shopping cart software

To download the full Version 5 Manual, please go to http://manual.volusion.com

"Through rain, sleet or snow, the mail must go through"... But how should it be sent? In the world of e-commerce, there are multitudes of ways for merchants to get their products to their customers. Configuring an e-commerce solution to negotiate shipping rates, carriers and types can be both confusing and time consuming. Volusion version 5 however provides one of the easiest ways to setup online shipping rates while offering a full-featured array of shipping options that merchants can provide to their customers. Volusion version 5 also provides integration with most major world-wide shipping providers including USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and more.

The following chapter will describe how Volusion V5 merchants can setup and configure shipping rates as well as offer hints on how merchants can custom-configure their store's shipping options.

Getting Started:

There are a multitude of options available to provide shipping rates to store customers. Many of these settings are covered within the Volusion version 5 Shipping Wizard - see Part I. Advanced options and configurations will be covered in Part II. Part III will explain how to register the Volusion store to integrate with major shipping carriers. Part IV will cover detailed examples of specific shipping options.

Part I - The Shipping Wizard:

This portion of the manual will discuss the basics of the Volusion V5 Shipping Wizard. The more advanced settings within the shipping configuration will be discussed later in this chapter.

• Log into your Volusion store Admin Area. Click on the Settings tab and then click on the Shipping link in the gray menu bar. You should now be at the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Whether based in the United States, The United Kingdom, Australia or elsewhere, the Volusion Shipping Wizard will enable configuration of shipping options for most major world-wide carriers and regions. The wizard is broken up into Ship To Countries, Shipping Origin, Choose Carriers and More Options. Each section will be explained below:

Ship To Countries:

• Here, select all countries and regions to be offered to customers.
• The majority of countries world-wide are already configured within Volusion. Simply highlight a country in the inactive list and click the left arrow button on the screen to make that country active within the store (or vice versa to make an active country inactive).
• Any specific countries not listed within the wizard that need to be made active will have to first be manually added to the Volusion V5 countries list. Also, any specific states or provinces merchants wish to make active/inactive will also require a manual edit.
• These settings can be reached by clicking on the "Edit Countries in advanced mode" or "Edit States in advanced mode" links, located at the bottom of this section. Adding regions will be explained in Part II.
• Note that to ship to an entire country there is no need to add both the country and then all of that country's states/provinces to the active list.

Shipping Origin:

• Here, enter the address and contact info for the business's location.
• Users must enter a valid shipping address in this field - the information entered here is used by Volusion to calculate live rates for shipping providers the merchant is registered with. Failure to enter the correct origin information in these fields can result in a miscalculation of live rate information from shipping carriers.
• Note that if merchants are shipping from a remote warehouse or are utilizing a 3rd party fulfillment/shipping service, in addition to the merchant's origin information, they should enter enable the "Use a different origin for shipping rate calculation" checkbox and enter shipping information for the warehouse or fulfillment center the merchant will actually be shipping products from in the yellow pop-up. This enables the ability to define the business's base location while providing a separate origin for proper shipping rate calculation.

Choose Carriers:

• Here, simply check which shipping carriers needed to provide to customers. Checking each individual carrier enables that carrier as well as the options dialog for that carrier.
• Any carriers listed in the Shipping Wizard as well as any or all of the individual rates for each carrier can be enabled.
• Some carriers (Canada Post, DHL, FedEx, UPS and USPS) provide live rate registration. Merchants can register with these services to receive live shipping rates from their preferred carriers.
• To register for live rates from these carriers, click on the Register For… link within the options dialog for the particular carrier and follow the instructions provided. Live rate shipping registration will be discussed in Part III.

More Options:

There are additional shipping settings to configure here as well as methods merchants can use to test the shipping methods and integrations their Volusion stores are set up for. To configure additional settings or test settings, click on either the "More Shipping Settings" or the "Test Shipping Rates" links as needed to reveal additional settings. The options for these settings are defined in the following tables:

More Shipping Settings
Apply Tax to Shipping	When checked, this setting will apply the configured tax rates to shipping as well as to the order sub-total.
Extra Shipping Cost	When enabled, this setting will allow entry of a fixed amount or fixed percentage which will be added to shipping costs presented to customers in addition to any shipping option chosen. Note that these settings are additive. For instance, setting a fixed amount of $5 and then a fixed percent of 5% will charge $5 plus 5% of the initial shipping cost to the overall shipping charge for the customer.
Enable Free Shipping	When checked, this enables free shipping on any products configured for that option.
Weight Units	This option displays and calculates shipping weights in either pounds or kilograms. (Note, the setting cannot support both settings simultaneously).
Add Extra Shipping Weight	This setting will add any specified weight (in the chosen weight units) to the overall weight of an order for shipping calculation.
Display Estimated Shipping on the Shopping Cart	When enabled, this option will display estimated shipping costs to customers in the Volusion store front shopping cart based on their current shopping cart's contents.
Insure All Packages	This setting, when enabled charges and enables shipping insurance on all packages when applicable through respective shipping carriers. NOTE - this feature is currently only supported by UPS.
Shipping Rates Address Type	Some carriers, such as FedEx, provide different rates for certain shipping types based on whether a shipping address is a residential or business location. This option forces all rate calculations to be considered as residential, business locations or allows the customer to choose this option.
Use Delivery Confirmation	This option allows merchants to enable delivery confirmation options and specify which type of confirmation they wish to provide for their customers if any.
Test Shipping Rates
Country	Specify the country the store will be shipping from.
State	Specify the state or province to ship from.
Zip	Specify the zip or postal code to ship from.
Use Preset Address	Any preset address programmed into the store will be available in this drop down to be chosen as a ship-to address for test purposes. Click on the "Edit your Addresses" link below to configure preset addresses.
Country	Specify the country the store will be shipping to.
State	Specify the state or province the store will be shipping to.
Zip	Specify the zip or postal code to ship to.
Residential	Check this option if the test address to ship to is a residential address.
Test Order Cost	Specify the cost of the test order here.
Test Order Weight	Specify the weight of the test order here.
Free Ship Item	Enable this check box if "Free Shipping" should be enabled for the test order.
Run Test	This will execute the "Test Shipping Rates" feature. The test will be run against all active countries and shipping rates based on the information provided in the test settings above. A drop-down will appear with any and all rates applicable to the test order and their subsequent cost. Additionally, click the link, "Show/Hide debugging information". Enabling this link will reveal the information retrieved by Volusion based on the enabled shipping rates and any live rate registration currently configured with the Volusion store and applicable 3rd party carriers. The information provided in the debug window regards rates that only apply to the information that is configured in the test order window at the moment the test is run.

Running a Test:

• This will execute the "Test Shipping Rates" feature. The test will be run against all active countries and shipping rates based on the information provided in the test settings above.
• A drop-down will appear with any and all rates applicable to the test order and their subsequent cost. Additionally, click the link, "Show/Hide debugging information" for more information.
• Enabling this link will reveal the information retrieved by Volusion based on the enabled shipping rates and any live rate registration currently configured with the Volusion store and applicable 3rd party carriers.
• The information provided in the debug window regards rates that only apply to the settings configured in the test order window at the moment the test is run.

Summary:

Remember to click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to save or update all changes made to the Shipping Wizard. This covers the basics of configuring shipping for Volusion version 5. Again, there are many facets to configuring shipping for products but the Volusion Shipping Wizard aims to make this process as straight-forward as possible. There are many more advanced features that merchants can utilize if needed, however. These will be covered in depth within the rest of this chapter.

Part II - Advanced Shipping Settings:

There are many more ways shipping rates and settings can be configured within the V5 store. Merchants can make modifications to pre-existing rates or even create their own custom rates as needed. There are many more advanced settings not covered within the Volusion Shipping Wizard that will be covered here. To access the advanced shipping settings, do the following:

• In the Shipping Wizard, there will be a button at the top right of the page labeled, "Switch to Advanced Mode".
• Click on this button to access the advanced settings.
• This redirects to the Shipping Methods page, which features the Volusion Shipping Methods table - containing all shipping methods programmed into the Volusion store.
• Many shipping methods are pre-programmed into Volusion for merchants' use. Simply click on any method's ID number in order to edit it.
• Alternately, click on the blue
• From the main shipping table, activate/deactivate shipping methods as need be by clicking on the Shipping Method Active check box.
• Note - as mentioned at the top of this page, DO NOT DELETE SHIPPING METHODS. Some methods are required to be present in Volusion in order for the shipping functions to properly work. Furthermore, many shipping rates come preset with values specific to shipping carriers needed for live rate functionality. It is recommended that for any rate not to be utilized within Volusion to instead be made inactive as opposed to deletion.

Whether choosing to edit existing settings or create entirely new settings within the Volusion Shipping Methods advanced mode, there are many variables to be aware of. Some of these settings are covered within the Shipping Wizard section of this chapter but others are not. The following table will cover all variables that can be configured for a shipping method.

Details
ShippingMethodID *	This is the ID number the shipping method is identified by. It can be any unique number.
Gateway	This drop-down is to be used to select which shipping carrier the method will relate to if it is receiving live rates from a 3rd party carrier.
System	This menu specifies which rate calculation type the method should use. This should be set to "Live" for any method receiving live rates. Set this field to "Backup" if the method will be providing a custom rate. Other settings are covered later in this chapter.
Service Code	This field contains the specific name of the shipping method as it is reported from a 3rd party API. This is required for all methods set to receive live rates. For pre-configured methods within Volusion V5, do not delete or modify this field.
ShippingMethodName *	This field contains the name of the shipping rate as it will be displayed to customers on the Volusion store front.
ShippingMethodActive	Checked, this option makes this shipping method active.
ShippingOrderBy	Setting this option influences the position the shipping method occupies in the shipping rates list within the store front shopping cart. Letters or numerals can be entered here (e.g. A1 will display before B1, etc.)
Apply This Shipping Method To
Apply To All Countries and States	Checked, this option will set the shipping method to apply to all countries, states or provinces set within the Volusion "Shipping Wizard". Uncheck this option to enable the 2nd and 3rd variables in this section.
Apply to Entire Countries	Editing this configures exactly which countries the method can apply to.
Apply to States/Provinces	Editing this configures exactly which states or provinces the method can apply to in relation to the countries it can apply to.
However, Do Not Apply To
Do NOT Apply to Entire Countries	Edit this list to exclude any specific countries from receiving the shipping method. This is usually implemented in conjunction with the "Apply to All Countries and States" option above to limit the shipping method to all but one.
Do NOT Apply to States/Provinces	Edit this list to exclude any specific states or provinces from receiving the shipping method. This is usually implemented in conjunction with the "Apply to Entire Countries" above (e.g. one can set a method to apply to the entire United States but not apply to the states of Alaska or Hawaii).
Advanced Options
(Backup_System) BaseRate	Set this option to configure the base amount to charge for the rate if live rates are unavailable or for using backup rates in general.
Backup_System) CostPerPound	Set this option to configure the method to calculate a cost per pound for any order it is applied to for custom rates or in lieu of an available live rate. Note that this setting is added to any base rate defined in the "Backup_System BaseRate".
ExtraShippingCost	Use this field to define a flat shipping cost for the method or an addition shipping cost for use in conjunction with a live or backup rate.
ExtraShippingCost_Percent	Much like "ExtraShippingCost", this setting this option will enable a flat percentage cost to the overall cost of shipping.
MinOrderPrice	Setting a price in this field will restrict the method to only apply to orders with a subtotal price that meets or exceeds this value.
MaxOrderPrice	Setting a price in this field will restrict the method to only apply to orders with a subtotal price less than or equal to this value.
MinOrderWeight	Setting a value in this field will restrict the method to only apply to orders with a combined product weight equal to or greater than this value.
MaxOrderWeight	Setting a value in this field will restrict the method to only apply to orders with a combined product weight equal to or less than this value.

* These variables are required to be set for each method.

Summary:

There are many options that can be configured in the Volusion shipping settings beyond the Shipping Wizard. The table above describes what each shipping method setting does. The following however will provide an idea of what can be done with these settings and will cover topics such as configuring free shipping, flat shipping rates and tiered shipping options.

Part III - Configuring Live Rates:

As mentioned in Part I, Volusion provides live rates with major shipping providers world-wide. Merchants can register with specific carriers to have accurate, live rates populated within their stores for many of these carriers. Pre-negotiated rates can also be forwarded to Volusion by carriers that this feature. Here is how to register live rates with various carriers:

FedEx:

• Navigate to the Volusion Shipping Wizard as outlined above.
• Under the Choose Carriers section, click FEDEX to enable the carrier and then click the "You must register with FedEx to get live rates" link.
• A dialog with 3 steps will be displayed. Follow these three steps to register for FedEx live rates.
• Clicking on the link in step 1 will direct you to the FedEx's site to register with a basic FedEx account.
• The link in step 2 will redirect to FedEx's live rates registration page. A basic FedEx account is required before you can register for live rates. Once this registration process is complete, proceed to step 3.
• Step 3 redirects to the FedEx registration form within the actual Volusion site. Merchants are required to enter their store information as well as FedEx account information to complete registration.
• Once registration is complete, an XML access key and a shipper number will be received by the merchant. Enter these values into the FedEx registration dialog in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click Save Changes and the store will now be receiving live rates for all FedEx rates made active within the Shipping Wizard.

USPS:

• Navigate to the Volusion Shipping Wizard as outlined above.
• Under the Choose Carriers section, click USPS to enable the carrier and then click the You must register with USPS to get live rates link.
• A dialog with 3 steps will be displayed. Follow these three steps to register for USPS live rates.
• Clicking on the link in step 1 will direct you to the USPS's site to register with USPS's Web Tools.
• In step 2 contact USPS after the initial registration either via email at icustomercare@usps.com or phone at 1-800-344-7779. Once the merchant communicates to USPS they require access to the US Postal Production Server and must provide the USPS account username they registered for. USPS will then activate live rates for the account.
• Once this is done, complete step 3 by entering the obtained USPS account username in the field provided in the USPS live rate registration dialog in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click Save Changes and the store will now be receiving live rates for all USPS rates made active within the Shipping Wizard.

UPS:

• Navigate to the Volusion Shipping Wizard as outlined above.
• Under the Choose Carriers section, click UPS to enable the carrier and then click the You must register with USPS to get live rates link.
• Next, click the "Register with UPS" link. This will direct you to UPS.com, where you can register for a UPS account.
• Once this step is complete, return to your Volsuion store and click on the "Open a UPS Account" link under the store's UPS registration section of the Shipping settings page.
• Be sure that the UPS account can be logged into then return to the Volusion store again and click on the Register for UPS Online Tools link within the Shipping settings page.
• Follow the instructions of the following page to finish integrating UPS's live rate service with the Volusion store.
• Once registered for UPS web tools, merchants will receive a UPS ID and API key.
• Enter the API Key into the field available under the UPS section of the Shipping settings page.

DHL:

• Navigate to the Volusion Shipping Wizard as outlined above.
• Under the Choose Carriers section, click DHL to enable the carrier and then click the "You must register with DHL to get live rates" link.
• A dialog with 3 steps will be displayed. Follow these three steps to register for DHL live rates.
• For step 1, navigate to http://www.dhl-usa.com or contact DHL direct at 1-866-345-2329 and register with an account for DHL.
• An account number from DHL will then be provided.
• Once this is done, complete step 3 by entering the obtained DHL account number in the field provided in the DHL live rate registration dialog in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click Save Changes and the store will now be receiving live rates for all DHL rates made active within the Shipping Wizard.

Note:

Currently, DHL's live rate functionality is limited based on the quality of service from DHL's online rate system. Live Rate generation is currently unavailable from DHL on weekends and holidays

Canada Post:

• Navigate to the Volusion Shipping Wizard as outlined above.
• Under the Choose Carriers section, click Canada Post to enable the carrier and then click the You must register with Canada Post to get live rates link.
• A dialog with 4 steps will be displayed. Follow these three steps to register for Canada Post live rates.
• First, contact Canada Post at eparcel@canadapost.ca and request to register for a shipping profile.
• Next, contact sellonline@canadapost.ca and request a user ID and password for CP's "Sell Online Direct Connection".
• Once this is done, complete the next step by logging into the CP shipping profile at http://sellonline.canadapost.ca/servlet/LogonServlet to update the profile with the information obtained from step 2 as well as address and location information.
• After completing the above steps, merchants will receive a Retailer ID. Enter this ID number into the Retailer ID field in the Canada Post live rate registration dialog in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click Save Changes and the store will now be receiving live rates for all Canada Post rates made active within the Shipping Wizard.

Summary:

This completes the list of instructions to register and enable the Volusion V5 store with various shipping carriers. Note that the aforementioned are the only carriers Volusion currently provides live rate integration with. Other carriers such as Royal Mail currently have no live rate support in conjunction with Volusion.

Part IV - Special Shipping Settings:

Beyond setting up shipping methods, regions and registering for live rate integration, there are some other special settings to implement to provide further shipping options to customers. These options require special configurations to be enabled and will be explained below:

Free Shipping:

Configuring your Volusion store to offer free shipping on your products is easy! There is a 3 step process to configure your store to offer free shipping on the products and price points you select. The following article will discuss how to configure your V5 store to do this:

Step 1 - Enable Free Shipping:

• To make free shipping active within your store, click on the Settings tab within your Volusion Admin Page.
• Click on the gray Shipping link and you will now be at the Shipping Wizard.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the More Shipping Settings link.
• Once the "More Shipping Settings" dialog appears, check the "Enable Free Shipping" check box within the page and click the Save Changes button.

Step 2 - Enable Products For Free Shipping:

This is the easy part - by default, all products in your Volusion store will be automatically enabled to receive free shipping. You can modify this per product. To do so:

• Click on the Products link within your Volusion Admin Page and click the product code of any product you wish to modify.
• Under each product's advanced options, there is a field marked FreeShippingItem.
• Having this option set to its default, "NULL" or setting it to "Y" will mark the item eligible to receive free shipping. Setting this field to "N" however, will exclude the product from being offered with free shipping.

Step 3 - Enable a Free Shipping Qualifying Price:

You can specify a qualifying price for customer orders to allow free shipping based on a specific order total (e.g. you can offer Free Shipping for all orders totaling $100 or more). To do this:

• Click on the Shipping link within your Volusion V5 Admin Page.
• Click on the Advanced Settings tab in the upper right corner of the Shipping Wizard to gain access to advanced shipping settings.
• Now, click on the Setup and Test Rates tab toward the top of the shipping rates table.
• On the "Setup and Test Rates" page, under the "Other Shipping Configuration Settings" header, you will find a field marked FreeShippingQualifyPrice.
• Note that if free shipping is made active within Volusion V5 - this field is automatically set for a value of 0.01.
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Note:

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.

Important:

All of the products (in an order) must be marked as "Free Shipping Items" for the free shipping option to appear as well as meet the other qualifications. Also note that you can not split shipping methods among the products.

Fixed Shipping:

Fixed shipping in Volusion version 5 refers to the ability to configure the Volusion store to offer a specific shipping price for individual products. For example, merchants can use this option to offer $10 shipping for product A and then $15 shipping for product B without live rate calculation. Also note that fixed shipping rates can be mixed-and-matched with other rates, weight settings and so-forth. The following will explain how to configure Volusion V5's fixed shipping options.

• Click on the Settings tab in the Volusion Admin Page, click on the Shipping link in the gray menu bar and then click on the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab within the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Within the Volusion Shipping table, there a fixed shipping method pre-configured for use - Method ID 504.
• Click the Method ID to edit it and make sure the setting is active.
• Now, set a fixed shipping cost in each product to offer fixed shipping for.
• To do this, click on the Inventory tab within the Volusion Admin Page and navigate to the Products link within the green menu bar.
• Click on the Product Code of any product fixed shipping needs to be enabled for to edit it.
• Under the "Basic Product Info" header (click the header to reveal its related settings), configure the Product Weight to zero.
• Under the Shipping Options header (click the header to view its settings) there will be a field marked Fixed Shipping Cost. Enter a specific price to charge for fixed shipping for that product.
• Merchants should also set a shipping cost in the "Fixed Shipping Cost Outside Local Region" field to allow the product to have a shipping option offered to customer shipping the product outside of the local region.
• After saving changes, merchants will now have enabled fixed shipping for a product. Repeat this process for each product to charge a fixed shipping cost for.

Note:

Fixed shipping does not provide a flat shipping rate for some or all products within a Volusion store. Flat shipping configurations will be discussed later in this chapter. Also note that fixed shipping costs are additive in that other shipping stipulations configured in Volusion will apply to them. Furthermore, fixed shipping only applies per individual products as the product is configured and not to an entire order.

There are also several elements regarding fixed shipping configurations merchants should be aware of:

• There can only be one fixed shipping method configured in the Volusion shipping method table at one time.
• The fixed shipping method can be applied to specific countries or regions and have additional shipping costs configured in the method however these settings will be ignored.
• Products configured to use fixed shipping cannot also be made eligible for free shipping. The FreeShippingItem field must be set to N within the product table view. When importing new products into stores via CSV or other file types, set this column to N for any product set with a fixed shipping cost.

Example I:

Product A is configured with a fixed shipping cost of $5. Product B has no fixed shipping cost configured. A customer orders 1 of product A and 1 of Product B. Product B is eligible for FedEx Ground shipping with a cost of $15. The total cost for shipping for the order will then be $20 (cost of shipping for A and B will be added together).

Example II:

Product A is configured with a fixed shipping cost of $5 but is also configured with a product weight of 1 pound. Product B has no fixed shipping cost configured. A customer orders 1 of product A and 1 of Product B. Product A has a weight set to it and though it has a fixed shipping cost, it will only be eligible for any live or backup rates the merchant has enabled. Product A and B are both eligible for FedEx Ground shipping with a cost of $15 each. The total cost for shipping for the order will then be $40 (cost of shipping for A and B will be added together plus the fixed shipping cost defined for product A).

Downloads:

Volusion V5 merchants can offer downloadable products (for example, e-books or brief instructional videos). In order to configure downloadable products can be made accessible to their customers. Setting up a downloadable product and shipping method is simple:

• A downloadable shipping method is already configured in the Volusion Shipping Method table.
• This is shipping method ID 501 - Online Delivery/No Shipping.
• Note that this shipping method is required to be present in the Volusion store. Removing this method will create errors within the Volusion administration page. If the Online Delivery method is not required, simply check it as inactive.
• Any product marked with a product weight of zero and no fixed shipping costs configured will be considered by Volusion V5 as a downloadable product.
• There can only be one shipping method set to System type Download in the Volusion store and that method's shipping cost must be set to zero.

Note:

When a downloadable product it purchased in Volusion, the product will not automatically be downloaded to the customer. Once payment is completed within Volusion, customer can access downloadable products by logging into their customer account within the Volusion store or through the "Order has Shipped" email that is sent once the order is processed by the merchant. Further note that if customers in a Volusion store are anonymous (the customer never registered for a customer account within the store or registration is not permitted) then access to their downloads is limited only to the "Orders has Shipped" email that is sent once orders are processed.

In-Store Pickup:

This option, like the Download option, is pre-configured within a Volusion store. This option has some specific purposes and restraints merchants need to be aware of.

• In-Store Pickup is configured as shipping method ID 502 and is required to be present in the Volusion Shipping table.
• In-Store Pickup is most often used for merchants who have a brick-and-mortar retail location in conjunction with their online store and plan to sell items from both locations.
• This method is also often utilized by Volusion merchants making use of the Point of Sale features within the software to retail products directly to their customers in person.

Note:

Regarding the In-Store Pickup option - this method, even when made inactive will appear to a merchant, within the shopping cart shipping options provided the merchant is logged into the Volusion Administration Page. This option will never be displayed to a customer at a Volusion store unless it is made active.

Summary:

Volusion has many more advanced options for configuring shipping methods for use in Volusion version 5. The aforementioned are certain, special shipping settings or methods that can add further flexibility to what merchants using Volusion can offer or do in terms of shipping options through their stores. Some of these shipping types such as fixed shipping require some work in configuring them but also provide an additional array of options to merchants.

Special Settings and Tips:

The following are further examples of how to configure special shipping rates or methods for use in Volusion version 5.

Configuring Flat Shipping Rates:

Volusion merchants can modify existing rates or build their own custom shipping rates to provide a flat cost of shipping to their customers. Note that this type of shipping configuration differs from fixed shipping methods in that flat shipping rates apply a blanket shipping cost to an entire order.

For example, a merchant may wish to offer a flat, shipping charge of $10 for all orders weighing 15 pounds or less for all US states. The following demonstrates how to configure this option:

• Log into the Volusion administration page and navigate to the Shipping Wizard by clicking on the Settings tab, clicking on the Shipping link in the gray menu bar. You should now be in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click in the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab within the page.
• Click on the ID number of the method you wish to set as the flat shipping rate to edit it.
• Within the shipping method:
• Make sure ShippingMethodID has a number a number assigned.
• Set the System drop-down to Backup.
• Check ShippingMethodActive to activate the method.
• Under the "Apply this Shipping Method to" header, make sure the "Apply to All Countries and States" option is unchecked and edit the "Apply to Entire Countries" list so that it only includes United States.
• Under the Advanced Options header, set the field marked "(Backup_System) BaseRate" to 10.
• Set the field marked MaxOrderWeight to 15.
• Click Save Changes and the method will now be set.
• Now, any order placed with a total weight of 15 pounds or less, being shipped to anywhere in the United States will be eligible for a flat shipping rate of $10.
• It is important to note that any other shipping charges configured within the Volusion store such as the "Extra Shipping Cost" field in the Volusion Shipping Wizard will be added to this charge.

Shipping to the 48 Contiguous US States:

Returning to the flat shipping example outlined above, if the merchant above wishes to offer the $10 flat shipping to customers in the United States but not in the states of Alaska or Hawaii, due to the cost of shipping, the merchant can modify the above shipping method example to exclude those regions from the method by doing the following:

• Log into the Volusion Administration Page and navigate to the Shipping Wizard by clicking on the Settings tab, clicking on the Shipping link in the gray menu bar. You should now be in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click in the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab within the page.
• Click on the ID number of the flat rate method mentioned above to edit it.
• Having followed the instructions from the previous example, this rate should already be set to ship to the United States.
• Under the "However, Do Not Apply To" header (click the header to reveal its settings), edit the "Do Not Apply To States/Provinces" list and add to it the states of Alaska and Hawaii.
• Save changes to the method and it will now only be applied to orders being shipped to the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

Configuring Tiered Shipping Rates:

Tiered shipping rate configurations are used by many online merchants to encourage their customers to purchase specific quantities of products but offering certain breaks on shipping based on the amounts ordered. As these are custom shipping rates, by default merchants will want to utilize a series of shipping methods set to System: Backup or using an Extra Shipping Cost together with a live rate.

For Example, a merchant wants to offer three types of ground shipping to customers based on the total cost of their orders. The merchant wants to offer a ground base rate of $5 plus $2 per pound for shipping on all orders under $25. The merchant wants to offer this rate but at $5 base plus $1 per pound for all orders more than $25 but less than $100. The merchant then wants to offer a flat $5 shipping charge on all orders over $100. Here is how to configure this series of options.

• Log into the Volusion Administration Page and navigate to the Shipping Wizard by clicking on the Settings tab, clicking on the Shipping link in the gray menu bar. You should now be in the Volusion Shipping Wizard.
• Click in the "Switch to Advanced Mode" tab within the page.
• Modify an existing shipping method or create a new, custom one. It's recommended in creating a custom shipping rate to base the rate off of an existing shipping method that is similar to the one to be created.
• Click on the method ID of a rate similar to what should be offered to the customer (e.g. a generic ground rate that is already set to apply to the necessary regions, etc.) to edit the record.
• Click the blue Add button toward the top left of the page. This will reload the page in as a new shipping method but will copy over the settings from the previous, existing method- reducing the work in creating a custom method.
• Set the ShippingMethodID to a new, unique number. Also make sure this new rate is set as active, the System is set to Backup, the method has a specific name and is applied to the all regions necessary.
• Under the Advanced Options header, set the BaseRate of the method to 5. Set the CostPerPound to 2. Now set the MaxOrderPrice to 25.
• Save changes to create the method. This method will now only be applicable to orders with a total cost of $25 and will charge $5 plus $2 per pound for shipping.
• Now to duplicate this method. Reopen the method just created in the instructions above and click the blue Add button to being the process of duplicating the method.
• Make sure that this new method has a unique ID assigned to it and navigate to the Advanced Options settings.
• Change the CostPerPound setting to 1, change the MaxOrderPrice setting to 100 then set the MinOrderPrice option to 26.
• Save changes to create a second custom rate. This rate will now only apply to orders with a total cost between $26 and $100 and will charge a $5 base rate plus $1 per pound.
• Repeat the above steps to create a third and final custom shipping method.
• Clear the CostPerPound and MaxOrderPrice settings and set the MinOrderPrice setting to 101. Save changes to complete this setup.
• Once this is done, merchants will now be able to offer tiered shipping as described above. Note that this is just one example of the many ways a customer can configure the Volusion V5 shipping system.

Apply Shipping to a Specific Product:

A common issue merchants may have is the need to assign one specific shipping method to a single or a small number of products. This might be due to the product requiring specific freight shipping costs or simply needs to be shipped by a specific, custom method.

Volusion does not support assigning specific shipping methods to individual products (doing so would require a potentially endless number of shipping methods to be created. This could be confusing for both merchants in terms of configuring shipping as well as customers when they wish to choose shipping options). The following however gives instructions on how best to limit a shipping method to a specific product:

• Following the steps in the previous examples, configure a custom shipping rate with the System set to Backup.
• In the shipping method's Advances Options, configure the MinOrderWeight to an extreme value (e.g. 60000).
• Configure the MaxOrderWeight to the same value as above.
• Make sure that there is either a BaseRate or BaseRate Percent configured for this method. Please refrain from using the BaseRate_PerPound option for configuring this method.
• Save changes to the method and proceed to the Product table's advanced mode (Click on the Inventory tab at the top of the Volusion Admin Page, click on the Products link in the green menu bar and finally click on the ID of the product to be edited.
• Set the weight of the product to the same weight value set in the shipping method that was just configured (60000 in this example) and save changes.
• The configured shipping method will now only be applicable to a product configured to fall within the product weight restrictions as described above.
• The caveat with this configuration however is that the shipping method will also be applicable to any order with a total weight that meets the exact weight requirements that have been set. This explains the importance of assigning a weight restriction of such an extreme value.
• This makes it very unlikely that a customer would be able to place an order that can have this special method applied to it however that possibility cannot be completely eliminated.

Summary:

Again, there are many different ways Volusion Version 5's shipping options can be configured. The Shipping Wizard provides basic shipping options however the advanced modes allow fine-tuning of shipping options and rates in a multitude of ways. The shipping integrations provided through Volusion's shipping options furthermore allow accurate shipping quotes from the world's largest shipping providers. These options together can provide especially tailored shipping options for each individual merchant and their customers.

Tags: shipping, shipping rates, usps, ups, fedex, dhl, canada post, shipping integration, live rates