Define your shipping data

Before using the shipping notebook in the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator, define your shipping data in the shipping framework. After you define your shipping data, we can then enter it in the Shipping notebook. To define your shipping data, use the following scenario as an example.

Example shipping scenario

For the purposes of this example, the store is located in Canada. In this scenario, the store supports shipping all products to Canada, the United States, and Germany. The store offers shipping by MyShipping service. MyShipping offers the following services:

MyShipping charges the following amounts to send regular-sized parcels. All funds are in Canadian (CDN) dollars.

Note: Although we are specifying the shipping rate in Canadian dollars, an American or German customer sees the amount in American or German currency. The currency is visible if a conversion rate is defined in the store.

Canada United States Germany
Overnight 10.00 15.00 30.00
3 day 5.00 7.00 15.00
7 day 3.00 5.00 10.00

MyShipping charges the following to send oversized parcels that weigh less than 10 kilograms. All funds are in Canadian (CDN) dollars.

Canada United States Germany
Overnight 12.00 17.00 32.00
3 day 7.00 9.00 15.00
7 day 5.00 7.00 12.00

MyShipping charges the following amounts to send oversized parcels that weigh more than 10 kilograms. All funds are in Canadian (CDN) dollars.

Canada United States Germany
Overnight 20.00 25.00 40.00
3 day 15.00 20.00 30.00
7 day 10.00 15.00 20.00

Oversized items in the store catalog include all women's sweaters and men's outerwear.


Procedure

  1. Define jurisdiction data. Jurisdictions are geographical regions or zones that represent a country or region, province or territory, or ZIP code range, to which you sell goods. WebSphere Commerce requires that you give each of these jurisdictions a name, and define one or more of the following criteria:

    • Country/Region

    • State/Province

    • City

    • ZIP code range

    In the preceding scenario, we are shipping goods to Canada, the United States, and Germany. Thus, you have three jurisdictions. We need to define the following data for each jurisdiction.

    Jurisdiction Name Jurisdiction Country or Region
    Canada Canada
    United States United States
    Germany Germany

  2. Define shipping modes. The shipping mode is a way of shipping goods. More specifically, a shipping mode is the combination of a shipping carrier, which is a company that provides shipping services from a fulfillment center to a customer and the shipping service that is offered by that carrier. In the preceding scenario, your shipping carrier is MyShipping, and it offers three shipping services: Overnight, 3 day, and 7 day. As a result, define three shipping modes:

    Carrier Service
    MyShipping Overnight
    MyShipping 3 day
    MyShipping 7 day

  3. Define shipping codes. Shipping codes are used to group shipping charges together. Each shipping code is associated with one or more shipping charges. For example, all oversized items could be assigned the same shipping code, Oversized. All fragile items could be assigned the shipping code Fragile. All perishable items could be assigned the shipping code Perishable.

    Shipping codes are assigned to products or categories. A shipping code indicates which shipping charges are applied to which products in the order. When a customer purchases a product, the codes assigned to it determine the shipping charges that are added to the order.

    In the preceding scenario define the following shipping codes:

    Name Assigned to which Products or Categories
    Regular All
    Oversized Women's sweaters, Men's outerwear

  4. Define shipping charges. Shipping charges are the monetary amounts that you charge our customers to ship their orders. In WebSphere Commerce, shipping charges depend on the following criteria:

    • Jurisdiction to which the order is shipped

    • Fulfillment center, which is shipping the order

    • The shipping mode

    • The charge type; WebSphere Commerce supports three charge types:

      • By weight

      • By quantity

      • Fixed

    As a result, if you ship to numerous jurisdictions, use numerous fulfillment centers, or multiple shipping modes, you have to create several shipping charges. Shipping charges are also associated with codes, so you have to create shipping charges for each code used in the catalog.

    For the preceding scenario, you need to create the following shipping charges:

    Code Charge Name Fulfillment center Jurisdiction Shipping Mode Charge Type Amount (CDN$)
    Regular Regular-Canada-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Canada Overnight Fixed 10.00
    Regular Regular-Canada-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 3 day Fixed 5.00
    Regular Regular-Canada-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 7 day Fixed 3.00
    Regular Regular-UnitedStates-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center United States Overnight Fixed 15.00
    Regular Regular-UnitedStates-3 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 3 day Fixed 7.00
    Regular Regular-UnitedStates-7 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 7 day Fixed 5.00
    Regular Regular-Germany-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Germany Overnight Fixed 30.00
    Regular Regular-Germany-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 3 day Fixed 15.00
    Regular Regular-Germany-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 7 day Fixed 10.00
    Oversized Oversized-Canada-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Canada Overnight By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		12.00
    Oversized Oversized-Canada-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 3 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		7.00
    Oversized Oversized-Canada-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 7 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		5.00
    Oversized Oversized-UnitedStates-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center United States Overnight By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		17.00
    Oversized Oversized-UnitedStates-3 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 3 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		9.00
    Oversized Oversized-UnitedStates-7 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 7 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		7.00
    Oversized Oversized-Germany-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Germany Overnight By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		32.00
    Oversized Oversized-Germany-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 3 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		15.00
    Oversized Oversized-Germany-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 7 day By weight

    (less than 10 kg)

    		12.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Canada-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Canada Overnight By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		20.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Canada-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 3 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		15.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Canada-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Canada 7 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		10.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-UnitedStates-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center United States Overnight By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		25.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-UnitedStates-3 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 3 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		20.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-UnitedStates-7 day Starter store fulfillment center United States 7 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		15.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Germany-Overnight Starter store fulfillment center Germany Overnight By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		40.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Germany-3 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 3 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		30.00
    Oversized Oversized10plus-Germany-7 day Starter store fulfillment center Germany 7 day By weight

    (more than 10 kg)

    		20.00


Next topic: Defining jurisdictions