Shipping Modules

Standard Shipping Modules
These are the shipping modules that come with the standard download of Magento Community Edition.

• Flat Rate – Allows you to define a flat rate for shipping. You can choose a per-order rate or a per-item rate. You can also optionally add a handling fee, either fixed amount or as a percent of the order price.
• Table Rate – Allows you to set up a table based on one of three comparisons: Weight vs. Destination, Price vs. Destination, or Number of Items vs. Destination.
• Free Shipping – Self explanatory. You have the option to restrict to a minimum purchase amount and by region.
• UPS (United Parcel Service) – Calculates shipping price by based on weight by sending weight of package, source and destination to UPS’s server. You can allow customers to choose which UPS shipping service they want to use, i.e. Overnight, 2-Day, 3-Day Select, etc…
• USPS – Calculates shipping price by based on weight by sending weight of package, source and destination to USPS’s server. You can allow customers to choose which USPS shipping service they want to use, i.e. Express Mail, First Class, Priority Mail, etc.
• Fed EX – Calculates shipping price by based on weight by sending weight of package, source and destination to FedEx’s server. You can allow customers to choose which FedEx shipping service they want to use, i.e. Priority Overnight, 2 Day, Express Saver, etc.
• DHL – Calculates shipping price by based on weight by sending weight of package, source and destination to DHL’s server. You can allow customers to choose which DHL shipping service they want to use, i.e. International Express, Next Afternoon, Ground, etc.

Custom Shipping Modules
These modules are available as add-ons to Magento.  Some are free, some are pay-for.

• Multiple Tablerates – A free extension that allows you to set up a shipping table based on order total or order weight.  This is perfect for creating rules such as “Orders up to $50 are $3.99 for ground shipping, Over $50 are Free Ground Shipping” or “Orders up to 10 lbs. are $20 shipping, orders up to 30lbs are $30, orders over that are $50″  Multiple Tablerates gives you the flexibility to do just that, and it’s free.
• Product Matrix – Product Matrix is like Multiple Tablerates on steroids.  You can do all of the same rules, but you can also add rules for destination (by state or country) plus add a surcharge on an item by item basis.  You can even have rules such as “$14 to ship an item, and only $3 more to ship each additional item.”  Or lets say you want to charge an additional surcharge for heavy items, you can do that too.  Product Matrix costs £120 or about $200 at the current exchange rate.

Notable Shipping Related Articles

• Fed Ex Ship Manager Tutorial – Here’s a great tutorial on how to tie Fed Ex Ship Manager into Magento so you can automatically pull in the name, address, city, state zip etc… from your Magento database.