Delivery Methods
Configure which shipping options will be available throughout ChannelOnline for accounts, documents, and store sites.
- Location: Admin -> Delivery Methods.
- Place checks in the boxes of the shipment options you wish to have available to your customers.
- If a delivery method you require does not exist in the list, use the “Add Custom Delivery Method” link to create it.
- You will also want to establish a default shipping method, which will place that option first in the list on any orders or shopping carts at purchase time.
- Choose whether or not to configure per-customer shipping rules, or have all customers use the rules configured here. If you choose the per-customer option, a new shipping tab will appear on your “Edit Customer” pages.
Note: Additional options are available but not addressed here.
ChannelOnline will attempt to calculate a shipping estimate for quotes and store-placed shopping carts based on supplier weight, package dimensions, and delivery address.
Note: The shipping price on your quotes and shopping carts is only an estimate. The actual shipping charge to your supplier is calculated during the purchase order process.
To understand how shipping is determined click here.
Shipping Calculations
Defaults and Global Rate Settings
The biggest factor in calculating shipping costs is the weight of the item. ChannelOnline relies on the weights provided by the suppliers for this calculation and there are three options that will affect what the system does with it. Only one of the options can be selected.
- Use ONLY selected supplier weight.
- Use maximum shipping weight when a selected supplier does not have weight (default).
- Use all suppliers in ChannelOnline to determine shipping weight all the time. When applied, the system uses all non-zero supplier weights + weight from DataSource attributes (if existing and not zero). Then among those, it picks the most common, but If there is no common weight (for example, each weight occurs one time) then it picks the maximum weight among those available.
Do you want to allow for different rates per customer? If yes, then select “Allow special shipping rates to be assigned per customer.”.
Markup: To help make sure you are covering your shipping costs, the system allows you to inflate the amount by a markup percent. Enter a desired percentage amount in the text box after “Add an optional shipping markup of [___] %…”
Free Shipping: Set free shipping options globally or at the customer level (if activated). These settings apply both internally and on your StoreSite for customers (when applicable) to see the free shipping amount in the cart. The system will also allow free ground credit to be applied to non-ground shipping prices.
Handling Fee / Surcharge: The basic setting is to set a minimum handling fee amount for all orders. This can be waived (ignored) for Free Shipping orders. Or, use the option that allows the selection to only charge a surcharge or shipping fee, whichever is greater. When free shipping is set and a surcharge is also present, the system will charge a surcharge until the minimum surcharge amount is met. If the ignore surcharge when free shipping gets applied criteria are met, then free shipping will be applied.
Fixed Rate Shipping: This will essentially ignore the selections above and use a flat rate or percent of the total order. When using this option, ChannelOnline will ignore the weight-based calculation and calculate the shipping fee based on the order subtotal. To use this option, select “ Ignore estimated shipping & use this % of total order rate for all shipping at all times:“ and enter the percentage amount that will be used for calculation. When activated, a new shipping calculation button (green with a lightning bolt) is displayed next to the Shipping section on submitted Sales Order documents. Use this button to update shipping on older documents.
Generic Shipping
Generic shipping options can be used on the StoreSite in place of the actual name of the carrier. This option allows you to create a generic shipping method name that is assigned to an actual carrier method. Allowing the system to base the shipping calculation on a specific carrier but to be able to choose the actual carrier for shipping after the StoreSite order has been placed.
For example, you create a generic method called “Ground Freight” and map it to UPS Ground, FedEx Ground, and USPS Parcel Post. You then select to base the shipping estimate on the maximum or minimum shipping charge for the carriers mapped to your new “Ground Freight” method. On a document viewed on a StoreSite the selected generic carrier method gets displayed while the carrier used for that calculation remains hidden to the end customer.
To activate this option make sure to go to Generic Shipping and select “Enable StoreSite generic shipping names. (All shipping methods must be assigned to enable this feature.)”
Document Shipping Cost dropdown selections
Shipping cost calculation dropdown options can include Manual, Global or Customer (if Customer specific shipping is active for the account) as a shipping rate option.
- The manual allows you to key in any value desired as the shipping charge.
- Global calculates a shipping cost based on the default global shipping settings set in Admin | Delivery Methods.
- The customer calculates a shipping cost based on the shipping settings set in the customer record under Edit Customer | Shipping Rates (you can also select the link next to Shipping Rates in the Settings widget on customer view). In order to have the option to set Customer specific shipping rates, you must first select the option “Allow special shipping rates to be assigned per customer” as the default in Admin | Delivery Methods.
- The shipping calculation button (green with lightning bolt) is displayed on submitted Sales Order documents when calculation based on the percent of the total order is used.
Customer-specific shipping charges
To customize customer shipping charges the radio button in the Delivery Methods > Global Rates section, is selected for “Allow special shipping rates to be assigned per customer…”.
Once selected, this option will add a fourth step to the “Create New Customer” wizard, if this customer-specific setting is ignored, shipping is based on the global settings. For existing accounts, click on the Settings widget edit icon, when the window opens click on the dropdown in the upper-right corner and select Shipping Rates.
After setting that customer’s shipping rates, then click Finish (for new) or Save and Exit (for existing), and the shipping rates will be applied to that particular customer.
Customer Shipped Notification Emails – Set shipping notifications on a per-customer basis. By default, when the shipment notification email gets enabled in system E-mails it is available to all customers. But this new setting under the Account edit Shipping Rates page allows you to deactivate it for specific customers. On an account, go to the Shipping Notifications section at the bottom of the shipping rates page, and deselect the checkbox before “Enable shipping notifications.”
