Plug-in: Shipping costs easily managed

Shipping Methods with Shipping Methods

With Shipping Methods, you define which shipping options customers can select during checkout.

These can be, for example:

• Standard shipping
• Express shipping
• DHL parcel
• Shipping with GLS
• Shipping with PPL
• Freight shipping
• Local pickup

Shipping Methods therefore answers the question:

Which shipping options should the customer be able to choose from?

You can name, describe, sort, and, if necessary, restrict shipping methods for certain stores or rules.

Important: A shipping method with the name “DHL,” “GLS,” or “PPL” is initially only a shipping option visible in the store. This does not yet create any technical connection to the respective shipping service provider.

A simple example:

• Standard shipping
• Express shipping
• Local pickup

However, this still does not define how much these options cost. This is where Shipping By Weight comes into play.

What Does Shipping By Weight Do?

Shipping By Weight calculates shipping costs based on defined shipping conditions. Among other things, the rules can refer to the following criteria:

• Store
• Destination country
• Postal code range
• Shipping method
• Goods weight from/to

In addition, you can store fixed fees, percentage-based fees, weight-dependent amounts, and low-quantity surcharges.

A possible weight scheme:

This allows traditional weight tiers to be mapped, as are common in many online stores.

How Shipping Methods and Shipping By Weight Work Together

The two functions complement each other:

• Shipping Methods defines which shipping methods are offered.
• Shipping By Weight defines which costs apply to a shipping method under certain conditions.

Example:

During checkout, the available shipping options are displayed with the appropriate costs.

Important: If no shipping condition applies, Shipping By Weight can offer a free fallback option by default. If you do not want this, activate the setting “Do not offer fallback” and maintain your rules completely.

Typical Shipping Models

Shipping Costs by Weight

If your costs increase with weight, you can create multiple weight tiers.

This is particularly suitable for products where weight and packaging effort significantly influence shipping costs.

Different Prices by Country

Separate rules can be stored for different destination countries.

This allows country-specific shipping prices to be maintained without the store having to retrieve real-time rates from a shipping service provider.

Shipping by Postal Code Range

Regional delivery areas or island surcharges can also be mapped using postal code ranges.

Note: Shipping By Weight supports postal code ranges, but does not provide a separate filter for federal states or regions.

Multiple Shipping Methods with Different Prices

The customer can then choose between the offered options.

Classifying Free Shipping Correctly

Free local pickup can simply be created as a shipping method with a fee of €0.00.

Free shipping above a certain order value, for certain customer groups, or for certain products, on the other hand, is controlled via Smartstore’s separate shipping and free shipping settings. This logic should not be confused with Shipping By Weight.

When Are the Built-In Features Sufficient?

Shipping Methods and Shipping By Weight are a good solution if you want to offer fixed shipping costs that you maintain yourself.

Typical use cases are:

• domestic shipping by weight
• country-specific shipping prices
• shipping costs by postal code ranges
• standard and express shipping with fixed prices
• local pickup
• fixed shipping prices per shipping method
• simple weight tiers
• low-quantity surcharges

The advantage: You retain control over shipping methods and prices. You do not depend on an external service provider continuously supplying rates.

When Is a Technical Carrier Interface Useful?

A direct connection to DHL, GLS, PPL, UPS, or FedEx is not automatically required. It becomes particularly useful if the store is supposed to communicate with the shipping service provider, for example for:

• live rates
• automated label creation
• automated transmission of shipping data
• complex carrier processes
• international special cases

If, on the other hand, you want to display and calculate fixed shipping prices maintained internally, Smartstore’s built-in features are sufficient in many cases.

Practical Example

Assume your store requires the following shipping logic:

• Germany: standard shipping by weight
• Austria: higher shipping costs by weight
• Czech Republic: PPL shipping method with fixed prices
• Germany: express shipping as an additional option
• Local pickup free of charge

For this model, you do not need a direct technical interface to PPL, GLS, or another shipping service provider. The shipping methods and prices are maintained in the store itself.

Conclusion

With Shipping Methods and Shipping By Weight, a large part of the typical shipping cost logic can be mapped directly in Smartstore.

Shipping Methods defines the offered shipping methods. Shipping By Weight calculates fixed shipping costs based on store, destination country, postal code range, shipping method, goods weight, and other pricing parameters.

This makes it possible to implement weight tiers, country-specific prices, postal code ranges, different shipping methods, express shipping, local pickup, and fixed shipping models.

A direct connection to a shipping service provider only becomes relevant when you need additional automation or real-time data. For many store operators, the existing Smartstore built-in features are already sufficient: transparent, flexible, and controllable.