Introduction to shipping & handling

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  Shipping & handling

The "Shipping & handing" section is where you specify the shipping options for each country that you have decided to support for your store.

The most commonly used shipping option is based upon the weight of your products, so when you're adding new products, you need to make sure you add the correct weight of the product right from the start.

When your customer has decided what they want to purchase, they go to the checkout and specify a Shipping Address for the purchase. This may be the same as the Billing Address, but you can also have different addresses in case you want to send the purchase to someone else as a gift, for example.

Setting up your Shipping Countries

The customer can only select a shipping country based upon the set of countries that you have decided to support for shipping. This list of countries can be configured in the "Regions & taxes" section of the Toolbox.

If there are a set of shipping rates available for the Shipping country, then the total weight of the items in the shopping cart is used to find all the applicable shipping rates for this customer.

Using Weight-based Shipping Rates

The weight of the shopping cart is compared to the weight ranges of each of the shipping rates and all the rates that match can be used to present the customer with a set of shipping options.

For example, you may offer shipping by Australia Post with one shipping rate, and shipping by a courier company using a second shipping rate. In this way, the customer can shoose the method of shipping and pay accordingly.

There are other forms of shipping rates, such as rates that are based on the total value of the shopping cart rather than the weight.

Weight-based shipping rates can be configured using a fixed cost for shipping goods within the weight range specified. Multiple shipping rates can be configured using different weight ranges to allow for the increased cost of shipping heavier goods. When you use this method, remember to cover all the weight ranges from zero to the maximum supported weight, otherwise you may find that your customers cannot purchase some combinations of goods because the shipping rate for that weight range is missing.

As an alternative to using a fixed-price weight-based shipping rate, you can use a Shipping Agent calculator to calculate the correct shipping rate for you.

Spiffy Stores ties in with Australia Post and FedEx very nicely, so shipping rates are calculated for your customer automatically in the checkout when you add these options in on the "Shipping & Handling" page in your Toolbox.

You can also add in your own custom shipping costs if you would like to offer different types of courier services, or would like to charge flat rate shipping. Again these are all based on the total weight of the products that your customers are ordering.

You may need to do a bit of research to make sure the numbers here are appropriate for your actual costs. It is up to you how specific you want to get with shipping rates for various weights, but keep in mind that customers will probably appreciate having as few rates to remember as possible when they are deciding what to put in their shopping cart.

NOTE Currently Spiffy Stores are only available to Australian businesses & individuals. When we launch the worldwide service, our shipping calculators will work with other shipping providers such as USPS in the USA.

Read more about Setting up custom shipping rates, using Australia Post Shipping or using FedEx shipping.