Shipping rules

Hi Jason,

What can you tell me about shipping and rule making, I have been looking where can I find documentation?

If you have a shipping/Handling charge in the (product additional settings)...does that override a rule or add to a rule?
If you do not put a weight in the (product additional settings)...is it set to 0?

If there is no rule for a country, where does the system retrieve the phone number?

I believe this client is using USPS flate rate boxes.
I thought is to create a couple rules for United States and let the customer contact them for international shipping.

first, for the shipping to be applied to an item, the weight must be set. if you leave the weight empty, it will be set to 0 and cause the shipping for that product to fail

If you have a shipping/Handling charge in the product additional settings, that will be applied in addition to whatever shipping rules you configure.

if you do not set a rule for a country, the customer will be alerted that shipping is not available and they should call. the number is set on the contact us page. that pages uses the store settings in the admin panel.

Just so I'm clear,

If you have a shipping/Handling charge in the (product additional settings) and no shipping rules, will the shipping fail?

If you have NO shipping/Handling charge in the (product additional settings)...and a rule for the United States with just a "Base Rate" will the shipping fail?

in both cases, the shipping should not fail.

If you have no shipping rules and a shipping/Handling charge in the (product additional settings) what will happen if someone outside the United States attempts to purchase? Is the United States the default?

the shipping/Handling charge in the product additional settings will be applied


what ever is set at the product level is added regardless of country and other shipping rules.

Just to be clear, in the previous question (no shipping rules)...the customer outside the united states will not be alerted to call the number that is set on the contact us page.

If so, the client website owner has flat rates for inside the United states, is there a way to handel international customers to be alerted to call the number is set on the contact us page

if you have a shipping rule applied for only US, then it will show the alert.

I sugest experimenting with the rules to see how they work, it will answer your questions

Ok, I'm just trying to get as much information as possible, as the my clients are being very difficult, as they are use to the ease of ebay etc. and making my life hell.

Another question: using USPS web tools, can you have can you have a domestic flat rate shipping rule and internationality have them go out to USPS or UPS.

With that said could you use USPS web tool and have USPS configure flat rates for US and figure out the shipping for internationality?

Does Powerstore shipping rules or the shipping providers web tools do anything with insurance rates of a package?

The shipping you add at the product level are applied no matter what and have no effect on the checkout.

the shipping rules you define in the Admin -> Settings -> Shipping are applied at checkout and will effect where an order can be shipped to

if you have only a US rule, there will be a message to call the store if another shipping country is selected.

The shipping rules defined in the admin are applied on top of the shipping you set at the product level.


when you set up a rule, you select the destination country for that rule, the provider and delivery type

you can have a different provider and different delivery type for each country.

USPS is one of the available providers.

the shipping rules do not have a setting for additional insurance.

that should probably be added at the item level.