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Shipping Rules Overview. The Shipping Rules feature allow you to filter shipping methods, create shipping discounts, and break shipments into into packages that may have special weights. The shipping rules are applied behind the scenes and are transparent to the user.
SKUs and Shipping Rules. Shipping rules are based on SKU's, similar to SKU discounts. Shipping rules do not take effect until they are associated with a SKU. The basket line items are compared to the matching SKUs associated with rules. To associate a rule to a SKU, you create a shipping rule in the administration area and then click on "Details" for that rule. Click the SKU link at the top and then choose which SKU's will apply to the rule.
Creating Package Type Shipping Rules. A package type shipping rule is a rule that is based on a quantity range. You might set up a package rule to change the weight of a package if a certain quantity of SKUs are purchased. For example, if a user purchases a quantity of 12 of product X, it might be shipped on a pallet that weighs more than taking 12 times the product's weight. By creating a package shipping rule, you can tell The shipping processors to use the weight you define in the rules instead. It also allows you to define the pallet (package) dimensions. The UPS Shipping Processor will send individual packages from the package rules along with the weights and dimensions for those packages to the online UPS calculator to get a more accurate shipping price.
To define the quantity ranges for a shipping rule, click on the "Ranges" link for the rule you've created. Define the quantity floor and ceiling, and the corresponding weight and dimensions of the package. For example, when setting up a package rule ranges for a SKU or a set of SKUs, you might do something like this:
If a person has 19 quantity of SKU in a basket line item, the shipping rule processor would create 1 package of weight 12, 1 package of weight 6, and ship the final 2 simply adding up the leftover weight as defined in the product. Anything in the basket that does not fit a package rule would simply be treated as a cumulative total weight package without dimensions. This would be similar to how shipping works without shipping rules applied.
The shipping processor tries to fit the most items in a package first and then moves downward. If it could not fill a Large Pallet, it would go to the next largest package available, etc. Note, when setting up a package rule range, you MUST enter a ceiling. Each package should have a limit to it, even if it is 99999. It is important to understand that ONLY 1 package type shipping rule can be applied to a basket line item. Make sure to order your rules appropriately if you set up 2 different rules for SKUs that match the same line item.
Adding Method Limitations to Package Type Rules. One powerful reason for setting up package type rules is to limit shipping methods. In the above example, you might only be able to send the Large Pallet via UPS Ground. In that case, in the range, you would setup a LimitType of "Only allow these methods" and a LimitMethods list of "UPSShippingProcessor|02". 02 is the method code for Ground at UPS. You can also choose a limitType of "Allow all but these methods" which would allow everything but certain methods. For example, you could say that you can't ship UPS Express on those items.
When setting up limits, it is important to think about how things are set up. It is possible that multiple line items in the basket meet multiple shipping rules. You could run into the possibility where there are no common methods left after each line item applies its limits. You will likely allow a certain shipping method that can ship almost anything in your store so the user is not left with no methods to choose from.
You can use wildcards when setting up shipping limits. For example, you could allow or disallow *|* or UPSShippingProcessor|*,BasicShippingProcessor|MyMethod.
Limiting Methods without Defining Packages. You can also limit shipping methods for particular SKUs, without defining packages, if you don't need to take advantage of creating package definitions. To do so, create a shipping rule whose type is "Method Limit Rule". Associate the SKUs you want to restrict methods for, and then create one "rule range". Both the floor and the ceiling of the range can be 0, to indicate all quantities. Lastly, enter the method limitations for the range.
Creating Discount Type Shipping Rules. Discount rules can also be created to lower the price of shipping on certain methods. These rules are setup in the same fashion as package type rules. You must enter the shipping methods to apply the discounts to. If a discount would apply to all shipping methods, simply use wildcards like *|*.
The user is shown the original shipping price and the discount shipping price on the checkout screens when choosing a shipping method. They are also shown the names of any discounts that have been applied. This is a nice way to show the user what is happening. For instance they might see:
UPS: Ground
Discount: High Quantity Product X Shipping Discount
Price: $12.00
Original Price: $34.00
The rule processor will apply all possible discounts that match against the shipping totals until those methods hit $0. The user could see multiple discount lines above if multiple discounts were found to match in their basket for that method.
![[Note]](images/note.png) | Note |
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If you setup a discount for a certain SKU that takes 100% off the total shipping price, the user could still be ordering many other things in their basket. The discount comes directly off the *total* shipping amount. So, if you give free shipping when you buy 12 product A's, it will still be free if they also had a bunch of other products in their basket. |
Overriding Shipping Settings. The UPSShippingProcessor will allow you to override certain global settings within a shipping rule using the pkgExtra 1-5 fields in a package rule range. For example, here are the UPS override fields:
See the global UPS settings for more information on UPS settings.
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