What Are Shipping Policies?

Shipping Policies bind together channel shipping mappings and eligible source shipping methods.

In short: 

• An incoming order has a channel shipping mapping associated to it based on some text (i.e. "fastest" or "4-7 days").
• This channel shipping mapping references a shipping policy (i.e. "standard" or "expedited")
• This shipping policy is then mapped to specific source shipping methods for each source, depending on the specific carriers/methods a source can fulfill out from.

The life cycle is as follows:

• Order imported → Channel shipping mapping identified
• Channel shipping mapping identified→ Shipping policy assigned
• During order routing → fulfillment request/fulfillment order is generated with a source shipping method that is mapped to this shipping policy. Note, this process can also choose between multiple methods via rate shopping

See the diagram below to better illustrate the execution of these policies.

Shipping Policy Diagram

In this example, a new order from a channel would start from the bottom of the diagram. As it's being imported and executes the routing process. It flows through the layers above it to assign a source shipping method to fulfill on.

Creating a Shipping Policy

Creating a shipping policy is very simple and only requires a name. This name is completely up to you, but is best represented as a bucket of shipping solutions, some examples include:

• "Standard" representing all ground/cheaper shipping solutions
• "Priority" representing all air/expedited shipping solutions
• "Freight" representing all shipping options that are sent via freight

As seen in the diagram above, the value in creating a shipping policy is that it links source shipping methods and channel shipping mappings.

For information on how to create and associate these, see Shipping Management.

Example Shipping Policy Flow

In this example, we want to ensure bulk shipping orders are sent out via UPS Freight and the integrated source requires UPSF shipping code to be provided for UPS Freight orders.

Configuration:

1) Create a shipping policy called "Freight"

2) Create a channel shipping mapping to map "Bulk Shipping" shipping selection from the channel to "Shipping Policy → Freight" or create a order import override to force the shipping policy "Bulk Shipping" for orders that fall over a certain weight range or item count (see Importing Orders).

Flow

1) Order is imported (either through a channel shipping mapping or order import override) and the shipping policy "Freight" is assigned.

2) Order is routed. Since the "UPSF" source shipping method is mapped to the shipping policy "Freight," this source shipping method is chosen.

3) During the Send Purchase Orders/Fulfillment Requests operation, the "UPSF" value is passed to the source, so they know to send this order out via UPS Freight.