Shipping Methods & Zones
Creating a shipping method may seem confusing at first, but after this article, most or all of that confusion should be gone. Creating a shipping method requires a few steps. This tutorial will start from the beginning starting with creating the shipping method, creating a zone, assigning geographical areas to that zone, and then assigning the shipping method to the zone. For this tutorial, I will make an international UPS shipping method for Central America as if the store were in the United States.
Create the Shipping Method
First, go to the "Shipping Methods" Page and click "Add Shipping Method".
Notice that the form has many options. Shipping methods can be specific to a price range, weight range, category, and a specific postal/zip code. When a customer checkouts, they will see shipping methods that are applicable for the shipping destination, item price total, total item weight, and item categories.
When making a shipping method that is specific to a price range, one can create shipping options for expensive orders to offer shipping insurance. With the category option, one can make shipping methods specific to items that may need special shipping care (i.e. fragile items, items with lithium-ion batteries, etc.). As for the postal/zip code option, this can be used to provide an option for local pickup (among many other reasons that some stores may find).
The cost of the shipping methods can be configured based on the cost for the first item plus an additional amount for each item. Since actual shipping costs may vary based on weight and distance, it is generally a good idea to create shipping methods for different weight ranges.
Create the Shipping Zone
Now that we have a shipping method for Central America, we need to create a shipping zone for Central America.
Create a name for the Shipping Zone (in this case "Central America") and click "Add Zone".
Upon clicking "Assign Shipping Methods" for "Central America", one will notice that the page does not list any geographic areas for the zone under "Geographical Areas within Zone". This brings us to our next step.
Assign Geographical Areas to Shipping Zone
On the "Assign Shipping Zones" page, one can bulk assign geographical areas to a shipping zone or one can assign assign individual countries and states/provinces. In this example, the bulk assign will work perfectly (as seen in the screenshot).
As for the individual area assignment, one could select the shipping zone in the drop-down titled "Bulk", click the check-boxes, and then click the "Update" button at the top. Alternatively, one could select a shipping zone in the desired row and then click the "Update" button that is in that same row.
Assigning individual areas to a shipping zone can be used to create shipping zones for certain areas (like Asia, Europe, a portion of the United States, etc.).
Assign the Shipping Method
Now that the shipping zone "Central America" has been assigned geographic areas, now we can go back to "Shipping Zones" and click "Assign Shipping Methods" for "Central America". Notice that the page now lists all of the areas belonging to this zone.
Near the bottom of this page, one will see a list of "Unassigned" Shipping Methods. These are the shipping methods that are not assigned to this zone while "Assigned" lists shipping methods that are assigned to this zone. Clicking "Add" on a particular row will assign that shipping method to the zone.
After assigning a shipping method, one will notice that there are arrows under "Options" for the assigned shipping methods. This allows one to control the order in which these methods appear on the checkout when the customer is given a list of shipping methods from which to choose.
Now, that the shipping method has been created, the shipping zone has been created, areas were assigned to the zone, and the shipping method was assigned to the zone, customers in Central America will now have a shipping method available (assuming that their purchase meets the criteria for the available shipping methods for their area.
Weight Options
When creating items and shipping methods, one will notice the use of a weight option without specifying a unit of weight. The options for the commonly referenced "weight" option can be configured under "Shipping" → "Weight Options". This page allows one to specify a unit of weight, set the default weight for items lacking an assigned weight, and more.
