Location Groups

Location groups are bundles of similar locations that can be configured together or be included in the same order routing method. After you have created a list of individual fulfillment locations in the Locations view, use the Location Groups portion of the Kibo Composable Commerce Platform UI to create and manage their groups.

View Location Groups

Use the Location Groups page at Main > Orders > Location Groups to view and manage location groups. Here you can create, edit, and delete location groups. Deletion will remove all grouped configurations from the individual locations that were associated with the group.

The Location Groups page with a table of example groups

Create a Location Group

To create a new location group:

  1. Go to Main > Orders > Location Groups.
  2. Click Create New Location Group.
  3. Enter a group name and identifying code.
  4. Select the associated site catalog(s).
  5. In the Add Location(s) section, you can filter by region (e.g. Canada and the United States as shown to the right) and select individual location to be added to the group. 
  6. Click Save when all desired locations have been added.

The form to create a new location group, with general configurations and location selections

Once it has been created, you can go back into the location group details and configure additional settings as detailed in the next section.

Configure a Location Group

To configure a location group:

  1. Go to Main > Orders > Location Groups.
  2. Click a group in the main Location Groups table to open a similar location selection screen. 
  3. Click Config Settings in the header to switch to another configuration screen, which displays other options that are applied to all locations in the group. If there are multiple sites on your tenant, you can switch between them in the left-hand navigation bar.
    • This includes the ability to set a specific unit type (Imperial or Metric) for measuring package dimensions, specific BPMs for different fulfillment methods, supported box types for shipping and a customer pickup deadline for BOPIS, default carrier options, and more.Detailed location group configurations
  4. Carrier settings are located further down this page in the Shipping section. 
    • Toggle carriers to enable/disable them for the location group and set a default carrier. Additionally, printing preferences can be defined to determine whether return labels are printed along with shipping labels and what kind of printer is the default.The Shipping settings for a location group
  5. Click Settings next to a carrier to open its more detailed carrier-specific options. For each carrier, you can select the account associated with this location group, enable or disable certain shipping types supported by that carrier, and indicate the preferred defaults for different shipping speeds (Standard, 1 Day, 2 Day, and 3 Day). Be aware that Kibo does not support international service types for UPS, USPS, or FedEx.
    • When shipping labels are being generated, carrier account credentials are automatically inherited from a higher level if not specified in the priority of location, then location group, and then site. The "No Carrier Credentials Selected" option in the account drop-down means that this location group will fall back to the default site credentials.
    • UPS configurations include a setting called Use Declared Value that will activate support for declared values. If enabled, you must provide Kibo with the maximum value you want to insure. This value is currently set to $7500 and can only be changed by contacting the Kibo team. If a shipment value is less than the maximum insured value, then the shipment value will be used as the declared value. If a shipment value is greater than or equal to the maximum insured value, the maximum insured value will be used as the declared value.
    • UPS configurations also include the option to require adult signatures for packages greater than a certain amount. Please contact Kibo Support if you want to use this feature, as Kibo will have to enable it for you in order for the setting to be displayed in location group settings.
  6. Click Okay to save these configurations.More detailed carrier settings, using Canada Post as the example
  7. In the Other Settings section at the bottom of the Config Settings, configure related fulfillment options such as packing list/slip and pick wave configurations.Close-up of additional settings for  partial quantity and pick and pack options
  8. When a carrier is enabled in location group settings, you are required to configure at least one shipping method or type as well as its default options.
    • If you attempt to enable a carrier without making these selections, an error will now be displayed that prompts you to set those options. 
    • If you cannot provide that information at the time, you are still able to save incomplete carrier settings without enabling the career.
  9. Click Save in the top right.

Configure Custom Carriers

Custom carriers cannot be configured through the user interface, only via the Location Groups Configuration API instead. 

This functionality is being deprecated in 2023 and new implementations should consider using Shipping Extensibility for their custom carriers instead.

Make the call with the carrier and shipping method options set to a value with the custom_ prefix such as in the below example. This prefix is case insensitive, and thus could be CUSTOM_ instead. Then, viewing the order's tracking information in the Admin UI will display the custom carrier name and the tracking number (as text only, not a hyperlink).

"carriers": [{
  "carrierType": "custom_BoxKnight",
  "isEnabled": true,
  "shippingMethodMappings": {
    "shippingMethods": [
      "custom_BoxKnight_Day_1",
      "custom_BoxKnight_Day_2",
      "custom_BoxKnight_Day_3",
      "custom_BoxKnight_Day_4"
    ],
    "returnLabelShippingMethod": "custom_BoxKnight_Day_1",
    "standardDefault": "custom_BoxKnight_Day_1",
    "express1DayDefault": "custom_BoxKnight_Day_1",
    "express2DayDefault": "custom_BoxKnight_Day_2",
    "express3DayDefault": "custom_BoxKnight_Day_3",
    "enableSmartPost": true
  }
}]