Shipping calculation
Understanding How Shipping is Calculated for Seal Subscriptions
In the world of e-commerce, managing shipping costs can often be a challenging task, especially for subscription-based businesses. If you're using Seal Subscriptions to manage recurring orders through Shopify, understanding how shipping is calculated and how you can control it is crucial for ensuring a seamless customer experience. This guide will explain how shipping costs are calculated for auto-charging subscriptions, focusing on the role Shopify and Seal Subscriptions play in the process, as well as the available options for controlling and adjusting shipping rates.
Shipping Costs in Shopify and Seal Subscriptions: The Basics
When a customer subscribes to a product or service through Seal Subscriptions on Shopify, the shipping cost is initially calculated by Shopify during the checkout process. This is the same process that Shopify uses for regular one-time orders. The shipping rates that Shopify calculates are based on the shipping profiles and delivery rates you have set up in your Shopify store. These rates are dependent on several factors such as:
- Delivery locations: Different countries, states, or even postal codes can have varying shipping rates.
- Weight or dimensions of the products: Heavier or larger items may incur higher shipping fees.
- Shipping methods available: Shopify allows customers to choose from different shipping methods, each with varying costs and delivery times.
For the first order in an auto-charging subscription, customers will be able to select from a variety of shipping methods, for which they are eligible, just as they would during a one-time purchase.
Recurring Shipments: Default Shipping Options
For the recurring shipments in a subscription, however, the shipping cost is handled differently. By default, Shopify sets the recurring subscription shipments to use the cheapest applicable shipping option available at the time of renewal. This is important to note because, while customers can select their preferred shipping method during the initial checkout, recurring shipments are automatically set to default to the least expensive option.
This default behavior, although efficient for cost-saving, might not always align with the specific needs of your business or your customers, particularly if subscription details change over time, such as product quantities, shipping addresses, or shipping profiles.
Limitations in Shipping Calculation
While Shopify handles the majority of the shipping calculation during the initial purchase and recurring shipment renewals, Seal Subscriptions offers some degree of customization when it comes to updating and managing shipping costs for subscriptions. However, it's important to understand that Seal Subscriptions cannot completely override the shipping calculations made by Shopify.
The key takeaway here is that Seal Subscriptions can update shipping rates for subscriptions, but the system is still bound by Shopify's rules regarding the lowest applicable shipping rates. This means that the shipping costs can only be updated to the lowest rate Shopify has determined for that particular subscription. Seal Subscriptions simply provides options to automate and adjust these updates when certain conditions arise.
Options for Managing Shipping in Seal Subscriptions
Seal Subscriptions gives store owners the ability to automatically recalculate and update the shipping costs for subscription renewals, depending on different triggers. This functionality can help ensure that customers are charged the correct shipping cost for each renewal and that the shipping costs reflect changes in the subscription or store.
Let’s take a closer look at the various options available for managing and adjusting shipping costs in Seal Subscriptions:
1. Update Delivery Cost After Subscription Creation
One of the most important features in Seal Subscriptions is the option to update the shipping cost for auto-charging subscriptions after the subscription has been created. This feature comes in handy when there’s a discrepancy between the shipping cost of the initial order and the subscription renewals.
For instance, a customer may have qualified for free shipping on their first order because their cart exceeded the free shipping threshold. However, as the subscription continues, the customer's order size may fall below this threshold, meaning the customer no longer qualifies for free shipping. If this functionality is enabled, Seal Subscriptions will automatically update the shipping cost to reflect this change, ensuring that the customer is charged the correct amount for shipping during each renewal.
2. Update Delivery Cost When Products are Added or Removed
Another useful feature is the ability to update shipping costs when a customer edits their subscription by adding or removing products. If a customer decides to change the contents of their subscription, the shipping cost may need to be recalculated to account for the new products' size, weight, or other factors. By turning on this feature, Seal Subscriptions ensures that the shipping charge is adjusted appropriately when products are added or removed from the subscription.
3. Update Delivery Cost When Delivery Address is Edited
Customers can also edit their delivery addresses through the customer portal. If a customer updates their address, especially if they move to a different region or country, the shipping cost may change as well. By enabling this option, Seal Subscriptions will automatically recalculate and update the shipping cost to reflect the new delivery address, ensuring accurate shipping charges based on the new location.
4. Update Delivery Cost After a Successful Product Swap
For stores that allow product swaps within subscriptions, this feature ensures that shipping costs are updated after a successful swap. If the swapped product has a different weight, size, or shipping requirements than the original product, this could impact the shipping cost. By enabling this setting, Seal Subscriptions ensures that the shipping rate is updated accordingly.
5. Update Delivery Cost After Shipping Profile Changes
When changes are made to the shipping profiles in your Shopify app or the Seal Subscriptions app, it can affect how shipping costs are calculated for subscriptions. For example, you might introduce a new shipping method, change the rates for certain regions, or update the delivery profiles for different product categories. By turning on this option, Seal Subscriptions will automatically update the shipping cost for all affected subscriptions to reflect the changes made to the shipping profiles.
6. Always Set Shipping to Free Shipping
For some businesses, offering free shipping for subscription renewals is a desirable option. This feature allows you to automatically set the shipping cost to zero every time it’s updated. It overrides any configuration in your delivery profiles, ensuring that no shipping charges are applied for subscription renewals, regardless of the shipping methods available in your store.
7. Update Delivery Cost Only if the New Cost is Higher
This option allows you to set up rules where the shipping cost will only be updated if the new cost is higher than the current one. This feature is particularly useful if you want to ensure that customers are not charged more for shipping unless absolutely necessary. For example, if a product swap results in a higher shipping cost, the system will only update the shipping cost to reflect that increase. However, the "new cost" will still be the lowest applicable shipping rate, as Shopify dictates.
Manual Shipping Cost Adjustments
Aside from the automated updates, Seal Subscriptions also allows store owners to manually adjust the shipping cost for each subscription within the app. This can be helpful when you need to make a one-time exception or update the shipping cost for a specific customer due to unique circumstances, such as special delivery requests or a change in the store's shipping policies.
Conclusion
Managing shipping costs for subscriptions can be a complex task, but Seal Subscriptions provides multiple features to ensure that customers are charged appropriately for each renewal. Shopify’s default behavior of using the cheapest shipping option for recurring orders can be restrictive, but with Seal Subscriptions, you have the flexibility to update shipping rates based on various triggers like changes in product quantities, customer address updates, and shipping profile modifications. By utilizing the available settings and manual adjustments, store owners can maintain transparency and ensure that shipping charges are always fair and accurate.
Whether you’re trying to accommodate product swaps, address changes, or simply keep subscription costs in line with your store’s shipping policies, Seal Subscriptions offers robust tools to help you manage shipping with ease and accuracy. By fully understanding how shipping is calculated and adjusting it when needed, you can ensure that your subscription service runs smoothly and that customers have a positive experience every time their order renews.