You can create shipping zones for groups of postcodes within a single country. Use these zones to apply different shipping charges for specific areas, such as London congestion areas or the Scottish Highlands.
Mintsoft includes three default postcode-based shipping zones for the UK:
Channel Islands
Northern Ireland
Scottish Highlands & Islands
What you can use for shipping zones
You can add countries or postcodes for a specific country. You cannot use towns or cities when creating shipping zones.
Create a country-based zone
Go to Shipping Management then Shipping Zones.
Enter a zone name and click Add.
Select a country.
Click Add.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add more countries.
Click Back when finished.
Upload multiple countries to a zone
Go to Shipping Management then Extras.
Click Upload.
Under Download Template, select ShippingZone and click Download.
Complete the template using your zone name exactly in column A.
Under Upload Spreadsheet, set the Type to ShippingZone.
Click Choose File, select your template, then click Upload.
Create a postcode-based zone
Note: You cannot use postcode-based shipping zones for courier selection rules. Additionally, you can only have one country in a postcode-based zone.
Go to Shipping Management then Shipping Zones.
Enter a zone name and click Add.
Select a country.
Click Add.
Click Manage Postcodes.
Add the postcodes to the zone.
Add postcodes efficiently
Add only the first part of the postcode if all postcodes with that prefix belong in the zone.
Add an underscore after partial postcodes (the underscore indicates a space). For example, use 'NW1_' to match all NW1 postcodes.
Without the underscore, the system matches any postcode starting with those characters.
Upload multiple postcodes to a zone
Go to Shipping Management then Extras.
Click Upload.
Under Download Template, select ShippingZonePostcode and click Download.
Complete the template using your zone name exactly in column A.
Under Upload Spreadsheet, set the Type to ShippingZonePostcode.
Click Choose File, select your template, then click Upload.
Apply postcode zones to courier pricing
After adding postcodes to your zone, you can apply the zone to courier pricing. Postcode-based shipping zones always take priority over other pricing setups.
Example: If you charge £5.00 for UK delivery but London deliveries cost an additional £0.50:
Create a London Congestion Zone.
Set the total price to £5.50 (not £0.50).
The system automatically applies this charge to orders with London postcodes.
Exporting a Shipping Zone
To export a Shipping Zone with its countries from Mintsoft please follow the steps below:
Click Shipping Management then Shipping Zones.
Click Manage against the zone you want to export.
Ensure Show Entries is set to 1000.
Click the CSV button.
This will export the countries within a selected shipping zone to CSV.
If a shipping zone contains postcodes, these won't be exported, these would need to be exported separately.