Manage Shipping Methods and Zones

Electronics Company

Electronics Company is, as its name suggests, an electronics retailer that sells a large variety of goods. The retailer operates its warehouses out of France and Sweden and needs to set up Shipping Methods in Composable Commerce.

The French distribution center is responsible for what we will call the French Zone. In this Zone, the retailer will use a carrier named La Poste to ship goods at a fixed rate of 5 Euros per Order. Electronics Company also offers free shipping when the subtotal of a Cart is over 30 Euro. In cases where free shipping is applicable, we'll discount the Shipping Method to 0 Euros.

Let’s have a look at how we might approach this scenario.

Scenario #1: A single Zone and Shipping Method

Setting up this scenario in the Merchant Center is a two-step process. First, we will create a Zone for the country of France, then we will add and configure a Shipping Method. Let's do it together.

Add a Zone

To add a Zone in the Merchant Center, do the following:

1. Navigate to Settings > Project settings.
2. Click the International tab, then scroll to the Zones section.
3. Click Add zone.
4. In the Name field, type France.
5. Add France (FR) to the Country codes field.
6. Click Save.

Now, you should see your newly created Zone in your list. Next, you can create a Shipping Method and reference the Zone inside of it.

Add a Shipping Method

To add a Shipping Method in the Merchant Center, do the following:

1. Navigate to Settings > Project settings.
2. Click the Shipping Methods tab.
3. Click Add shipping method.
4. In the Shipping method name field, type La Poste Standard.
5. Click the Tax category dropdown and select the Tax Category for France.

6. Scroll to the Shipping method zones and click Add zone.
7. Click the Zone dropdown and select France.
8. Click Add currency-specific rates and add the following shipping rate details:
   • Rate: 5.00 EUR.
   • Free above: 30.00 EUR.
9. Click Create shipping method.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a Zone and a Shipping Method which offers free shipping when the subtotal of a Cart reaches 30 Euro. With these in place, you can create an Order in the Merchant Center to test your configuration.

To create an Order in the Merchant Center, click Orders > Add Order. You can then add an item to your Cart that costs less than 30.00 EUR, and then increase the quantity until the Cart value exceeds 30.00 EUR. This will allow you to see if you receive the correct shipping rates based on your configuration.

Free shipping thresholds

Composable Commerce allows you to create free shipping thresholds in a few different ways. In the preceding example, we used the Free above option to create a free shipping threshold amount directly on the Shipping Method. Another option is to create a Cart Discount that targets the Cart's shipping costs.

What are the key differences and when should you use one over the other?

• Free above: This option creates the discount at the Shipping Method level. This means that each Shipping Method can have a unique threshold amount. This is useful when you have multiple Shipping Methods with different cost structures. For example, if you have a Shipping Method for Express shipping, you can define a higher threshold amount since the costs are higher.

• Cart Discounts: This option applies the same free shipping threshold amount across all Shipping Methods by default. However, it is possible to restrict a Cart Discount to only certain Shipping Methods using Cart Predicates. We will go into more detail about predicates towards the end of the module.

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