(V5) How do I set up and use Custom Shipping?
Print
shipping
0
This is the documentation for Custom Shipping, which is an all-in-one non-provider based shipping method. Non-provider means that this is not a UPS, FedEx, among others, shipping method. For those, please your admin area's Shipping Plugins page. You can, however, set up the shipping method that you want with this plugin, and after the customer pays, you can ship your products using any shipping provider in your country.
Custom Shipping has many features that you can customize to have any type of shipping that you want. This shipping method itself has many help pop-ups that appear when you hover over the titles.
What is Custom Shipping?
Custom Shipping is an advanced shipping extension. If you want to define your own shipping method and price, this extension is the perfect solution. In this extension, you can create your own shipping method and give it a custom name. It will appear to your customers when they checkout.
Tutorial: Set up Your Shipping
Let us create your first shipping method.
Navigate to Shipping Plugins and then click on the Edit button beside Custom Shipping.
You will see all the global options on the right side and the shipping method list on the left side. It may be empty, so you may have to create a new shipping method. In General Settings, change Status to Enabled to activate it (you can also control the status of each shipping method). Now, click on the + button to create the first method.
You will now have your first method like you see below. Enter your shipping Name and Method Name. Name is for the admin user only. It helps you remember the shipping method name in the admin area. Method Name is the actual shipping name that will appear during checkout. So, enter the shipping method name. For example: Express Delivery.
What is important to understand is that all rules/options available for a method can be different from other methods but may interfere with another method if settings are similar. Also, every method works in a logical order, such as this and this equals that (e.g., these products, and these categories, in this country, in these zones, having this weight, will have this certain price). So, choose your shipping rules, otherwise, for this tutorial, keep them as they are. We are keeping all rules as default value for the first method except for Shipping Cost. Please navigate to the Price Settings tab and enter Rate Type as Flat. Then, enter a shipping cost of 10, without a currency symbol, or enter a percentage, 10%. Click Save.
You have just created your first shipping method, "Express Delivery". Your customers will now see this during checkout.
Shipping Rules/Options
Custom Shipping has a lot of rules/options. Note that all rules will be considered as a logical 'AND' mode. It means that if you choose Rule1 and Rule2 for a method, then that method will appear only when both Rule1 and Rule2 are true. Choose your rules carefully.
Here are most of the options available for each tab of a shipping method.
General tab
This tab contains general settings for shipping methods and controls different settings compared to the one found in General Settings. The only rule found in this tab is Select Group.
Include weight in the name: If you check this option, your customers will see the cart weight displayed beside the shipping method name. Tax Class: If you want to apply Tax/GST/VAT to the shipping cost, please select the appropriate tax class here. Logo URL: Optional field. Shipping Method Logo that appears during checkout (not the shipping estimation in the cart), and is located to the left of the title Only image URL is allowed. Small logos will be displayed better. Sort Order: Set order among your Custom Shipping shipping methods. This field is also used by the method grouping feature. Status: Enable/Disable method. Select Group: For method grouping. Please see 'Group Options Tutorial' below below to learn more.
Criteria Settings tab
All settings in this tab function nearly the same. When you choose the options you want, that shipping method will only appear for those checked options. Otherwise, check mark 'For any' and it will show up for all options. 'For any' is the same as checking all choices.
Extra help for Zip/Postal - Custom Shipping supports the following postal rules:
Rule 1: Numeric Postal Range Range should be defined by a single hyphen (-). For example, 100-200 denotes postal codes 100 to 200. If you need multiple ranges, just separated these by a comma(,). For example, 100-200,300-400.
Rule 2: Prefix-Range (Prefix hyphen range)
Prefix can be anything. Range should be like Rule 1 that means numeric postal range. Example: KW-10-15 denotes KW10, KW11, KW12, KW13, KW14 and KW15.
Rule 3: Prefix-Range-Suffix (Prefix hyphen Range hyphen suffix)
Prefix and suffix can be anything. Range should be similar to Rule 1 above, numeric postal range. Example: KW-10-15-EE denotes KW10EE, KW11EE, KW12EE, KW13EE, KW14EE and KW15EE.
Rule 4: Postal codes separated by comma(,). For example, 1000, AB1111, etc.
Note: you can use wild cards in the prefix, suffix, and single postal codes.
For example, PA2* denotes any postal code starting with PA2.
E.g., KW-1-5-* denotes KW1XX, KW2XX, KW5XX, and so on. Here XX means anything due to *
Several rules can be mixed together separated by a comma. For example: 1200, AE-1-5-*, PA2*.
Category/Product tab
There are a total of seven category rules in Custom Shipping. These are:
For any category
Must have selected categories
Must have selected categories with others
Any of the selected categories
Any of the selected categories with others
Except the selected categories
Except the selected categories with others
1. For any category
This is the default category rule of a method created by Custom Shipping. This rule simply means that there will be no category rule imposed for the method. So, the respective method will be available for all the categories.
2. Must have selected categories
All chosen categories (combined) must be present in the shopping cart and unchosen categories won't be permitted. For example, you have chosen categories A, B, and C for a method. So, a customer must have added to his cart products from all three categories, A, B,and C, in order to see this shipping method. Also, he is not permitted to choose products from other categories, like category D (meaning, he won't see this shipping method). See option number 3 to allow other, unchosen categories as well.
3. Must have selected categories with others
All chosen categories (combined) must be present in the shopping cart in order for the shipping method to appear during checkout. If any of the chosen categories (Rule categories) are not present in the shopping cart, the delivery/shipping method will not appear during checkout. Other products from other categories can be in the cart. For example, you have chosen categories A, B, and C for a shipping method. Now, a customer adds products from all those categories, A, B, and C, to his cart. In this case, this method will be visible during checkout. The same customer then chooses a product from another category, D, and adds it along with those already from categories A, B, and C. This method will remain visible during checkout. Main condition is that the customer must have chosen products from all categories that the admin has selected and then extra categories can be added (meaning those extra, unchosen categories will keep the shipping method visible, unlike option number 2 above).
4. Any of the selected categories
At least one of the chosen categories should be present in the shopping cart and unchosen categories are not permitted. For example, you have chosen categories A, B, and C for a method. Now, a customer adds to cart products from category A. This method will appear during checkout. But, if customer chooses product from Category D along with Category A, that method will not appear. Main condition is that someone must choose products from any of the chosen categories and other categories (non-ruled categories) are not allowed in the shopping cart.
5. Any of the selected categories with others
At least one of the chosen categories must be present in the shopping cart in order to make this method appear during checkout. Other products from different categories can be purchased. For example, you have chosen categories A, B, and C for a method. Now, a customer adds to cart products from the category A. This method will appear during checkout. The same customer then adds to cart products from other categories as well, for example, from Category D. This method will appear during checkout. Main condition is that customers must choose at least one product from any of the admin selected categories, and they can then add products from other unselected categories (unlike number 4).
6. Except the selected categories
All selected categories must not be present in the shopping cart. For example, you have chosen categories A, B, and C for this. A customer that adds products from those categories is not permitted to use this shipping method.
7. Except the selected categories with others
This is similar to point 6, Except the selected categories, but this allows other unselected categories as well. For example, you have selected categories A, B, and C for this. A customer wishes to purchase a product from category A. Hence, this shipping method will not appear. Then, customer adds to cart another product from another unselected category, D, and so the shipping method will appear.
Multi-Category Rule: Defines how categories should be treated if a product is assigned or belongs to more than one category. If you choose the rule 'Any', then you don't need to select all the categories because Custom Shipping will automatically select all applicable categories for you. If you choose Exact, then Custom Shipping will just consider the provided categories. E.g.: a product belongs to category A, B and C, and if you select 'Any' and then choose only one category here, such as A, then Custom Shipping will automatically fetch the other categories, B and C. However, if you choose 'Exact', then Custom Shipping will only count the provided ones.
Don't impose these rules to validate shipping method. Just use these rules to calculate shipping cost only: If you check this option, Custom Shipping will ignore the product/category/brand/option/location rules to validate this method. In other words, these rules will no longer remain active for this method - these rules will only be used for estimating shipping cost.
Treat these rules as logical OR operator: By default Custom Shipping treats all rules as Logical AND operator. If you mark this checkbox, all these rules (product/category/brand/option/location) would be treated as logical OR operator instead of having default AND operator.
Price Settings tab
Rate Type: There are a total of 14 types of Rate Types currently. One is a simple flat rate and the remaining 13 are ranges.
Range option: You can add unlimited rows which contain a start value, end value, and a corresponding cost. Each row also has Per Unit Block and Allow Partial options.
Flat: If you want to charge a flat rate. This option is for you. It can also be a percentage. For example: 15% or 50. Please don't enter any currency symbol. For example, $50 is invalid. It should be 50.
Quantity: Unit Type is Cart Quantity.
Weight: Unit Type is Cart Weight.
Dimensional Weight: Unit Type is Dimensional Weight.
Volume: Unit Type is Volume.
Volumetric Weight: Unit Type is Volumetric Weight.
Total: Unit Type is Cart Total with tax.
Total without coupon/reward: Unit Type is Cart Total without coupon and reward price.
Subtotal: Unit Type is Cart Total without tax.
Grand Total before shipping: Unit Type is Grand Total (includes tax) before shipping.
Grand Total: Unit Type is Grand Total (includes tax).
No. of categories: Number of different categories.
No. of brands: Number of different brands.
No. of locations: Number of different locations.
Custom Shipping calculates Dimensional weight and Volumetric weight in this way: Dimensional weight = (volume / factor ) * weight; and Volumetric weight = volume * factor;
Let us look at an example: Product Dimensions (L x W x H): 15.00 x 4.4 x 2.1 cm Product Weight: 160 gm (Note that Custom Shipping does not convert the weight unit from one type to another, it will simply consider your default unit. Please enter factor value accordingly.)
Now consider the Factor value as 5000: Dimensional weight would be = ( (15.00x4.4x2.1) / 5000 ) * 160 = 44.35 and Volumetric weight would be = (15.00x4.4x2.1) * 5000 = 693000
Only take the products into account as per the rules defined in the Category/Product tab: This option enables you to consider only the products that are valid according to the rule defined in the product/category tab.
Let us look at the details for the unit range fields for each row.
Start: Starting Value of the range. Value will be decided based on the Rate Type. For example, if the Rate Type is Quantity, Start value means starting quantity of that range. If you want to charge $10 for the first 1 - 5 items, Rate Type would be Quantity and starting value will be 1. End: Ending Value of the range. For our example, End will be 5. Cost: Cost of that row. For our example, Cost will be 10. Per Unit Block: Define how do you want to charge for each unit. Unit will be decided based on Rate type. For example, if rate type is Quantity, then unit means Quantity. It is just a generic name for the Rate Type. For example, if you want to charge $10 for every pair of items, then, Per Unit Block is 2. If you want to charge $10 for each item, then Per Unit Block is 1. If you don't need per unit based cost, just enter 0 to ignore. Allow Partial: It works along Per Unit Block. If you do not need Per Unit Block, then this is meaningless. Sometimes, you may need to charge partial block cost, sometimes you don't. For example, you want to charge $20 for each 1KG weight. What happens if customer purchases a product of 0.5 KG? If you want to charge half cost (since 0.5KG means half of 1KG), then select 'Yes' for Allow Partial, but if you want to charge full cost irrespective of the weight, then select 'No' for Allow Partial.
Additional Price Per Unit: Getting tired of entering too many unit rows? This option can help you. It will continue evaluating shipping cost once Unit Rows reach their end. If there are no Unit Rows defined, then it will simply evaluate cost based on per unit and in that case, it will be an alias of the following Unit Range row:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
0
To last value
Cost of what you enter for additional cost
1
NO
Example: If you enter 10 into the Additional Price Per Unit field and Rate Type as Quantity, and there is no unit row defined, then the cost of two items will be $20.
But, if there is one Unit Range defined as follows:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
0
1
15
0
NO
Then, cost will be $25 because, for the first item, it will consider the Unit Range price and try to calculate all item costs from there. There is no cost defined for the second item in the Unit Ranges, so it will be evaluated based on the Additional Price Per Unit, which is 10. Hence, total is $25.
Final Cost: Define how your unit rows will behave if you have multiple unit rows. Look at the following Unit Ranges:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
0
5
15
0
NO
6
20
10
0
NO
Let us consider Rate Type as Quantity. We can conclude with the following two scenarios using the above Unit Ranges: Scenario 1: If cart items are between 1-5, then shipping cost would be $15, and if cart items are between 6 - 20, then shipping cost would be $10. If I add to cart 7 items, shipping cost would be $10.
Scenario 2: For the first 5 items, shipping cost would be $15, and for the remaining 6 - 20 items shipping cost would be $10. That means price would be cumulative. If I add to cart 7 items, shipping cost would be (15+10) = $25.
Final Cost can be either Single or Cumulative.
Percentage related to: Define how Custom Shipping will calculate the percentage value. If you select Total, then 5% means 5 percent of cart total.
Price Adjustment: You can force redefine your final cost using this option. For example, if you want your minimum shipping cost to be $5 irrespective of any price setting, then enter 5 in Min. If you want a maximum shipping cost of $100, then enter 100 in Max. Also, sometimes you may need to modify your shipping cost in another way. For example, you want to add an extra charge for the final shipping cost. Then, you can use the Modifier option. If you enter +5 into the modifier field, it means that it will add $5 to the final shipping cost. You can use -5 or *5 or /5, etc. You can also use percentage values like 5%.
Final Equation: This is also a sort of price redefining option. You can enter any arithmetic equation to calculate your final shipping cost. For example: if the equation is {cartQnty}*10 and cart quantity is 5, then shipping cost will be $50. Available parameters: {cartTotal}, {cartQnty}, {cartWeight} {shipping}, {modifier}, {volume}. Ex. {cartTotal}-5*{cartQnty}
Others tab
Days of the week: Define the days for when you want to show this method. It will not appear for non-selected days.
Time Period: Define the time period for when you want to show this method. It will not appear for the non-selected time period.
Order Total Range: Custom Shipping supports one Rate Type at a time for a particular shipping method, but sometimes you may need two Rate Types for a shipping method. For example, you want to charge $5 per item when the order total is less than $100. Under the Price Settings tab, you can select 'Quantity' for Rate Type and define your price accordingly. However, how do you define order total restriction? You can use this option. You can simply enter total range 1 to 100 here.
Weight Range: Additional weight range rule similar to Order Total Range.
Quantity Range: Additional quantity range rule similar to Order Total Range.
Hide methods: Force hide other Custom Shipping shipping methods if this method appears. You can hide any other Custom Shipping shipping methods. For example, you have two shipping methods. One is Free Shipping and the other has a flat rate of $100, and you don't want the Free shipping method to show when the flat rate shipping appears. So, you can select 'Free Shipping' for the option 'Hide selected methods if this method become active'. Important: If you only want the paid shipping method to appear and not the free shipping method, you must also change the category rule in Category/Product for both or all of your shipping methods to "Any of the selected categories with others" from "Any of the selected categories".
Examples
Example 1: Set up Free Shipping for an order total greater than $500.
Create a new shipping method and enter a name for it.
Now, navigate to the Price Settings tab and select Total for Rate Type. Then, enter these Unit Ranges:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
500
999999
0
0
NO
Example 2: Set up Free Shipping for products in categories A and B when order total is greater than $500.
Create a new shipping method and enter a name for it.
Now, go to the Product/Category tab and select Category Rule as Any of the selected categories. Then, select categories A and B (basically, the ones you want).
Then, navigate to the Price Settings tab and select Rate Type as Total, and enter the following Unit Ranges:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
500
999999
0
0
NO
Example 3: Set up a shipping cost of $10 per item.
Create a new method and provide a name.
Now navigate to the Price Settings tab and select Rate Type as Quantity. Then, enter the Unit Ranges as follows:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
0
9999
10
1
NO
Example 4: Set up a shipping cost of $10 per item for the products in categories A and B only.
Create a new method and provide a name.
Now, go to the Product/Category tab and select Category Rule as Any of the selected categories. Then, select categories A and B (basically, the ones you want).
Then, navigate to the Price Settings tab and select Rate Type as Quantity. Then, enter the Unit Ranges as follows:
Start
End
Cost
Per Unit Block
Allow Partial
0
9999
10
1
NO
Example 5: Set up a shipping cost of 10% of the order total.
Create a new method and provide a name.
Now, navigate to the Price Settings tab and select Rate Type as Flat.
Then, enter a Shipping Cost of 10%.
Finally, select Total for Percentage related to.
Group Options tutorial
In Custom Shipping, you can divide all shipping methods in up to ten groups. Why do you need grouping? Grouping can be used in the following cases:
You can hide/filter out unwanted shipping methods for certain cases. For example, you have two shipping methods: a. Free Shipping when order total is greater than $100 and b. Flat Rate Shipping $20. So, whenever a customer adds to cart products worth more than $100, it will show the above two shipping methods during checkout. Since it is a bit awkward having both appear, you can hide Flat Rate Shipping whenever Free Shipping activates. You can hide it using the group feature.
Merge or combine shipping costs of several shipping methods into one. For example, you want to charge $5 per product for category A and $7 per product for category B. You have created two shipping methods. One for category A and another for category B. Whenever customer adds to cart products from category A and Category B together, you want to sum up the cost. Group options can do that.
Enrichment of rules – You can link several methods into one. Custom Shipping will check every rule for all of the linked methods before showing it in the site. If any rule fails for any of the linked methods, it will be not appear. For example, you may want to charge shipping cost based on order total and quantity, but Custom Shipping does not support two Rate Types for the same method. So, you can create two different methods, one method for order total and another method for quantity, and then link these two methods into one using a grouping option so that it validates both order total and quantity rules.
It supports the following group types or modes:
Lowest – This shows the method which has the lowest cost among the group methods.
Highest – This shows the method which has the highest cost among the group methods.
Average – This averages the cost of the group methods.
Sum – This sums up the cost of the group methods.
AND – Special type. This can be used for rule enrichment as is described in item 3 above.
For defining several methods as a group, you first have to navigate to Custom Shipping -> General Settings -> Group Options.
Select a Group Type from the available groups. You can also enter a Group Name. This Group Name will appear instead of Method Name if that group becomes active during checkout. This Group Name can be combined with the original Method Name, and its price as well. For placing the first Method Name, you can put #1, for the second Method Name, #2, and so on. Also, it is possible to put the method price just like the Method Name by placing @1, @2, and so on.
Now, you will have to assign your group number to the methods that you need linked together under the general tab for each method.
Make sure to save. Group creation is now done!
Finally, it is also possible to make a group from the Groups. This is called Group of groups. This group will be determined based on the Sort Order value defined in the general tab in each method. Shipping methods having the same Sort Order value will be placed into the same group. Group of groups can be Lowest, Highest, Average, and Sum.
To learn more about the top level grouping (Group of methods) and second level grouping (Group of groups), keep reading below.
In Custom Shipping, there are two levels of grouping:
Group of methods – First level grouping is based on Select Group fields and
Group of groups – Second level grouping is based on Sort Order fields.
Custom Shipping first calculates grouping based on Select Group fields, and then it calculates grouping again based on Sort Order fields.
Second level grouping are seldom used. Most of the time, first/top level grouping is enough to achieve the required result. However, you may need second level grouping in a few cases.
Why do you really need grouping? Sometimes we come to a situation where we have to take a decision about what to do in a special case. For example, you want to charge a shipping cost of $5 if any item is chosen from category A and a shipping cost of $10 when any item is chosen from category B. But, what will happen when a customer wants to purchase from both categories A and B? You may want to sum up the shipping cost or want to proceed with the highest shipping cost.
You can then let Custom Shipping know your decision by using group mode. For doing so, you will have to navigate to Group Options in General Settings, then choose Group1 as Sum or any other choice. Then, you will have to assign this group to each of the applicable shipping methods in the General tab of that method, in Select Group. If you don’t need any group, you can just keep it as 'None'.
In this way, you can make up to 10 groups amongst your shipping methods. A method can belong to only one group at a time.
Now, let us discuss Group of groups or second level grouping. For example, you have 5 top level groups as shown above. You're now in a situation where you may need to sum up the cost of the groups. This is a very rare case but it may be needed. That's why Group of groups can only be chosen once.
To make groups within groups, you first choose a Group Type, e.g., sum, highest, etc. Then, you will have to choose shipping methods for this group. Unfortunately, there is no selection field for this kind of grouping as seen in the first level grouping. Custom Shipping considers the value of the Sort Order field that is located under the General tab to find out or calculate such grouping. Methods having the same Sort Order value will be considered a group. For example, if you have chosen Sum for “Group of groups”, and method A and method B have a Sort Order value of 1, then Custom Shipping will consider these two methods as a group. So, whenever both methods become activated simultaneously, Custom Shipping will show one method instead of both depending on Group Type (Sum, Average, etc.).
Group of groups will even work if you don’t have a first/top level grouping. If you choose any Group Type for “Group of groups“, then it will be activated regardless of the first level groups. It will check methods that have the same Sort Order values and will turn those into a group.
