thus, the system will consider the master package.
- All the product sizes and its attribute is displayed if the package is configured attribute-wise.
- For Custom size products you can define different methods for calculating the Shipping pricing for the online shipping method. You will have a choice to define any one method from below 2 methods:
- Sheet / Rigid: In the pricing method the system will calculate the box size of the package to be sent in the shipping API call.
- Roll Material: In this pricing method the height and width of the package will be fixed the box depth will be a smaller number from the height and width of the product.
In the current business model, custom shipping packages are created within the height range allowed by Third-party shipments based on the ordered product quantity. Thus, the height of the package is dynamic and based on the ordered quantity.
For this, we have added a Dynamic Height calculation for Shipping Package of Standard Products. Following this you'll get an option named – ‘Height Calculation’ in the Product Shipping Packages configuration.
Follow the below steps to configure packages with dynamic height –
- Set height calculation as ‘Dynamic Height’
- This will display a column – Material Thickness. Here, enter the per unit thickness of the material (per piece). Material Thickness: The thickness of the material used for manufacturing the product.
- Next, enter additional height to be summed with the dynamic height. Additional height: The increase in height of the product due to the packing material.
Dynamic height calculation will be carried out only for the product with the following pricing method:
- Range-based with Multiplication
- Range-based without Multiplication
- Fixed Quantity & Price
Dynamic Height Calculation
Dynamic Height = Material Thickness * Quantity in Particular Package.
The system’s calculation for package allocation is shown below with an example –
The dynamic height of the package will be calculated and will be auto-displayed in ‘Package Configuration’ while creating ‘Shipment Label’.
While creating the shipment package, the system will automatically pick the package with the least wastage keeping the count of the package boxes minimum.
Note: Dynamic height will only be calculated if the Material Thickness is configured. If it is not configured then the height configured in ‘Product Shipping Package’ will be taken into consideration.
You can also import package configuration for all shipping methods from the Admin >> Store configuration >> Shipping Method >> Any Shipping Type >> Product Shipping Packages >> Import Package Configuration.
The Interface is almost similar to other import pages. If the master package is to be selected, ID or title is to be imported for it.
If you have some product options that will be shipped in fixed packages, you can create them from the Product Options tab. Here, you can configure shipping packages for option wise or product specific option wise:
While creating the package, you can enter details such as weight class, total weight, length class, package length, weight, height, etc:
This section lets you calculate the best-fit box and the right number of box packages required for Order Shipment all by yourself, for an existing product, or any custom product.
- Here, the first selection is Product Type.
- If chosen Existing, then the ‘Select Product’ dropdown will list all the products. If the selected product packages are configured with ‘Size with product options’ then additional options of the selected product having input type dropdown, radio and checkbox will also be displayed. Next, enter the order weight and height calculation method – Default or Dynamic Height.
- If chosen Custom, then only enter the product weight.
- Next, define the Product Shipping Packages. Here, the configured product packages will be displayed. Admin can anytime add new packages using the +Add button.
- When done click on the Calculate Package button.
- This will display the best package summary with all the details along with the Package Combination Summary with package wastage.
There are certain features made available in the Shipping Address Setting that you can implement on your OnPrintShop web store. Services such as Address Validation, Auto Address search can help save you from wrong addresses.
Follow the article to understand more about the features –
Your eCommerce business gets affected to a great extent if you get the wrong delivery addresses. To overcome the issues faced with false addresses, we have introduced this new feature named – ‘Address Validation Service’.
- Using this customers will now easily validate the address they have added while placing an order leaving no room for any unrecognized or wrong address.
- For this, Admin will have to configure all the required details of the selected shipping method. *(works only for USA region)*
- Go to the Store Configuration >> Shipping Method >> Shipping Address Setting >> Address Validation Service.
- Select the Validation Service that you want to implement on your website.
- You can select only one Shipping Method at a time.
The term Blind Shipment is when the end Customers of a shipment don’t know who is the shipper. In other words, they are in “The Blind”. This type of shipment is useful for the sales agent and distributors who want their goods to be directly shipped to the default stores without revealing their actual identity.
This is majorly helpful to conceal if a product/order was shipped from a ‘Third-Party Vendor’.
- For this feature, go to Store Configuration >> Shipping Method >> Shipping Address Setting >> Blind Shipping.
- Under the ‘Blind Shipping’ dropdown, select whether you want to enable the feature for Store or Default Store, or Both.
- Blind Shipping Cost – This additional cost will be added to the Order Price if the customer has selected blind shipping.
- This will be easily managed on the front side just by checking the ‘blind shipment’ option at the time of check-out and selecting the FROM Shipping address.
- We have provided an auto address search feature wherein your customers will get auto-suggestion in their address blocks. Although, they will have full liberty to ignore the provided suggestions and enter their details.
- To make the feature work on your website, go to Store Configuration >> Shipping Method >> Shipping Address Setting >> Auto Address Search Service.
- We have used the Google API for this feature, thus select the ‘Auto Address Search Service’ like Google.
- You get the option to select that where Customer will get, the auto-suggestion option – it can be Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, Zip Code, Company Name.
- API Key – Create a new Project in google developers console and get the ‘Google Map API Key’. Enter the key in this field.
When the shipping and billing address of the customer is not available, the admin can set and use the default address in the Offline order address.
- Once the admin has enabled the "Use Fix Address For Offline Order" setting from the above screen, the admin will be available add a default address:
- Enter the details for the default address and Save.
- Ask For Confirmation: When enabled, the system will pop up a confirmation before placing an offline order with the default address.
- After applying settings, when the admin goes to place an offline order and the customer's shipping and billing addresses are not submitted, the default address is displayed.
- This enables the admin to quickly add the offline order.
Import shipping price is available for both the Weight-based and Quantity Based shipping method in separate tabs.
- Click to download the file as per your requisites using the link provides.
- In the next steps, there is help provided to guide you with filling in the prices in the downloaded Excel file.
- Once the file is ready to upload, go to the next step (step 3) and upload your file.
The imported data summary will appear with a total number of valid, skipped, and correct records along with an ‘Import’ button at the top right so you can choose what to do next.