Shipping Carriers

The Unified Commerce Platform supports several shipping carriers that can be integrated for fulfillment. If an administrator has an associated account with a particular carrier, then they can enter those credentials to be applied to selected locations and location groups and thus enable the location to support fulfilling shipments through that carrier. Multiple carrier accounts can be set up in one implementation and then be tied to specific locations or location groups.

In this section, you define your fulfillment options, shipping methods, the rates for each carrier you use, and the list of eligible shipping address locations.

Carrier accounts can be linked to a particular location to identify which account credentials should be used when that location is fulfilling a shipment with that carrier. See Location Management for instructions on how to associate carriers to locations after they have been configured in the shipping settings here, and Location Groups for more information about configuring their service types and selecting defaults for location.

Supported Shipping Carriers

The Unified Commerce Platform supports several shipping carriers out-of-the-box: UPS, USPS, FedEx, FedEx Cross Border, Canada Post, and Purolator. All of these carriers except for Cross Border can be enabled for returns and used for creating return labels.

USPS, UPS, and FedEx

USPS shipping labels can be generated via an Easy Post integration. An existing Easy Post account is required, though those account details are not configured or called out within UCP like the carrier accounts are. Instead, the USPS account and the Easy Post account are hooked together as part of the account configuration with USPS that happens outside of Kibo.

All three carriers support numerous shipping service types (such as express, standard ground, etc.), the full lists of which can be viewed in the drop-down menu when creating a new shipping method configuration.

FedEx Cross Border

FedEx Cross Border is an alternate FedEx carrier for international shipping. It supports the service types of International Economy and International Priority.

FedEx Cross Border cannot be enabled for returns. Returns can be generated from the Order Admin UI, but no return labels will be generated nor payments handled in UCP as these returns are processed within Cross Border. Likewise, items and shipments can be canceled but their refunds and credits will be handled in Cross Border. Edits can be made within the Order Admin UI such as updating a line item or making a shipment adjustment, but these will not be reflected in Cross Border unless the changes are made in the user's Cross Border account as well.

Canada Post and Purolator

Canada Post and Purolator are carriers supported specifically for Canadian fulfillment locations. Canada Post generally requires shipping manifests, which can be generated in the Unified Commerce Fulfiller Interface alongside shipping labels for the individual packages. See the Fulfiller UI documentation for a detailed walkthrough of this process.

Purolator supports the service types of Purolator Express, Purolator Ground, and Purolator Quick Ship. Canada Post supports the service types of Expedited Parcel and Express Post (with Express Post being the standard delivery option).

Create Carrier Accounts

In general, the first step to start configuring shipping options is to set up the carrier accounts.

1. Go to System > Settings > Shipping.
2. Click Carrier Accounts to view a table listing all accounts that have already been set up.
3. Click Create New Carrier Account to add an account.

Note that you can also edit any existing carrier account via the drop-down menu on the righthand side of the listing. Multiple accounts can exist for the same type of carrier (e.g. FedEx) with different credentials as needed.

A set of fields will be displayed to configure the carrier account information.

1. Select the carrier from the drop-down menu.

   

2. Enter a nickname and any additional information such as API user name and authentication credentials. Use your developer credentials at this point - the carrier credentials will be set via the Carrier Service API in Step #5.
3. Select a pickup type to determine how the carrier is expected to receive the shipments from the fulfillment location, such as Regular Pickup, Courier, or Drop Box.
4. Click Save in the top right. 
5. Now use the Carrier Service API to set the credentials for the carrier you just made.

Specify the Fulfillment Options for a Site

Under System > Shipping > Carriers, the exact fulfillment options can be set up for all enabled carriers. These options include enabling return carriers as well as applying special shipping rates and identifying eligible addresses. These options will be configured on a per-location basis, identified in the first set of options:

1. Select the fulfillment location being configured.
2. Specify whether the location supports Direct Ship, In Store Pickup (BOPIS), or both.
3. If applicable, specify any location types that should also support pickup.

Enable Carriers and Set Shipping Rates

Once the location has been selected, scroll down to Shipping Methods and Rates or click the heading in the navigation bar to jump to that section.

1. Select a carrier from the drop-down menu, such as USPS, and select the account and shipping method details that should be applied to that carrier for this location.
2. If available for the carrier, check Enable for Checkout and/or Enable for Returns. There can only be one carrier shipping method enabled for returns; enabling returns on any carrier will disable the setting on any other shipping method.

   Enable for Checkout is essentially an on/off switch for the carrier that will make it an active option for your orders. If you are ready to display the carrier as a shipping option on your site, then enable the checkbox. If you want to deactivate the carrier on your site for a period of time, you can disable this checkbox without losing the shipping method configuration details.

Create a Custom Rate

In the same section, custom rates can be configured. These may be used to define specific shipping rate calculations such as charging shipping as a percentage of the order total or setting flat rates.

To create a custom shipping rate:

1. Go to System > Settings > Shipping > Carriers > Shipping Methods and Rates.
2. Select the site you want to specify options for from the top bar.
3. Click Create New Custom Rate.
4. Enter a Name.
5. (If applicable) Select a Custom Rate Type.
6. Enter an Amount.
7. (If applicable) Enter a Custom Code.
8. Click Save.

Set the Default Carrier for Returns

You can specify a default carrier for returns if you want all return labels to default to a chosen carrier.

To specify a default carrier for returns:

1. Go to System > Settings > Shipping > Carriers > Shipping Methods and Rates.
2. Select the site you want to specify options for from the top bar.
3. Click on a carrier, such as FedEx.
4. Enable Enable for Returns.

Specify the List of Eligible Shipping Addresses

Go to System > Settings > Shipping > Carriers > Eligible Shipping Address Locations to select which U.S. states should display on your storefront as eligible shipping addresses. These settings are only used for instances of UCP that include eCommerce and have no effect on order management-only implementations.