Overview
The below video walks you through setting up ShipperHQ for BigCommerce and the basics of using ShipperHQ from installation to initial setup.
Setting Up ShipperHQ for BigCommerce
The first step to getting set up with ShipperHQ for BigCommerce is to install the ShipperHQ BigCommerce App. Once the app is installed, you’ll have access to the ShipperHQ dashboard from inside BigCommerce. Now you can proceed with setting up the most important pieces of your ShipperHQ configuration.
A. Websites
For BigCommerce your Website will already be set up in ShipperHQ. This contains your URL as well as which Origins you ship from and which Carriers you want to offer to your customers. Origins and Carriers are set up in further steps but on your Website you can manage the default Origin for your site.
B. Origins
Origins are the physical locations from which you ship your products. While there’s always a test origin set up for you, you’ll want to edit that Origin to change its name and address to be the primary location you’re shipping from. If you’re shipping from multiple locations (either your warehouses or drop ship vendors), you’ll set up multiple Origins. You can also associate Origins with specific Carriers in case there are differences in which carriers are used by different shipping Origins.
C. Carriers
In ShipperHQ, Carriers are any shipping option or service that you offer to your customers. This includes connections with actual Small Package or LTL Freight carriers like UPS, Australia Post, DHL, Echo Freight, etc. as well as shipping rates and options you define yourself like In-Store Pickup, flat rate shipping, free shipping, or custom tables of rates.
If you’re connecting to an actual carrier, you’ll enter your account credentials with that carrier so that you can pull back your rates that you’ve negotiated with that carrier. On Carriers in ShipperHQ, you can set up restrictions (like only offering a certain shipping option to a specific Zone), control the shipping services you offer (e.g. UPS Ground, 2nd Day Air, and Next Day), manage the rate type you’re showing (including negotiated rates or list rates) and you can reflect commercial or residential rates using our Address Verification & Type Advanced Feature.
You’ve also got control of package and shipment weights including a minimum weight per package, max weight per package, max weight per shipment and minimum and maximum shipping charges. With the Date & Time feature, you can also manage showing a Delivery Date for UPS or FedEx or for custom rate carriers. This includes lead-times and/or cutoff times as well as maximum times in transit, which is especially important for perishable products. You can also set up simple handling fees like a flat $10 surcharge per order or a 15% surcharge. For more granular rules (like a surcharge that only gets applied in a specific scenario), you would use Carrier Rules.
D. Carrier Rules
At the heart of ShipperHQ’s powerful customizability is our Carrier Rules. You can define Zones (collections of countries, states or regions, and/or ZIP or post codes), Shipping Groups (groups of products with unique shipping requirements), or Filters (price, weight, or quantity ranges) and then use these elements in Carrier Rules to define scenarios in which you want to take a certain action. This covers offering Free Shipping only in specific scenarios or for specific products, the same with setting Flat Rates for certain products in certain scenarios. You can also use Carrier Rules to hide certain shipping options in exactly the scenarios where you need to (e.g. not showing UPS for customers with PO Box addresses).
No matter what your unique requirements are, Carrier Rules will almost always cover your needs. We’ve provided a large number of examples of different actions and scenarios where you might want to use Carrier Rules.
E. Dimensional Shipping
At its core, ShipperHQ’s Dimensional Shipping Advanced Feature allows you to define the packages you use to ship your products (whether those are envelopes, boxes, pallets or any other packaging) and allow ShipperHQ to determine the most efficient package or packages to use for each customer’s order based on the dimensions of your products you have set in BigCommerce.
Packing Rules
While for most scenarios, the approach of finding the most efficient package based on dimensions works well, you may have some products that require unique approaches to packing. Packing Rules allow you to set these up. This covers scenarios where certain products must ship in certain packages.
For example, say you’re shipping Ice Cream but also sell some non-perishable products. You’d want to make sure that orders that contain Ice Cream ship in a cooler, but allow ShipperHQ to use regular corrugated boxes for other orders.
Packing rules also allows you to set some products to ship separately (if you never pack them in a box with other items) or ship in multiple boxes (for a single product that when it ships out ships in several boxes).
Box Definitions
In ShipperHQ, Box Definitions is where you set up your packages. While the most important part is setting the dimensions of the package, you can also set other elements like max quantity, max weight, a per-box surcharge, or even add some additional weight to account for the weight of the package in the rating. Boxes can additionally be assigned to specific carriers. This means if you’re using USPS Flat Rate Boxes, ShipperHQ won’t try to use these when getting a UPS rate or use a Pallet to get a USPS rate.
Linking Your Products to ShipperHQ
When you install the ShipperHQ app in BigCommerce, you’ll find several additional elements on your products. These allow you to assign your products to the correct Origin or Origins (if you ship from multiple origins), Shipping Groups (if you have special requirements for certain groups of products), or a Dimensional Rule Group (if you have products with special packing rules).
Where to Find More Info
You can find more info right here on this Knowledge Base, via the chat feature inside the ShipperHQ dashboard during business hours, or by email or phone.