Offering a competitive shipping rate is an important part of managing an ecommerce business. Whether your shipping rates are set to cover the cost of sending customers their products, or are used as an upselling incentive, Recharge has made it easy to manage shipping rates for subscription products directly in Recharge.

This guide outlines how to configure your shipping settings for the Recharge Checkout on both Shopify and BigCommerce.

Before you start

• Merchants using the Recharge Checkout with Shopify have the option of configuring either Basic shipping settings or using Recharge Zones and Rates. 
• Merchants using the BigCommerce Checkout Integration or Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce will use Recharge Zones and Rates.
• On the BigCommerce Checkout Integration Recharge rates are used for recurring orders. Shipping rates must be configured on BigCommerce for checkout orders.
• Shipping rates for an order are configured at the time a queued order is created. Updating shipping rates in Recharge Shipping or your ecommerce platform applies to new orders but does not apply to current queued orders. Contact Recharge Support if you would like your updated rates to apply to orders that have been created but not yet processed.

Access shipping settings

Recharge allows you to configure your store settings so that you can charge customers for shipping in addition to the cost of their products. Shipping rates are additional charges customers incur based on your shipping settings. There are a variety of shipping method configurations you can offer your customers.

1. In the merchant portal, click Settings.
2. Select Shipping.

Charge customers for shipping 

Use the Charge shipping options to determine if you wish to charge customers for shipping. This setting applies to orders containing both one-time and subscription products, or subscription-only orders.

• Charge shipping: Customers are given shipping rates options and are charged shipping when they check out with a subscription product. This setting also applies shipping to recurring charges. 
• Do not charge shipping: Customers are not given the option to select a shipping method when purchasing a subscription product or on recurring orders. With this setting orders will not show a shipping line in the order summary, so shipping is essentially free. 

Basic shipping rates for Recharge Checkout on Shopify

Recharge Checkout on Shopify merchants can use shipping rates configured in Shopify (basic) to charge shipping on subscription orders. Recharge sends a request to Shopify for the shipping rate each time an order is created and they provide us with the shipping rate to charge on each order.

This allows you to charge custom rates you have configured in Shopify, including rates configured with Shopify Shipping Profiles. You can also use this method if you are using an unsupported third-party shipping app for rates.

If you are using Workflows, note the following limitation with this shipping setting: If you are using the Get rates from Shopify shipping setting in Recharge, Shopify uses the full price of auto-renew products regardless of whether a Workflow is in place or not. This is a Shopify limitation.

Ship to specific countries

If you do not ship to all countries, you will need to identify the countries you ship to in the Recharge app. 

1. Select Ship to specific countries under the Ship to specific countries section.
2. Use the search box in the Countries section to search for the specific country you wish to ship to. You can add multiple countries at one time. 
3. Select Save to save your selection. 

Recharge Zones and Rates for Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce and Shopify

Recharge Zones and Rates are the default option on Recharge Checkout on BigCommerce stores. Merchants using the Recharge Checkout on Shopify can access advanced shipping rate options using Recharge Zones and Rates. With Recharge Zones and Rates, you can fully control your shipping settings, right in Recharge. Visit our guide to managing Recharge Shipping Zones and Rates for more information.

Shipping zones

Shipping zones are used to segment shipping rates by order location. You can set shipping rates by country, state/province/territory, or an all-encompassing rest of world option.

Once you have created your shipping zones, you can add a shipping rate to charge customers for shipping.

Checkout display of countries

Drag and drop the countries listed to rearrange how they are displayed in the country selection box at the checkout. 

Shipping weight unit

The unit system used to calculate your shipping rates for customers. Use the dropdown options to adjust the unit for your specific business needs.

Recurring shipping rates

You can select how shipping is handled for future recurring orders. There are two options available:

• Dynamically recalculate rates for future orders. Recalculates the shipping rate on all recurring orders to charge the customers the lowest available rate each time.
• Retain original shipping rate for future orders. Ensures that the shipping rate charged to a customer on their initial order applies to all future orders.

Shipping Address

The Shipping Address is configured based on your ecommerce platform settings when you initially install Recharge. 

Contact the Recharge support team to update this address if changes have been made on your ecommerce platform.

Advanced settings

Errors

Configure how orders should be handled if there are no matching shipping rates available.

Process orders if no matching shipping rate is found. Orders are processed at a $0.00 shipping rate if no matching rate applies.

Display an error if no matching shipping rate is found. Either the checkout or recurring order will fail if there are no applicable shipping rates.

Shipping rate product type

You can choose whether Recharge uses the settings of the Original product or the Duplicate product when determining the shipping rate. 

For example, if you had a weight-based shipping rate and chose "duplicate product", Recharge would use the weight of the duplicate product to determine which shipping rates are available.

Utilize a custom shipping rate

Shopify or BigCommerce merchants using the Recharge Checkout can use a custom shipping rate.

FAQs

Refer to the Recharge Shipping FAQs for additional information on Recharge Shipping.