Shipping goods to your customers is an important part of running an e-commerce business. To do this, one or more shipping methods needs to be implemented alongside a checkout flow that allow customers to select a shipping method. This article will introduce you to:
When configuring a shipping provider, you typically also need to have an account on an external service belonging to a delivery service. DynamicWeb supports integrating your e-commerce business with these popular delivery services:
You can read more about the settings on each shipping method tab in the following sections.
The General tab contains the following settings:
| Setting |
Used for |
Notes |
| Name |
Set the name of the shipping method |
Also used in frontend |
| Active |
Activate/deactivate a shipping method |
|
| Description |
Describe the shipping method |
|
The Countries tab is used to specify the language contexts in which this shipping method should be available. The language context is defined by the country set on the billing address of the user or visitor checking out – only the delivery methods made available for that country will be shown.
If you include states or regions within a commerce country, they will also appear as selectable options here. If you wish to restrict a payment method to a specific state, choose the state exclusively and omit the country selection.
Only the delivery methods created in the language set as the default language in the website Commerce settings will be rendered in frontend, so on a website with English set as the default Commerce language, only the English-localized shipping methods are available. And of these shipping methods, only the ones marked as available for the billing country in the shopping cart are shown.
The Provider tab is used to select a shipping provider - an integration to an external delivery service like GLS, PostNord, or Shipmondo.
Each shipping provider comes with a set of parameters relevant to the external service – where you must provide e.g. an API key, a service URL, and so on, depending on the requirements of the external service. Each shipping provider is documented separately.
Remember to install the shipping provider add-ins under Apps > Appstore > Available Apps.
The Fees tab is a matrix which lets you create rules for assigning shipping fees to orders. A rule takes various parameters – like weight, user, product group, etc. – and if the order matches the criteria the fee is added to the order according to the fee settings.
When creating a shipping method you have the following fee settings possible:
| Settings |
Used for |
Notes |
| Default fee |
Set the default fee |
This will be the fee if the provider selected below doesn't return a value |
| No fee for purchases over |
Set an amount for when no fee is applied |
If an order is over this amount, the provider will not be asked to calculate a fee |
| Base free shipping calculation on price with VAT |
|
|
| Base free shipping calculation on discounted price instead of original price |
|
Check to base the No fee for purchases over calculation on the discounted price |
| Eligible for free shipping |
|
This shipping method can be selected when an [amount discount with free shipping](xref: manual-discounts) is applied |
You further have fee rule settings:
| Settings |
Used for |
| Use custom fee rules |
Activate the fee rules created in DW |
| Use fee rules from provider |
Deactivate the fee rules created in DW |
| Both weight and volume must apply |
Both weight and volume must apply for a rule to trigger |
| Either weight or volume must apply |
Either weight and volume is enough for a rule to trigger |
| Use highest applicable fee |
Set fee priority |
| Use lowest applicable fee |
Set fee priority |
To create a fee rule:
- Go to Settings > Commerce > Order Management > Shipping
- Click on an already made shipping method and go to the Fees tab
- Click the '+ New fee rule' button and configure the fee rule:
- Provide a name, set the rule to active by checking of 'State'
- Specify when the rule is valid from (date included) and valid to (date excluded). If no dates are selected, the rule will always be valid
- Specify a fee – and a fee type (fixed or percentage), as well as any weight and volume limits – e.g. 5% for orders below 10”x10”x10” under 10lb
- Select for which users, user groups or customer number the rule applies to
- Select for what shops, products or product groups the rule applies to
- Select if the rule applies to orders above a certain total price, or in a particular order context, country/region, currency or zip code
You need only create the rules relevant for your shipping setup – so in reality, you won’t need to use all the options in the rules window but only those relevant for your setup.
The Other tab is used to specify for which user groups the shipping is available for in frontend, this is particularly useful if different shipping methods should be available for B2C and B2B customers. It is also where you can give the shipping method an icon, and where you find the Business Central integration fields.
The Business Central integration fields can be used to match a shipping method with a shipping method in an integrated Dynamics Business Central environment.
The following Business Central integration fields are available and their corresponding Business Central Standard fields:
| Settings |
Used for |
| Code |
Corresponds to ShippingCode, the ID in the ERP |
| Agent Code |
Corresponds to ShippingAgentCode, the ID in the ERP |
| Agent Name |
Corresponds to ShippingAgentName |
| Agent Service Code |
Corresponds to ShippingAgentServiceCode, the ID in the ERP |
| Agent Service Description |
Corresponds to ShippingAgentServiceDescription |
When an Agent or Agent service code is added to a payment method, the live integration will check if a matching code exists in the ERP before including the fields in the salesheader. The ERP will then add the context specific information to the response XML generated in the codeunit.
