# Shipping Methods

This screen displays all Shipping Methods.

Shipping Methods define each shipping carrier and their methods of shipment, and the fees for each based on the available Shipping Zone for each Shipping Method.

For each Shipping Method, you can set Base Rate, Primary Weight Rate, Secondary Weight Rate and an Item Rate in order to determine the cost of shipping.

Shipping Methods are displayed on the Shipping Methods Page All available Shipping Methods that can deliver the Products to each destination are always displayed to the Customer starting with the least expensive first.

## Guaranteed Arrival Dates

For Each Shipping Method you can also set the number of day the shipment is in transit. These transit days are important if you are using the optional Arrival Date feature and therefore only offer the Customer the Shipping Methods that you can guarantee will deliver the Products to the recipients on time. Transit days can also be impacted by the destination Country so you can also adjust the transit days for any Country.

Base Transit Days is used in determining the number of transit days (calendar days) for that Shipping Method. If Adjust Transit is checked, then the Transit Adjust Days for the Country of the recipient will be added to the Base Transit Days of the Shipping Method.

If a Shipping Cut-off is configured for an Arrival Date, then the Preparation Time for Products, transit values for Shipping Methods, and Transit Adjustment Days for Countries are all ignored.

## Street Address & Post Office Box Delivery

If Allow Street Address is checked then this Shipping Method may be available for a recipient with a street address. (This is determined by a shipping address entered by the Customer starting with a numeric character).

If Allow PO Box is checked then this Shipping Method may be available for a recipient with a PO box (shipping address entered starts with a non-numeric character).

You will also need to set the Allowed Zones that this Shipping Method can deliver too.

## Shipping Selection Process

1) The Customer selects the "Check Out" button from the Shopping Cart Page or the Express Order Page.
The Cart's "Next Page (with shipping)" Page will be displayed if there are shippable Products in the Cart. This Next Page should be a Shipping Address & Arrival Page. This Shipping Address & Arrival Page will be shown for each recipient in the Cart.

2) The Customer will enter the shipping address and select a Requested Arrival Date and press the "Continue" button.

If no Shipping Methods can be found that will guarantee arrival of the shipment by the Requested Arrival Date, the Shipping Address & Arrival Page will appear again with an error instructing theCustomer to change his/her Requested Arrival Date and press "Continue" again.

3) If at least one Shipping Method is found, the Customer will be sent to the Shipping Method Page for the recipient.

If there is a Product in the Cart that is not allowed to be shipped to the recipient's Country or State, the Product Restriction Message is displayed to the Customer on the Shipping Methods Page and the Customer is required to remove the Product from the Cart in order to continue with the checkout process.
the system will look for all Shipping Methods for the recipient's address. the system will then refine the list of Shipping Methods to only those that can get the Products to the destination on or before the selected Requested Arrival Date.

4) If the Customer started the checkout process from a Shopping Cart Page, they will be directed to the Billing Information Page to enter their payment information and proceed to finalize their Order. If the Customer started the checkout process from an Express Order Page, they will be sent back to the Express Order Page to enter their payment information and proceed to finalize their Order.

### Available Shipping Methods Calculation

It is important to understand how the system determines what Shipping Methods are available for each recipient during the checkout process. Here is the calculation, if there is no Shipping Cut-off for the Arrival Date:

Available Shipping Methods = Shipping Methods (ZONE MATCH): (longest Product:PreparationTime) + SHIP:BaseTransitDays + (If SHIP:AdjTransit = Y then CTRY:TransitAdjDays else 0) <= Days until Requested Arrival Date (adjusted for End of Day Time).

If there is a Shipping Cut-off for the selected Arrival Date, then the system will look at the Cut-off Date & Time in order to determine if the Shipping Method should still be available.

If one or more Available Shipping Methods are found then the shipping charges for each will be calculated and displayed to the Customer as follows:
Shipping Method Shipping Surcharge = (SHIP:BaseRate) + (ZONE:BaseRate) + For all non-Free Shipping Products: (Product:PrimaryWeightPoints * SHIP:PrimaryWeightRate * ProdQty) + (Product:SecondaryWeightPoints * SHIP:SecondaryWeightRate * ProdQty) + (SHIP:ItemRate * ProdQty) + (Product:PrimaryWeightPoints * ZONE:PrimaryWeightRate * ProdQty) + (Product:SecondaryWeightPoints * ZONE:SecondaryWeightRate * ProdQty) + (ZONE:ItemRate * ProdQty) + (Product:ExtraShippingCost * ProdQty)
TIP: The Extra Shipping Cost portion of the calculation above is generally used for Products that might require extra preparation time and/or expense.

NOTE: If no Shipping Methods can be found for the shipping address, an error message will be displayed on the Shipping Methods Page and the Customer will need to contact you. So it's a good idea to at least create one Shipping Method that covers all your Shipping Zones if that is the appropriate solution for you.