Shipping Rates page in Settings

As mentioned in a previous article, the Shipping States & Taxes and Shipping Rates pages in Settings are closely linked and it is important for your staff to understand the options and parameters available. We have found over the years that shipping logistics will be one of your most challenging tasks in running your business. It requires attention multiple times a year to make sure your tax rates are current, shipping costs are accurate, compliance requirements are being met, and shipping options are set up correctly with your fulfillment company.

There are four main sections on the Shipping Rates page:
1-Actions
2-Shipping Methods
3-Shipping Included Order Threshold
4-Bottles Sizes & Cubing

​1-Actions on the right column of  the screen, is where you create New Rate tables (or Shipping Methods). When you click on New Rate Table a window will pop up for you to name the shipping method. Examples of shipping method naming can be found in the next section below. Once you select your name and click the “Create Rate Table” button, that will take you back to the main page and your new shipping method will be shown at the bottom of the list.

​2-Shipping Methods lists the shipping, pickup, and transit options your winery or wine retailer currently provides. These are methods that you create yourself (under the Actions section) when setting up your Figure account for initial usage. 

Examples of Shipping Methods you can provide/create:
Ground, 2-Day Air, 3-Day Air, Overnight, Priority Overnight, Temperature Controlled Ground, etc. You can certainly break out your Shipping Methods by carrier (FedEx Ground, UPS Ground, GSO Ground, etc) but beware...that will require more creation and maintenance of shipping rate tables.

Examples of Pickup options you can provide/create:
Winery Pickup, Tasting Room Pickup, Warehouse Pickup, etc.

Examples of Transfers you can provide/create, to customer storage companies:
Transfer to Vinfolio, Transfer to Domaine, 55 Degrees, Napa Valley Wine Storage, Oeno Vaults, etc.

When you create a new Shipping Method it will be put at the bottom of the list. You can shuffle the order of the Shipping Methods in the list by hovering your mouse over the three horizontal lines (hamburger icon) in the Reorder column. Click and hold the hamburger and move it up or down the list to shuffle the order.

In this Shipping Methods section, the center column titled “Code” is the code which is sent to your fulfillment company through the order submission API. Each company has a different code associated with the kind of shipping you are submitting in the order. So, for example, you will want to be sure that if you have a fulfillment company, and you are creating a Shipping Method for 2 Day Air, you match up the Method Code properly. You will learn more about this in the “View” section.

To insert all the parameters for a shipping method you will see two small boxes called “View” and “Rates”.

“View” shows all the functionality parameters needed to setup the particular shipping method, which include:
​-Method Title is the naming your clients will see when processing an order.
​-Internal Description is used for any different naming you may want to have for internal company records. You can also name it the same as the Method Title.
​-Shipping Description can be used to inform customers of the process for an order’s departure. For example, if the customer is choosing Overnight you may want to remind them that it takes 2-3 days (or whatever time frame that may be) for an order to depart from your fulfillment company. This is also a section where if a customer has a storage account you can have the description read like the customer is talking to you, “I have a storage account at Vinfolio and I would like my order transferred to that location. Shipping charges will be collected directly by Vinfolio.”
​-Type is used to segment if the order is being Shipped, Picked Up, or is being transferred by a 3rd Party company.
​-Visibility allows you to hide or display the shipping methods on the public website.
​-Free Shipping? Three portions of the Figure app are associated with this feature.
1 - This check box relates to section three of the main Shipping Rates page called Shipping Included Order Threshold. The concept is that if you want to set a dollar amount that a customer will need to hit to get free shipping (say $200, the subtotal, before taxes), you enter that dollar amount into the Shipping Included Order Threshold section on the main Shipping Rates page. Then, inside the shipping method you create, you would click the “Free Shipping?” box. Ground is the most common shipping method associated with this feature, so to be a part of this deal then you would check this box in the Ground shipping method details. But all the other shipping methods (2-Day Air, 3-Day Air, Overnight, Priority Overnight, etc) you would not check that box.
2 - It also applies to wine clubs (if you want to give wine club members free shipping on their club order) in correlation with the Shipping Methods. When looking at the “Edit club details” page inside a club, there is a check box that says “Free Shipping?”. You would check that. Then, on the Settings>Shipping Rates page, in the shipping method you want to make available for free shipping, there is another “Free Shipping?” check box. Check that as well and then the club and that shipping method will talk to each other when you perform that wine club batch process.
3 - In a product details page (Product details page for a single item), there is an option under the Product Count section called “Shipping Offer Minimum”. When you apply a number of bottles to this cell, then orders with that number of bottles or more will receive free shipping, from the Shipping Method that you designate with this “Free Shipping?” check box. Again, Ground is the most common shipping method people use for this feature.

-Fulfillment can be applied if you are partnering with a fulfillment company to ship all your orders. There is a list of default fulfillment companies that you can select from. If you are shipping orders direct from your winery you would select the direct carrier choices (FedEx, UPS, GSO). If you are not shipping with any of the listed options you can select “Custom”.
​-Method Code is the internal code used by your fulfillment company of choice so that the shipping methods from your Figure account and their internal systems match up. Speak with your fulfillment company to make sure you have the settings matched up correctly to their internal selections. We say this because Ground shipping with one fulfillment company might be through UPS but Ground shipping through another fulfillment company might be through FedEx. Once you have selected your Fulfillment company from the drop down menu, a list of their default Method Codes will appear for you to select. Match up the Shipping Method you are creating (Ground, 2 Day Air, Overnight, etc) to the appropriate Method Code for that fulfillment company.
​-Ice Pack? Some fulfillment companies offer ice packs to be inserted into shipments. This process requires you to create duplicate shipping methods that are visible to customers on the checkout page (“Ground”, “Ground with Ice Pack”, “2-Day Air”, “2-Day Air with Ice Pack”, etc). If your fulfillment house supports this feature, your shipments will be designated with the ice pack marker in the shipping export or via the API connection.
​-Ice Pack Charge This box will determine how much you want to charge for the addition of an ice pack into a shipment.
​-Apply a Default Pickup Address is used when your shipping method is either a pickup or a transfer to a storage company. If you are setting up a pickup option, enter in the address of the location where the customer goes to receive their wines. If you are setting up an option of transfer to a storage company you would enter the address of that storage company (Vinfolio, Domaine, 55 Degrees, etc).

On the right side of this page is an “Actions” box. Clicking on Edit Rate Table will take you to the shipping costs rate table. You can also access this section on the main Shipping Rates page by clicking “Rates”. These rate tables take time to complete and they need to be done for every shipping method you create.** If you are not charging any fee for pickups or transfers to storage companies you can leave those rate tables at all $0.

**Very Important**—Before you start populating the shipping rate grids, return to the main Shipping Rates page so that you can complete section four Bottles Sizes & Cubing. 

Populating Rate Tables:
After you select the bottle sizes you will be shipping in the Bottle Sizes & Cubing section of the Shipping Rates page, the rate tables will provide you with separate grids based on those bottle sizes.

You will need to refer to the rates provided by a shipping carrier or fulfillment company to populate each cell of the grid. However, be sure the rates they provide take into account not only the base shipping rates but also the current/fluctuating fuel surcharges, current Adult Signature Required fees, residential address fees, costs for shipping materials (boxes/foam), etc. If the rates you receive from the carriers or fulfillment company only present the base rate, then you will need to run some calculations to cover those additional costs.

Threshold for Max Charge is an optional field for you to enter the quantity of bottles in in the order where you would like the shipping rates to cap out.

Max Charge is the price that corresponds with the threshold quantity.

For example, if you want to offer free shipping for an order of 12 bottles or more, you put a 12 into the Threshold for Max Charge cell for every zone and leave the Max Charge at $0. If you want to charge something for a customer hitting that Threshold for Max Charge you enter the dollar amount into the Max Charge cells.

Note: the threshold for max charge and max charge fields don't just apply to the 750ml bottle size rate grid. If you have different rate grids in the same fulfillment method for different bottle sizes, the max charges and thresholds applies to all of them.

​3-Shipping Included Order Threshold is related to the “Free Shipping?” check-box within the details page of a Shipping Method. In the dollar sign cell on this page you would enter the amount of dollars (the subtotal, before taxes) a client needs to spend to get free shipping. This would be part of your promotion/marketing obviously, as a call to action for customers, “Orders of $200 or more get free ground shipping!”

If $200 is your chosen subtotal a client has to spend to get free Ground shipping you enter $200 into the Shipping Included Order Threshold cell, then you go into your Ground Shipping Method and check the box next to “Free Shipping?”.

​4-Bottles Sizes & Cubing populates your Rate Tables with individual grids based on the bottle size you produce/sell/ship. So if you only produce/sell wines in 750ml bottles, then that is the only check box you would select. For any size bottles you will ship, check the according box, and when you start to populate your Rate Tables there will be separate tables for each bottle size.