DotAdmin User Guide

Creating a New Shipping Zone

In order to explain the Shipping Zone Editor, we will walk through the process of creating a new Shipping Zone. In the examples presented on these pages, we are creating a new zone named “UK Islands” which will allow us to set up different shipping charges for UK residents who do not live on the mainland.

The default view of the Shipping Zones Editor is the Zone Settings tab, shown in the image below. The first step in creating a new Shipping Zone is to complete these general settings. Each of the settings is described in detail below.

The Zone Settings tab.

Zone Name and Carriage Name

First off, pick an appropriate name for the Zone. The Zone Name is not displayed to the customer at any point, so it can be any name you think is appropriate for this grouping of destinations. Only site administrators who can access the Shipping Zones Editor will ever see the Zone Name.

The Carriage Name can be displayed in the shopping cart page, but it is not required.

In our example, we have named the zone “UK Islands”, and the carriage “First Class”.

Enable This Zone?

This setting is the on/off switch for your zone. Once a zone is enabled, its destinations will become available in the online store as valid locations for shipping. You should only enable a zone you intend to ship to, and only when you are satisfied that all the other settings are correct.

Apply Tax and Charge Tax on Shipping

Next we have settings for Tax A and Tax B. If you wish to add tax to your shipping costs, check the appropriate “Apply Tax” checkbox to enable the tax, and then choose the appropriate tax band from the “Charge Tax on Shipping” drop-down box.

In the example shown above, we are charging VAT at 17.5% on any shipping costs for orders shipped to these locations in the United Kingdom.

Please see the Tax Settings section if you need to edit your available tax bands.

Calculate Shipping By:

This setting controls which aspect of an order is used to work out the cost of shipping. There are four options to choose from: Weight, Volume, Unit and Value. Each option is described below.

Weight

The total weight of the items in the shopping cart is used to determine the cost of shipping. Note that all the products in your inventory must contain weight information for this setting to be of any use. See the Editing Sale Units section if you need to add this data.

Volume

The total volume of the items in the shopping cart is used. Like the weight setting, this setting requires each product to have appropriate settings for its dimensions.

Unit

The total number of units in the shopping cart is used as the determining factor when calculating shipping costs.

Value

This setting uses the total value of the customer's order to determine their shipping costs.

In our example, we have chosen to calculate shipping by the total value of the customer's order.

Delivery Time

This field should contain the number of days that the order will take to arrive at the destinations covered by this Zone. This value is displayed in the customer's receipt.

Note that if the customer has ordered any products which are currently out of stock, the longest lead time of the unavailable products is added to the delivery time, and this value is displayed in the customer's receipt.

To save these settings, click the “Update” button at the bottom of the interface. Your settings will be stored, and you can continue on to the next stage in creating a shipping zone; creating the Shipping Table. Please continue to the Editing Shipping Tables page.