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How do I restrict a shipping method to a specific warehouse or shipping group?
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Hello,
We have some promotional items, which ship a certain time after the other items in the order, and so we've set them up to come from a different "warehouse", in order to cause AC to put them in a different shipment. The problem is, AC is trying to charge the customer another flat-rate shipping charge for that shipment. To solve this, I figured I'd use the Ship Groups functionality, but I'm having no luck restricting this extra "promotional item free shipping" ship method so it can only be used for certain items, and the content on the help page for that feature (http://help.ablecommerce.com/mergedProjects/ablecommerce/index.htm#t=Configure%2FShipping%2FShip_Groups.htm) is incorrect (it is help for Ship Methods, even though the title says Ship Groups). So first, please fix the documentation for that feature, so we can know how it works. Second, the documentation references the ability to restrict a ship method to items shipped from a certain warehouse, but that functionality does not appear to work in AC9, so please tell me where that went. And, finally, can you please tell me how to accomplish having certain products have a no-charge ship method, without the user having to enter a coupon code? Thank you!
Regards,
Maximillian R. Carper
Carper Business Automation
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Hi,
Using the Ship Groups feature, you can restrict the products to use specific ship methods. Edit a product and assign selected Ship Groups.
Previously you have to assign a shipping method to a warehouse whereas in AC9 you can assign a shipping method to a ship group.
In short, to restrict a product to always use a specific ship method, you have to
- Create a new Ship Group
- Assign the desired ship method to this Ship Group
- Now assign the Ship group to the desired product(s).
Please note that if no ship methods are assigned to a Ship group then it will list all available ship methods.
I have confirmed that the documentation is not updated. Thanks for identifying.
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Rank: Member
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Originally Posted by: shaharyartiwana25816656  Hi,
Using the Ship Groups feature, you can restrict the products to use specific ship methods. Edit a product and assign selected Ship Groups.
Previously you have to assign a shipping method to a warehouse whereas in AC9 you can assign a shipping method to a ship group.
In short, to restrict a product to always use a specific ship method, you have to
- Create a new Ship Group
- Assign the desired ship method to this Ship Group
- Now assign the Ship group to the desired product(s).
Please note that if no ship methods are assigned to a Ship group then it will list all available ship methods.
I have confirmed that the documentation is not updated. Thanks for identifying.
Ok, so I have done exactly that, and it's not working. I have three products, all assigned to my "Promotional Items (Ship Free)" ship group. That ship group is assigned to the shipping method with the same name. I just tried to check out as an admin, and that shipping method was selectable for both of the shipments in my basket, one of which, was for the promotional products assigned to that ship group, but the other was not. So then I set that ship method to only be accessible to Admins, and logged in as a non-admin account, and the only ship method available to both shipments is our normal "Flat Rate" shipping. Am I missing something, or is this functionality broken? We really need it for a promo we are doing.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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If a ship group is not assigned to any of the ship methods then it will list all available ship methods. For the non-promotional ship group, you have to explicitly select all ship methods except the one you are using with the Promotional Ship group.
e.g
Non-Promotional Ship group:
Ship Method 1
Ship Method 2
....
Ship Method N
Promotional Ship group:
Promotional Ship Method
Hope this helps!
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Rank: Member
Groups: Developers
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Ok, that did help, though this does seem a little counter-intuitive. So we have hundred of products that just use the normal "flat-rate" shipping method, and then just a handful of promotional bonus products that need to get the free shipping. So now, I'm seeing only the free option for the promotional products, as expected... but that free options is also showing for the regular products. In order to only show the flat rate shipping option now for the "regular" products, does that mean I have to add all several hundred of them to a ship group that only has that flat-rate shipping method? It sounds like, once you've added one ship method whose visibility is managed by a ship group, all of your products need to now be in a ship group. Is that correct? I'm trying to avoid the added management step of having to add every new product to a ship group, if possible, as this special shipping method is only needed for a few products. Thanks!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Yes, you have to assign all products to that specific ship group. There is a page where you can use the multi assign feature to assign products to a ship group.
- Go to site.com/Admin/Shipping/ShipGroups
- Click the green color circle in the Products column
- It will redirect to site.com/Admin/Shipping/ShipGroupProducts?shipGroupId={}&shipGroupName={}
- Using this page you can assign all products to a specific ship group.
Hope this helps!
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Rank: Member
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Originally Posted by: shaharyartiwana25816656 Yes, you have to assign all products to that specific ship group. There is a page where you can use the multi assign feature to assign products to a ship group.
- Go to site.com/Admin/Shipping/ShipGroups
- Click the green color circle in the Products column
- It will redirect to site.com/Admin/Shipping/ShipGroupProducts?shipGroupId={}&shipGroupName={}
- Using this page you can assign all products to a specific ship group.
Hope this helps! I was worried that would be the case. We add products through file imports, and it does not appear the Data Transfer > Import/Export > Products option--or any other import/export options--support linking products to Ship Groups... is that correct? If my understanding is correct, and there's no way to import these settings through the AC CSV/bulk-import process, this will add some extra steps to our product setup process. I just checked, and thankfully, that "Ship Group Products" screen has a Category filter, and an "Unassigned Products Only" filter, and also allows you to select the products on all pages of results with an extra click, so it's not terribly tedious, but I was trying to avoid adding extra steps to our product on-boarding process, if at all possible. Thanks for your attentive responses! Regards, Maximillian R. Carper Edited by user Sunday, December 13, 2020 5:33:14 PM(UTC)
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Quote:There's no way to import these settings through the AC CSV/bulk-import process Yes, there is no option to use these settings from import/export pages. You can add this as a feature request at https://www.ablecommerce...merce-9-Feature-RequestsRegards
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I am pretty sure that if you are careful, you can use something like Microsoft Access to manipulate and update the "ac_ProductShipGroups" table. This is also a good reason to add product ID to the form itself in the admin section, as opposed to just showing the ID in the URL.
Just my thoughts
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Originally Posted by: ray22901031 I am pretty sure that if you are careful, you can use something like Microsoft Access to manipulate and update the "ac_ProductShipGroups" table. This is also a good reason to add product ID to the form itself in the admin section, as opposed to just showing the ID in the URL.
Just my thoughts Yes, we could definitely add custom code to add these programmatically, but we were trying to avoid this client having to pay us to do that. Opening up direct database access so the people entering the products can add them directly to the database is definitely not a practical option, though.
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