Shipping

Configuration in Site Settings

The shipping settings are found on the Site Settings page under Shipping Settings. The settings that apply across all modules are listed below.

Note

Settings specific to the Flat and Per modules are also displayed in this section.

SHIPPING.HIDING
Description:

Hide shipping form fields if there is only one module available

Choices:
  • Yes
  • No
  • Show description only
Default:

No

If your store only has one shipping option, then you may prefer not to show any ability to select shipping options.

SHIPPING.MODULES
Description:

Active shipping modules

Choices:
Default:

Per

Satchmo provides you the flexibility to enable as many shipping modules as you would like. If you have custom modules you would like to use, see Custom Modules below.

SHIPPING.SELECT_CHEAPEST
Description:

Select least expensive by default

Choices:
  • True
  • False
Default:

True

A Boolean value.

Enabling Modules

  1. Under the Shipping Settings section on the Site Settings page , select the module you want in SHIPPING.MODULES.
  2. Save.
  3. You should see a new configuration section for the shipping module you selected earlier; open up the section and configure the module accordingly.

Note

Unlike most modules, settings for the default Satchmo modules Flat and Per modules are not displayed in a separate section; they are displayed alongside settings that apply across all modules in the Shipping Settings section.

Custom Modules

Note

You need to go through these steps before going through the instructions in Enabling Modules.

  1. Add the module’s dotted name to CUSTOM_SHIPPING_MODULES.
  2. If the module has Django-style models, proceed to Modules with Django-style Models; otherwise, proceed with the instructions in Enabling Modules.

Modules with Django-style Models

Note

You need to through these steps before going through the instructions in Enabling Modules.

In addition to the instructions above, you’ll have to create the database tables for these modules:

  1. Add the module’s dotted name to INSTALLED_APPS in your settings.py.
  2. Run python manage.py syncdb.
  3. Proceed with the instructions in Enabling Modules.

Generic Modules

Dummy

dotted name:shipping.modules.dummy

This module is mainly included in order to demonstrate how you can create your own modules. If you have an interest in creating your own, copy this module to a new directory and use the comments to guide you through the process.

Flat

dotted name:shipping.modules.flat

This is a very simple module that allows you to set a flat rate for all shipments. It’s not very sophisticated but it may be useful for simple stores or as a basis for other modules. The values can be configured through your settings page.

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

Note

Unlike most modules, settings for this module are not displayed in a separate section; they are displayed alongside settings that apply across all modules in the Shipping Settings section.

No Shipping

Per

dotted name:shipping.modules.per

This module is a little bit more complex than the flat rate. It allows you to set one rate that is multiplied by the number of items in your order. These values are configured through your settings page.

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

Note

Unlike most modules, settings for this module are not displayed in a separate section; they are displayed alongside settings that apply across all modules in the Shipping Settings section.

Shipping By Product

dotted name:shipping.modules.productshipping

Tiered

dotted name:shipping.modules.tiered

This one is much more flexible than any of the prior modules, so it requires a little more configuration. It is not enabled by default.

To enable, see Modules with Django-style Models.

Why bother?

Well, it allows you to set up multiple carriers, for one thing. For another, you can have different prices based on cart total (total of shippable items, to be specific). For another, it is multilingual from the start, with you being able to specify translations of carrier, method, etc. right in the admin pages. Lastly, you can have shipping specials, expiring on the dates of your choice.

For example, you can make this shipping table:

Price range of cart items UPS Fedex
$0-$25 $8.50 $18.00
$25.01-$50 $9.75 $21.00
... ... ...
>$250.00 free free

Tiered Weight

dotted name:shipping.modules.tieredweight

This module provides similar features to Tiered and requires the same extra steps to install. In addition you can specify a number of zones for each carrier adding a number of countries to each zone. You can then choose a default zone for each carrier. Each zone can have a number of cart weights with corresponding price and handling fee. This means that at checkout the shipping price is based on the shipping country and the total weight of the cart.

NOTE: the weight value of the Weight Tier part of the Zone object is called “Min Weight”, but each tier is used for carts that weight at MOST that amount. This means this is the MAXIMUM weight that will be handled by that price.

Tiered Quantity

dotted name:shipping.modules.tieredquantity

Specialised Modules

UPS

dotted name:shipping.modules.ups

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

The UPS shipping module provides an interface to the UPS Rating and Service selection interface. This service from UPS allows you to get custom real time shipping quotes based on the sending and receiving addresses as well the items in the shipment.

The Satchmo module uses the XML interface which provides maximum flexibility. The UPS interface is very robust and allows many complex actions. Satchmo is configured to support a basic configuration. If you choose to use this service, you should review the UPS developer documents (available when you sign up) and verify that the shipping configuration currently used by Satchmo makes sense for your needs.

Before you attempt to test the UPS module, you must sign up for a developer account at the UPS web site.

Make sure that your store mailing address is correct in the Store Configuration too.

You must configure the following settings in the Site Settings -> UPS Shipping Settings:

  • Type of packaging used by your store (refer to UPS docs for details)
  • Your UPS account number
  • UPS Pickup option
  • Shipping choices you wish to offer to your customers
  • UPS user ID
  • UPD user password
  • UPS XML Access key

Refer to the UPS developer documentation for more definitions on these options.

The UPS api is very powerful and does extensive validation on the data being submitted. Depending on your configuration, a number of possible errors could be returned by the UPS servers. For many of these errors, Satchmo chooses to silently ignore the UPS option that has an issue. The design philosophy is that it is better to not present a price than to present one that may be inaccurate. For this reason, it is strongly encouraged that you have at least one other shipping module enabled so that if there is an error, your customer will still be able to successfully complete the checkout process. To view any errors that may have been generated by the UPS module, please refer to the satchmo log stored in the location specified in your local_settings.py file.

The shipping module does rely on the weight and dimension data you have entered for your products. If you have not entered the weight, then the module will not display any choices.

One important note to remember with the UPS module is that when a user has multiple products in the cart, the UPS request will quote this as if each product is shipped in a separate package. For example, two 3 pound packages will cost more to ship than one 6 pound package. If your shop has a different method of shipping, you will need to override the /apps/shipping/templates/shipping/ups/request.xml file to group products together into one package.

Fedex

dotted name:shipping.modules.fedex

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

The Fedex module allows Satchmo to calculate shipping costs using the Fedex Web Services interface. The Fedex module has two additional dependencies:

Warning

The Fedex module will not work correctly without these modules installed on your system.

One important note to consider is that each product MUST have a weight of at least .1 pounds for Fedex to give a valid response. Therefore, there is a setting in the Fedex module to allow you to set a minimum weight that will be used if the individual products do not have weights.

Once you’ve got the module installed its time to get your account set up with FedEx. (It does not work without the following steps)

  1. Go to http://www.fedex.com/us/developer/
  2. Log in (you may need to create an account) and go to technical resources. https://www.fedex.com/wpor/web/jsp/drclinks.jsp?links=index.html
  3. Click “Get Started with FedEx Web Services Technical Resources now”
  4. Click “Move to Production”
  5. At the bottom click “Get Production Key”
  6. Answer the questions / Fill out the forms. Note: You will need a FedEx account number.
  7. Save your authentication key and meter number.
  8. Add your meter number to the shop settings after enabling the FedEx shipping module.
  9. Check the box to connect to the production server.

USPS

dotted name:shipping.modules.usps

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

The United States Postal Service module allows you to calculate shipping costs using the USPS web api. Here are a couple of noted regarding this module:

  • Specify your username and password in the configuration section for USPS in Site Settings.
  • The USPS API won’t return shipping rates if you are trying to go against the testing server, so a couple of the settings in modules/config.py become useless and confusing
  • Make sure your products have weights associated with them. The USPS API won’t accept weightless packages and your list of shipping options might not be a list at all!
  • The module assumes that the value entered in a product’s “weight” attribute is in pounds (because that’s what USPS expects)
  • Some rates such as parcel post automatically include the “additional postage may apply” values, and according to exchanges with the USPS support crew, we just have to deal with it.

Canada Post

dotted name:shipping.modules.canadapost

To enable, see Enabling Modules.

Prerequisites

  • You must specify dimensions and weight for the products you intend to ship using Canada Post.
  • You must have a merchant id assigned by Canada Post to use the module in production environment. Visit http://www.canadapost.ca/business/default-e.asp for more information.
  • You must fill out the “Home > Shop > Store Configurations” information and most specifically the postal/zip code.

Notes

  • Turn around time is the average time that you will take to process an order before it is ready for Canada Post to pick it up. It may include inventory sourcing, payment processing, order packing, etc. Canada Post will add this time to the shipping date and quote the delivery date based on that.
  • For “Type of container used to ship product” select “Unknown” if you are not sure. If shipping single product Canada post will find smallest box available and if shipping multiple products it will “find the most cost-effective box combination. http://www.canadapost.ca/business/offerings/sell_online_shipping_module/can/demo_5-e.asp