Most eCommerce stores, no matter what they sell, you will have shipping costs on their website (even if it’s £0).

We will look through the configuration options you have for shipping and then the main methods for delivery set up for an M2 store.

• Flat fee
• Free shipping
• Table rates
• Specific couriers

To start with, we will need to set up our Shipping Settings. To do this log into the Magento admin area. Then head to Stores > Configurations. From here we need to expand the sales menu.

Shipping settings

Under the Sales menu, you will find the Shipping Settings menu item.

Here you will set up the locale for where you ship orders from. This is more used for if you vary delivery based on location, but worth filling out anyway.

The other option in here is Shipping Policy Parameters, this lets you set a custom shipping policy for when people are checking out regarding your shipping. If set to yes, a text area appears when you can enter the details.

Multi-shipping settings

In the left menu under Sales, you will ee Multiple Shipping Methods, this is where you can set if you want to allow customers to ship an order to multiple addresses.

If you want to allow this, you can set the option to Yes, and then you can set the maximum quantity allowed to be shipped to multiple addresses.

Shipping methods

Now we will look at the different shipping methods available in Magento. In the lefthand Sales menu, select Shipping Methods. In here you will find:

Flat rate

Flat rate is a singular price delivery fee. There are a few options in here for this, so we’ll go through the main ones.

Enabled – Set to yes if you want to use this method.

Title – The name of the shipping fee for orders.
Method name – The name of the shipping fee at checkout.
Type – This is where you can set how the flat rate is applied. None: which is not applied at all Per item, where each item in the cart incurs a flat rate fee. Per order: where the order uses the flat rate amount, regardless of how much is ordered.
Price – The amount you will charge for delivery.
Calculate handling fee – If you wish to add an additional handling fee at checkout, this lets you set that handling fee as either a fixed amount or as a percentage.
Handling fee – The amount you will charge for a handling fee.
Displayed error message – If the shipping method does not apply to certain countries, this is the error message that will appear.
Ship to applicable countries – There’s a dropdown that lets you chose whether the flat rate applies to all countries, or if you only want it to apply to specific countries. If specific countries is chosen, beneath there is a multiple select where you can choose the countries this will apply to.
Show method if not applicable – If at checkout, the selected country is not within the ones you’ve specified the shipping cost applies to, this lets you set if the shipping option shows or not.

Free shipping

Free shipping is exactly what it says, no cost for shipping.

Enabled – Set to yes if you want to use this method.
Title – The name of the shipping fee for orders.
Method name – The name of the shipping fee at checkout.
Minimum order amount – The amount people will need to spend to get free shipping (leave blank if it’s 0).
Displayed error message – If the shipping method does not apply to certain countries, this is the error message that will appear.
Ship to applicable countries – There’s a dropdown that lets you chose whether the flat rate applies to all countries, or if you only want it to apply to specific countries. If specific countries is chosen, beneath there is a multiple select where you can choose the countries this will apply to.
Show method if not applicable – If at checkout, the selected country is not within the ones you’ve specified the shipping cost applies to, this lets you set if the shipping option shows or not.

Table rates

Table rates allows you to set different delivery prices on a of pptions that iclude:

Enabled – Set to yes if you want to use this method.
Title – The name of the shipping fee for orders.
Method name – The name of the shipping fee at checkout.
Condition – The option of how the delivery costs will be varied, these include by weight, price or number of products. All options of the options also allow you to split by destination as well.
Include virtual products in price calculation – Whether you will include virtual products in the delivery cost.
Calculate handling fee – If you wish to add an additional handling fee at checkout, this lets you set that handling fee as either a fixed amount or as a percentage.
Handling fee – The amount you will charge for a handling fee.
Displayed error message – If the shipping method does not apply to certain countries, this is the error message that will appear.
Ship to applicable countries – There’s a dropdown that lets you chose whether the flat rate applies to all countries, or if you only want it to apply to specific countries. If specific countries is chosen, beneath there is a multiple select where you can choose the countries this will apply to.
Show method if not applicable – If at checkout, the selected country is not within the ones you’ve specified the shipping cost applies to, this lets you set if the shipping option shows or not.

A little more information on the conditions you can split the delivery cost changes, as each will need a slightly different .csv. The options are:

• Weight vs destination – Total weight of the order and where it’s delivered to.
• Price vs destination – Order amount total and where it’s delivered to.
• # of items vs destination – The number of items ordered and where it’s delivered to.

To export an example .csv from the system (as well as the ones you upload), you will need to change store view to main website. Once you’ve done this, you will see an Export and Import options in the menu.

All you’ll need to do is choose the condition you want to base your table rates on, export the .csv, update it to suit your needs, import it and save the configuration.

Specific couriers

Magento also comes with integrations for couriers USPS, UPS, Fedex and DHL. You can link these directly to your website, so that it automatically downloads the rates.

You will have to link these to your accounts to the couriers by entering your credentials and selecting the relevant options to show the couriers shipping methods at the checkout.

All these shipping options can be used in conjunction with each other, you don’t only have to use one. You can set each option up so that it covers a different circumstance, for example;

In the UK, you could set up the Free Shipping to apply for orders over £50. For orders less than £50, you could use the Flat Rate of £5.99. Then for orders placed outside the UK, you could use the table rates.

If you’ve found this useful, why not check out our other Magento 2 guides.

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