BigCommerce provides a variety of ways to set up both international and domestic shipping.
This video will cover how to set up fixed charges, or Static shipping quotes for orders.
Watch the video on Real Time Shipping Quotes to learn more about setting up those services.
Please note that while BigCommerce provides shipping quotes, it does not handle the actual
shipping and handling of your products.
The first thing to know is that creating a shipping charge to display during the checkout process consists of two parts.
You will need to set up Shipping Zones and Shipping Methods.
Zones and methods will define where and how you ship your products.
Let’s look at shipping zones.
A shipping zone refers to the geographical area that you want to ship to.
You can have multiple shipping zones that offer different shipping services.
For example, a store could offer UPS and Fedex for the United States Zone.
In a state defined zone for Texas, offer free shipping & UPS.
And offer local pickup and free shipping to a zone for specific zip codes in the city of Austin, TX.
When a customer checks out, the shipping manager will use the zone that best matches their
address…starting with ZIPcode, then state, and finally country.
If a customer tries to checkout using a shipping address that does not belong to any of your
defined zones, they will not be able to complete the order.
This means, that you can ship to areas that you feel comfortable with.
You can always add new zones when you're ready to ship to new areas.
Offering the right shipping rates and services play a critical role in reducing cart abandonment
and increasing revenue for your business.
After you have defined the zone, you will need to set up a shipping method.
A shipping method determines how you will ship your goods and how much you will charge.
It can be a fixed charge, like a $5 flat rate on all orders, or a dynamically calculated
rate through a real time shipping service like FedEx®, UPS® or USPS®.
We provide a variety of shipping options to help accommodate your specific business needs.
This video will cover setting up static quotes like free shipping, flat rate, and table-rate shipping.
To setup your shipping zones, go to Store Setup and select Shipping.
This will bring you to the Bigcommerce Shipping Manager.
At the top, you'll notice the Shipping Origin.
This address determines where you business ships its products from.
If this address isn’t accurate, take a moment to adjust as needed.
You can find your current, default shipping zone here.
When you first created your store you were asked to fill out your store's profile and where your business was located.
BigCommerce uses this address to auto-populate your default shipping zone.
This zone means we'll be shipping to every state and territory in the United States.
If you’d like to add more zones or areas in which to ship, go to the “Add shipping zone” menu.
You can add a country, create a custom zone, or add the rest of the world to ship globally.
This example will set up a zone for the contiguous 48 states, and a separate zone for Alaska and Hawaii.
Let’s first create a zone.
Click on the Add shipping zone menu and select custom zone.
Enter a name here, then select from this drop-down how you’d like to define the area of the zone.
Choosing selection of states or provinces allows you to narrow down the zone within a country.
Choosing advanced selection allows you to narrow down even further by selecting postcodes.
Since this example is selecting specific states, choose this option.
Enter the country, and in the next field type Alaska and Hawaii.
When you are finished, click submit.
Remember, if you do not assign a shipping method to a zone, customers in that zone will
not be able to checkout successfully.
To add a shipping method, click "Configure".
There are two categories of shipping methods you can enable: Static shipping quotes that
you define, and Real time shipping quotes that are automatically calculated by a shipping carrier.
If you have free shipping or a fixed shipping price applied on an individual product, that
will override all other shipping methods defined in your shipping zones.
This means if a product has free shipping enable here, it will ship for free worldwide.
For information on product shipping settings see the support portal.
Free shipping can convert a lot of shopping carts into sales and may seem like the simplest strategy.
If you would like to set an order limit, like free shipping for orders over $100, enter the price here.
Enable "Use discounted order subtotal" if you plan on using coupon codes or discounts.
You can also have a flat rate shipping option.
Flat rate shipping is something like $5 for shipping regardless of order value.
You can change the Display Name to whatever you’d like to show during the checkout process.
Next, Enter the shipping rate.
Select how you’d like the shipping rate applied, either by item or by order and then click submit.
The last option here allows you to calculate shipping charges based on order value or by
total weight of items being purchased.
This is called Table-rate shipping.
Start by entering in a display name customers will see at checkout.
Then decide if you want to charge shipping based on weight or order total.
If you'll be using product weight, you'll want to be sure that you've included an accurate
shipping weight to your products.
To create ranges, enter in a minimum and maximum value for this range.
Any customers with an order weight total under 5 lbs will be charged $5.
If the order weight total is from 5 lbs to 10 lbs, they will be charged $10.
To create another range, click the plus.
Continue adding ranges as you see fit for your business needs and when you are done click submit.
The other option is to create a range based on the order total.
Select by order total and change the display name.
Decide if you want to use the discounted order subtotal and if you want to include product taxes as part of the total.
Then start adding your ranges.
This example will charge $10 shipping for orders up to $50 in value and $5 for orders up to $100.
Click submit when you are finished configuring your settings.
This zone offers free shipping for orders over $100 and will charge flat rate for all other orders.
If you need to make an edit, click here.
You will be able to change the name, define which countries, states, provinces, and postcodes
are included in the zone, and specify a handling fee.
This tab allows you apply a handling fee to orders in this zone or by the shipping methods in this zone.
When you are finished setting up your static shipping quotes, click Done.
You can also create a shipping zone based on zip or post codes.
These zones are the most specific geographic shipping areas that can be defined.
They are especially useful for businesses that offer In-Store Pickup.
Click on this menu, and select custom zone.
First, name the zone.
Choose advanced Selection and then multiple postcodes.
Then, enter the Country.
In this field, enter in the postcodes you’d like to set for this zone.
You can use wild cards to account for variation in how customers enter their postcodes.
For more information about using wildcards visit the support portal.
When you are done, click submit.
Now, add shipping methods to the zone.
Keep in mind that anyone whose shipping address falls inside this zone will ONLY have access
to the methods set up for this zone.
You will want to add other shipping methods in addition to the local pickup method.
The best thing you can do is offer a combination of shipping options.
Providing shoppers with a few choices makes it more likely that they'll convert.
Zones can be enabled/disabled by toggling the switch here.
Disabling a zone will remove it as an option from checkout.
If you need to edit the zone click here, or click the X to delete it.
We highly recommend making a test order on your store to spot check your shipping charges.
During checkout, when a customer gets to the “Shipping Method” step, they’ll be presented
with the Shipping Charges their order qualifies for in this zone.
This Hawaiian customer will see “Standard Shipping” as an option.
Since their order total is under $100, they won’t see a free shipping option.
This customer in Austin will see both a local pick up and a standard shipping method.
Watch the next video to learn how to set up real time shipping quote options.
If you need additional information about setting up shipping zones and methods for your store, check the support portal.