Shipment and return profiles
What are Shipment and return profiles?
Shipment and return profiles are collections of settings which determine:
- whether a product should be sent to the customer for free
- whether a product should not be sent and requires personal collection
- whether a product requires insured shipping
- whether a product should be sent only with indicated couriers
- whether a product may be returned by the customer
- whether a product may be returned at the expense of the store
When to use Shipment and return profiles?
Below you can find a few scenarios of using product shipment profiles:
I ship a valuable product
If your range of products includes products to be insured during transport, you can create a profile with Insurance required and assign selected products.
When placing an order which includes such products, your shop will only suggest couriers which permit shipping insurance from the active shipment profile.
For personal collection only
Products assigned to Product shipment profiles with an active option of Personal collection only will not be sent to the client. If a customer's order includes products assigned to such profile, the customer will be able to choose only "Personal collection". While using this feature it is worth remembering that in the Delivery profiles (ADMINISTRATION / Delivery configuration / Delivery profiles) "Personal collection" should be set as a form of delivery - otherwise the customer will not be able to make an order, since he will not have any form of delivery available.
Free shipping for selected products
If you would like to send some products to the customer with free shipping, you can assign them to a profile with the Free Shipping option. When a customer orders such products only, any form of shipment in the active delivery profile supplies will be free. Availability of payment methods will be the same as in case of shipping for which a customer has to pay. Delivery methods which require a minimum fee paid by the customer are an exception.
If the order includes other products, without the option of "free shipping", the system will select the right form of delivery to the calculated weight or value of all products (depending on the delivery profile assigned to the country or customer), but the cost of delivery will be calculated as if the customer did not add any products with free shipping.
It is also possible to set a free shipping of the entire order, details can be found in the scenario Free shipping for the entire order.
Free shipping for entire order
It is possible to set a free shipping of the entire order, if it includes products with a properly configured shipment profile. Add a new profile, then select the option: Free shipping: yes.
The following option will appear:
Set free shipping for the whole order, if the basket includes at least one product with this profile - selecting yes, will enable choosing the payment method for which a free shipment will be set.
In this way, adding at least one item to the basket with a set delivery profile, regardless of the remaining products in the basket and the selected form of delivery, will make sending the entire order for free possible.
If an order includes other products without the "free shipping" option, the system will select the appropriate shipment form to the calculated weight or the value of all products (depending on the delivery profile assigned to the country or customer), but the cost of delivery will be calculated as if a customer did not select any products with free shipping.
It is also possible to set a free shipping of the entire order, details can be found in the section "Free shipping for the entire order".
We do not enable shipping to these couriers
You can also create Shipment and return profiles in which you indicate exactly which couriers should not be used when shipping products assigned to Shipment and return profile. This option is useful when you are sure that specific couriers for various reasons are not able to meet the demands for delivering certain products to customers. Non-standards packages (e.g. long products such as a hockey stick) that may not be supported by some couriers are a good example. To add couriers to the unsupported list in Shipment and return profile, select Indicate courier services which cannot be used to ship this product and then in the List of courier services which cannot be used to ship this product field indicate couriers which will handle the shipping process.
If the store detects products assigned to such a Shipment and return profile, it will hide couriers which you have excluded and will enable shipping the order with another courier in an active shipment profile. When excluding couriers in Shipment and return profiles bear in mind all current delivery profiles and try to avoid a situation where a Shipment and return profile excludes all forms of delivery.
You can configure your shop in such a way that a customer, despite a lack of delivery profiles, will still be able to place an order. To do this, go to MODERATION / Shop behavior management / Placing orders and set Allow custom orders (cost or weight of the order does not fit delivery profiles) to YES. More about handling custom orders can be found on: Configuration of payment and delivery profiles.
No possibility of return or return at shop's expense
By choosing one of the returns settings option, you can limit customers' opportunity to return selected products at shop's expense or not allow returns in your store (e.g. if products were personalized or it is a fresh product).
If returned products include products which are assigned to a profile that diables returns at the shop's expense, the return of all products will still be possible, but your shop will not display the option of free return.
How to configure Shipment and return profiles?
Configuration of Shipment and return profiles can be found in PRODUCTS / Shipment and return profiles. Assigning Shipment and return profiles to a product will lead to a situation that while placing an order or making a return, the shop will adjust the delivery method or return of the whole order to delivery and returns profile of the product.
Shipment and return profiles set up is very simple:
- Click on Products / Shipment and return profiles
- On the list of profiles click on the option Add a shipment and return profile
- Enter a new profile name and click Add
- Select the newly added profile and edit it in order to set up given options
- Confirm changes by clicking Save
How to add products to a Shipment and return profile?
Use products search to find a given product, edit it and then in Shipment and return profile select the newly added Shipment and return profile. Now save the changes and you are done - products will be sent according to the set preferences. The same operation can be performed for many products simultaneously thanks to Product Bulk Edit or by using IdoSell API with the setProducts gateway.
