ShipperHQ’s Shipping Rule Builder provides an easy way to hide, surcharge, or discount shipping methods based on specific calendar days.
For example, specialty food items like chocolattes, produce, or wine & spirits might need to arrive to customers in warmer destinations much faster than typical Ground shipping can accommodate.
Or, perhaps due to demand during the holiday season, it may be advantageous to hide or surcharge certain shipping methods when a prompt delivery is needed.
Outlined below are a couple of configuration options that will help facilitate the hiding, surcharging, or discounting of shipping during designated dates.
Using a Hide Rule During Designated Calendar Days
ShipperHQ Merchants can designate which methods to hide using the general guidelines for creating a Hide Rule.
Once created, under the Advanced Tab of the rule, two calendars are displayed.
These two calendars will allow you to to set a date range for the shipping rule to begin and end on specific dates.
For example, if we want to hide Ground Shipping to the Southeastern US for a perishable item that is at risk of expiring if not received within two days or less, during the summer months, a hide rule can be used to provide 2nd Day and Next Day shipping quotes only.
This type of rule can be created with the following conditions:
- Create a hide rule and select the methods to be hidden. In this example, let’s assume the method to hide is Ground Shipping.
- Create and assign the shipping group that applies to the product(s).
Example
An example shipping group in this case could be “Perishable.”
- Designate a zone for the region, such as Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.
- Using the calendars found under the Advanced Tab in the shipping rule, apply the range of dates April 30th, through October 1st.
- Save the rule to complete the setup.
Once this rule has been saved, it will be inactive until 12a on April 30th and will then remain active until October 1st at 12a.
Please note, 12a will be based on the timezone listed in the Global Settings for the ShipperHQ account.
Surcharging or Discounting Shipping During Designated Periods of Time
For merchants wanting to surcharge or discount rules only for specific days, weeks, or months, the same calendar function can be used to automatically apply the shipping cost modifications during the designated period.
For example, a surcharge rule can be configured if the goal is to surcharge specific methods and/or products based on specific dates.
Using the general guidelines for creating shipping rules, the usual conditions can be set for the rule.
Once created, the calendar function under the Advanced Tab can be used to designate the beginning date and end date for the surcharge.
This can be a helpful way to plan ahead for periods of higher demand, such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday, well in advance of the season.
Additional Resources
Please be sure to visit our Complete Guide to Create Shipping Rules for more ways to apply ShipperHQ’s shipping rule functionality.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us to request assistance from a member of our team.