How to set up shipping for physical products
In this article:
3. Create shipping zones with locations
4. Add rates for your zone locations
Types of shipping rates
There are two types of shipping that you can offer for your customers. Each will be more useful depending on the type of product that you sell, the shipping carrier(s) you'll use, and the shipping methods that you'll be offering.
Flat rate
Flat rate shipping applies a set cost or fixed cost that applies to any product ordered. A secondary rate (called with others) can be added for orders that have more than one item.
Free shipping
Free shipping can be offered by setting the flat rate and "with others" costs to zero. It can also be helpful to name this option "free shipping" so that it's clear to your customers.
Weight-based rate
Creating shipping profiles
Shipping profiles will be connected to the physical products that you're selling and shipping to customers. Each profile will show which products it's being applied to, the locations that these products will ship to, and the rates that determine how much that shipping costs for your customers.
Here are the steps to creating your shipping profile(s).
- Name your profile
- Add products
- Create shipping zones with locations
- Add rates for your zone locations
- Save!
1. Name your profile
You can name your profile anything that you'd like! Customers won't see the name of the shipping profile, it's for your use only. We'd recommend choosing something that will make it easy for you to remember which products, zones, and rates you'll add.
For example, if you have one profile that you plan to use as a default, you could include "default" in the name.
2. Add products
If you've already created your products, you can now add them to the shipping profile. The locations and rates that you add will apply to the products you choose.
If you haven't yet created products, you can still make your shipping profile. When adding a physical product you'll be able to choose a shipping profile option.
Or, you can create this profile as a default and it will automatically apply to current and new products unless you edit the product settings.
3. Create shipping zones with locations
Next, you'll make shipping zones. These zones will include locations or selected areas, countries, states, or regions that you will ship to. We'd recommend naming them in a way that helps you remember which locations are included.
You'll only select areas that you do want to ship to. If an area is not selected, then it will not be possible for customers to order items to be delivered to an address within that area. Instead, they'll see an error message that a product is not available to be shipped to that location.
Group the locations in zones that you'll want to apply the same shipping rates or costs to. For example, if it costs about the same to ship to states anywhere within the contiguous US, and you'd like to offer one flat rate or shipping cost for these customers, you can make a zone that includes only these states.
4. Add rates for your zone locations
Now, you'll add rates that will apply to your shipping zones. You can offer both flat rates and weight-based rates. The costs that you set with your rates will establish what your customers will pay for shipping.
The "with others" cost will allow you to set a secondary rate that will apply if your customer orders more than one item. How does it add up? Your customer will pay the full price shipping rate for one item (the most expensive one) and the with others cost for all other items.
Once you've finished setting up your locations and rates, you'll save!
Custom shipping
You can also create custom per-product shipping settings in place of or in addition to your shipping profiles. Custom shipping settings only apply to a single product and a product can only have custom shipping or a shipping profile. You'll need to decide which is better for which products.
Custom shipping settings are useful when:
- You have a single product and prefer a simpler shipping setup
- You have one product that requires different pricing
- You have one product that requires a different shipping method or speed
In general, custom shipping is easier and quicker to set up. It works well for products that are outliers and have different shipping needs than the rest of your products.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to configure shipping if I'm only selling printed merchandise?
A: Nope! Sellfy prints and fulfills all printed merchandise. Shipping is automatically done for print on demand items.
Q: Can I add more than one local pickup location?
A: No, at this time it's only possible to set one pick-up location.