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Custom Shipping: An All-in-One Guide

Custom shipping: What it is, what it does, and how to get it going on your store. This is the right spot!

Kenzie avatar
Written by Kenzie
Updated over a week ago

If you are using ShipperHQ, Please see our ShipperHQ guide

Table of Contents


What even is Custom Shipping?

Why can't I manually quote a different shipping value?

Someone in Sri Lanka wants $4M worth of packing peanuts, but we don't ship there normally, so what do I even do!?

If anything like this has crossed your mind, Custom Shipping may be the solution for you! We've cooked up an awesome system that allows you and your reps to circumvent the automatically-calculated shipping costs that BigCommerce and shipping carriers computes on their end. The Custom Shipping system is a straightforward way to make sure every aspect of the quoting process is entirely under your control.

We are able to insert a B2B Ninja shipping rate into the shipping field of the BigCommerce checkout! Giving your customers a seamless checkout experience.

Here are the benefits that using Custom Shipping can give you:

  • Complete granular control over shipping methods and prices

  • On-the-fly flexibility in special-case shipping situations

  • Easy customization of specialized shipping methods without modifying your BigCommerce store settings

  • Completely modular, once enabled it can be toggled on/off at will per quote


Setup

Step 1: Figure out which shipping setting your store is using

There are just a few different methods to set up custom shipping correctly, depending on how your store in particular is set up. If you are using ShippingHQ head on over to this page, otherwise carry on.

On your BigCommerce Store navigate to Store Setup > Shipping, and view

Default Shipping:

If you are using default shipping you are in the right place! On to step 2!

Advanced Shipping (ShipperHQ):

If you are using ShipperHQ then head over to our ShipperHQ Guide.

Step 2: Add a Big Commerce API Token to B2B Ninja

  1. In BigCommerce go to advanced settings > API Accounts > Create API Account and select V2/V3 API token

2. Enter a Name for the app/integration corresponding to this account, then copy or make a note of the API Path โ€” you'll need it to use the API account. The name can be a minimum of four characters long.

3. Specify the API resources and permissions to which your app/integration requires access. This is what we need:

4. Once your selection is made, click save. If successful the pop-up shown below will contain the API credentials B2B Ninja will need for access. You will also be prompted by your browser to download a .txt file containing the same credentials for safekeeping on your computer.

5. Navigate to Settings > General and upload the file on B2B Ninja

6. Check the token to verify that it is functioning properly.

That's it! B2B Ninja is connected through the BigCommerce API!

This will allow us to make changes and for our script to run on account and checkout pages! It will also allow you to take full advantage of all our current and future offerings here at B2B ninja!


Using Custom Shipping

Custom Shipping Methods:

First things first, Let go set up your custom shipping methods inside B2B Ninja!

Go to Settings > General

Under the Shipping box, you can add as many custom shipping names as you'd like to use.

Notes:

  • If you delete shipping names that have already been used, they'll disappear from the quote interface, and if opening an old quote with that name, you'll need to pick a new custom shipping name.

  • The shipping product created for quotes with a deleted custom name, will not be changed or updated, unless a quote is re-sent.

Tip: If you're in the middle of a quote and need to add a new shipping type, just click the menu up top, go to the shipping setting, add the item, and it'll be there waiting for you to select when you reopen the quote you were working on.

Add custom Shipping to your quote:

  1. Select the custom shipping method

  2. Give it an amount

  3. Select the shipping type that you set up earlier

  4. Get Tax and Handling for your quote

How it appears on your quote (Your template may be slightly different):

How it appears in the customer's cart (with the exception of all our red markup ;-)

How it appears in your BigCommerce order dashboard


Using Custom Shipping for Shipping Errors

Let's face it... setting up shipping 100% perfectly in BigCommerce is a difficult task. Shipping errors happen. But what if there was a way to capture that business and send the customer into your quote funnel for a custom shipping quote? Well we figured out how to do just that! Click the button below for more info!


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 ;-)


FAQ


And that's it!

If you still have questions, reach out to Quote Ninja Support by clicking the little blue bubble on the right!

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