Shipping methods

The shipping method object and the allowed CRUD operations on the related resource endpoint

Shipping methods are used to provide customers with different delivery options.

Shipping methods are defined by currency and can be restricted to an active market (in the latter case the currency is inherited by the market's price list).

• Set the shipping_category relationship if you want the shipping method to be available only if the items to be shipped belong to a specified shipping category.

• Set the shipping_zone relationship if you want the shipping method to be available only if the shipping address belongs to a specified shipping zone.

• Set the stock_location relationship if you want the shipping method to be available only if the items are shipped from a specific stock location.

• Specify a value for the min_weight and/or max_weight attributes (to do that also a unit_of_weight must be defined) if you want the shipping method to be available only if the total weight of the items to be shipped falls within those values.

The total weight of the shipment is automatically calculated from the single weights of the items included (i.e. the weight attribute of the SKUs to be shipped).

Shipping method cost

Free over amount

Each shipping method can have a price and can be free over a specific order's total amount. Set the use_subtotal attribute to true (default is false) if you want to compare the free over amount with the order's subtotal and exclude other discount calculations (if any).

Shipping weight tiers

Set the proper value for the scheme attribute (default is flat) to define how you want to manage the shipping method cost:

• flat — the shipping method has a fixed price (equal to the value of the price_amount_cents attribute).

• weight_tiered — the shipping method price is tiered based on the total weight of the items included in the shipment (a maximum of 5 tiers for each shipping method is currently supported). See shipping weight tiers to learn more.

• external — the shipping method price is fetched from an external service which handles the custom calculation, overriding the price_amount_cents set at creation time (remember to specify the external_prices_url when creating or updating the shipping method).

If a free_over_amount was specified, it applies regardless of the tier. If a min_weight and/or max_weight value for the shipping method's availability was specified, only the tiers between those values will be considered.

Shipping cost cut-off

If you want to apply a custom shipping cost policy (e.g. charging your customers with one single shipping cost for the whole order) you can set to 0 the unit amount of some of the line items of type shipments that are created when a shipping method is associated with an order's shipments. To do that, leverage the dedicated attribute at the market level.

Data model

Check the related ER diagram and explore the flowchart that illustrates how the shipping method resource relates to the other API entities.

How-to

Check the related guide to learn how to let a user choose one of the available shipping methods during the checkout. Learn how to manage the shipping methods cost via external services.