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Let's be honest for a moment.. Shipping kind of sucks... All the way around..
You need it to be accurate to maximize profit, but also cheap or "Free" (nothing is free) for that transaction to actually happen....
You need FedEx, UPS, USPS, your table rates and heavy freight carriers to all spit out the perfect shipping quote all at the right time..
People have spent decades figuring that out and how to relay that info..
At present - we will not be re-inventing that wheel... Our experience has taught us that keeping it as simple as possible is key!
There are 4 different shipping options in B2B Ninja!
I. Shipping Options on a Quote
Customer Choice at Checkout - This allows the customer to select whatever shipping speed/rate they desire once the quote is loaded in the checkout cart.
Free Shipping - This will give free shipping. It is not enabled by default must be enabled under Settings > General. If you are using ShipperHQ, please note that this can cause a conflict and customers may be able to choose different shipping speeds for free shipping. Please see below for more gotchas on free shipping.
Calculate Rates - Selecting one of these will show this price on the quote. It does not force the user to select this option at checkout. (These rates are pulled from any and all carriers you have set up in BigCommerce)
Custom - You will be able to set a custom shipping amount (More on custom shipping here) This must be enabled under Settings > General and then go through the prompts to finish setup. Depending on your configuration this will override the shipping other carriers provide for that specific quote.
II. Customer Choice at Checkout
By default, "Customer Choice at Checkout" will load as the shipping option on a quote. It will allow the customer to choose shipping in the cart when the quote is loaded. These rates are the rates set up in your BigCommerce store. In the quote template, it will appear as a link that takes your customer to their cart with the quote loaded so they can plug in their city/state/zip and easily get the rate calculated by your cart. It gives them an extra reason to load the quote into the cart ;)
* If using a template with no check out while this is selected, we will show TBD in the shipping field.
III. Free Shipping
If you offer Free Shipping.. you've got it pretty easy!
Free shipping is not set enabled by default so to enable this option navigate to Settings > General and click the box.
***note that if you are using ShipperHQ, a customer will be able to select different shipping speeds with your free shipping. This can be problematic if they choose overnight shipping and this is not the free shipping speed you would like to provide. This can be expensive, and we would like to thoroughly encourage you to investigate if this setting is appropriate for your store and is functioning properly.
Once free shipping is selected as the shipping type you can load the tax and handling (if there is any, we pull this data from BigCommerce and other ancillary applications, Alavara, TaxJar, or other tax rate providers) by selecting the "Get Tax & Handling" Button.
Free Shipping Templates
Note: Free shipping will now show on most of our templates automatically, however, we have specialized templates for free shipping and templates can be customized for certain free shipping cases. Please note that our free shipping templates do not override shipping on the quote cart. These settings need to be established in BigCommerce. If you have the calculated shipping option enabled, and free shipping as an option set up in your BigCommerce shipping rates, you can use that and have a more valid free shipping and tax rate. Free Shipping templates are not applicable to most accounts. Contact us if you need a template customized.
Free Shipping at the Product Level
If all your items have free shipping set at the item level, we'll auto-detect this and show free shipping on your quote automatically. Otherwise, we'll show the link to select at checkout or the other rate you have selected. Free shipping at the product level, generally takes precedence over any other shipping rate or type for that product.
Free Shipping via Automatic Promotion (Formally: Cart Level Discount)
BC doesn't have a way to detect these at present.
You and your staff will need to know when/how these are activated, and quote accordingly.
More about that here: Conflicts w/ Automatic Promotions
IV. Calculate Rates
This allows you to select a specific shipping type/rate for your customer based on the shipping rates that are set up in BigCommerce. Whatever you select will be shown on the quote however it does not force the customer to use the option. Once selected as the shipping option, select the refresh button to pull the rates into B2B Ninja
Then a list of rates will appear for you to select! Once selected it will populate in the shipping field!
It's at this point that taxes are ready to be calculated. To read more about this:
V. Custom Shipping
Overriding Shipping in the cart... Yes we can do that!!
Custom shipping gives you granular control over shipping methods and prices and on-the-fly flexibility in special-case shipping situations. You can select exactly how much you want to charge for shipping and override the typical selections. To learn more about custom shipping and how to set it up:
Quoted Shipping is set up and functions differently depending on your shipping provider in Big Commerce.
If you DO NOT Have ShipperHQ then we inject this custom shipping rate right into the shipping line item in the BigCommerce Checkout
If you have ShipperHQ then we handle it a bit differently, we insert the custom shipping rate as a line item in the quote, and "Quoted in Line Item" Will show on the Shipping Line in BigCommerce.
To learn more about custom shipping for Shipper HQ accounts please see:
Quick Hack if you're not using custom shipping:
Ok.. That's nice, but I really need to send a quote with a custom shipping rate right now!
No problem!
Make sure you have a template w/out a checkout link setup.
When you draft your quote, in the preview of the template you can edit it and delete either the Free Shipping or "Select at Checkout" link and fill in the shipping amount.
Don't forget to modify your total..
Send the quote!
We didn't always have this nifty checkout link, and it's not always used.. Sometimes you just have to stick to the good old analog way ;-)
VI. Common Issues / Questions
Shipping is not calculating
This is usually due to an item on your quote not being purchasable or is out of stock. We will show an error message when this happens and create a custom item. However, we can not always guarantee accurate shipping and tax quote in those cases.
It could also be that the items on your quote don't have the proper attributes like dimensions and weight for your store to properly calculate the shipping. These will need to be rectified in BigCommerce or other shipping integration settings. It is not something we can change in B2B Ninja.
An error message is being returned
When possible, we'll show you the exact error message your customer would see if they attempted to checkout. If it won't calculate in our dashboard, there's a 99% chance that it won't calculate for your customer at checkout.
Note that if we're not able to calculate shipping, there is a high probability that the checkout link also won't work, and/or we will create a custom item for some of the items on that quote. So consider sending the quote without the checkout link option.
Want your customer to have the option for a quote if a shipping error occurs? We have a nifty new feature for that! Capture a quote at shipping error
Where do I enter my UPS/FedEx/Other Carrier info.
You don't...
Carrier integrations are a core feature of your BigCommerce store. You may even have additional complex integrations like ShipperHQ running as well.
We utilize all the hard work you put in getting that system tuned, and put it to use in B2B Ninja.
If you don't like the rates being displayed, it's best to dig into those shipping configurations you have setup in BigCommerce and/or ShipperHQ.
Will my ShipperHQ integration work?
Yes we'll pull in your ShipperHQ calculated rates ;-)
This assumes the items on that quote are purchasable in your store.
Note: Our custom shipping works differently when ShipperHQ is integrated and enabled, please be sure to use our ShipperHQ directions when implementing this feature.
International Shipping Quotes
We are working hard to pull in international shipping quotes for all countries.
Many countries are already supported, with more to follow.
Note that BigCommerce must be set to calculate international shipping for it to work.
If you find a country that is not working, please let us know, and we will move it up on the list of countries that need support ;-) This sort of shipping error is the perfect use case for our new Capture a quote at shipping error feature!