Knowledgebase
How to configure shipping and carriers in PrestaShop 1.5-1.6
In this article we'll make an overview of the carrier and shipping options in PrestaShop. For more details and screenshots check out the tutorial on how to manage shipping and carriers in PrestaShop 1.5-1.6.
You can add a carrier to your shop either by using a module for that carrier (if any), or by manually configuring and adding a new carrier. In addition to this, there are also some general shipping options that affect the whole store.
Carrier Modules
Most major carriers have modules with which they can be added to your store and managed more easily as compared to adding them manually. PrestaShop doesn't come prepackaged with any modules for particular carriers, but there will be some carrier modules listed in Modules menu>Modules sub-menu>Shipping and Logistics in the admin panel. The list of the carrier modules that you'll find there will be based on the default store country that you selected during the installation. For a more complete list of the available modules for the different carriers check the addons section of the official PrestaShop site.
If there's a module for the carrier that you want to add, it's recommended to use that module. That way it will be easier for you to add and manage the carrier. After you install the module you'll have to configure its options; they are different for the different modules and depend on the carrier. The module will add the different services of the carrier as separate carriers in Shipping menu>Carriers sub-menu in the admin panel. You'll have to check and edit the options of the carriers. These options are described in the next section of this article.
Create Carriers Manually
If you don't want to use a module or there isn't one, you can add carriers manually. To do this, go to Shipping menu>Carriers sub-menu in the admin panel and click on the Add new carrier button (labeled Add new in PrestaShop 1.5). On the next page confirm that you want to add a custom carrier by clicking on the respective button (this step is not available in PrestaShop 1.5). This will open the form for adding carriers. The options are divided into several pages. You can navigate through the pages with the tabs at the top, or you can use the Next and Previous buttons at the bottom of the page.
The first page is General settings. Type a name for the carrier in the respective field and some information about the estimated delivery time in the field for Transit time; this information is shown on the page on the frontend on which customers can select from the available carriers. In the field for Speed grade you can put a grade for how fast the carrier is; the grade is from 0 to 9 (0 is the slowest). There are also options for uploading a logo and adding a tracking URL. After that click on the Next button.
The next page is Shipping locations and costs. If you want the general handling charges to be added to the shipping fees of the carrier, set the option Add handling costs (labeled Shipping and handling in PrestaShop 1.5) to Yes. The handling charges can be set from Shipping menu>Preferences sub-menu. If you want the carrier to be one that delivers orders for free, set the option Free shipping (labeled Apply shipping costs in PrestaShop 1.5) to Yes; this will disable the options for price/weight ranges. From the option Billing you can select whether the shipping charges of this carrier are based on the weight or the price of the order. If you want a tax to be applied to the shipping fee, you can select a tax rule from the Tax drop-down menu. From the option Out-of-range behavior you can select whether the carrier should be disabled or the highest available shipping fee for this carrier should be applied, if the order doesn't fit into the specified ranges for that carrier.
Under these options is the table for setting the actual ranges of the carrier. The ranges can be based either on the weight or the price of the order (selected from the Billing option on the same page). Use the two fields at the top of the table to set the lower and upper limit of the range, mark the checkboxes of the geographical zones to which the carrier delivers orders and type the fee in the field for each of the zones. You can add as many ranges as needed. After that click on the Next button.
The next page with carrier options is Size, weight and group access. On that page you can set limits, if needed, for the maximum weight, height, width and depth of the orders that this carrier can deliver. On that page there are also options with which you can disable the carrier for the different customer groups. After that click on the Next button. The last page is a summary of all the information that you configured for this carrier. On that page there's also an option for disabling and enabling the carrier; disabled carriers are not shown on the frontend, and cannot be selected by customers. After you're done with all the options click on the Finish button at the bottom.
Edit, Delete, Enable, Disable and Change the Positions of Carriers
To manage the existing carriers, go to Shipping menu>Carriers sub-menu in the admin panel. The carriers are listed in the table that's there.
To edit the settings of a carrier, click on its Edit button (in PrestaShop 1.5 it's a pencil icon). The options are the same as when adding a new carrier.
To delete a carrier, click on the arrow next to its Edit button and from the menu select Delete. In PrestaShop 1.5 the button is an icon that looks like a trash can.
In the table with the carriers there is column labeled Status. It shows with green checkmarks the enabled carriers and with red X signs the disabled ones. Click on a symbol to turn it into the opposite one and enable/disable the carrier. You can do the same with the signs in the Free Shipping column; in this way you can enable/disable free shipping for a carrier without the need to open the page with all the carrier's settings.
From the Position column in the table you can change the positions of the carriers. To do this, hover the mouse pointer over the position number of the carrier until the pointer turns into a four-arrow cursor, then click and hold the left mouse button and drag and drop the carrier in the position you want. If the Sort by option for the carriers is set to Position, the positions of the carriers in the table affects their positions on the checkout page on the frontend that lists the available carriers. This option can be edited from Shipping menu>Preferences sub-menu.
Shipping Preferences
To configure some general shipping options, go to Shipping menu>Preferences sub-menu in the admin panel. On the page that opens there's an option for setting some general handling charges. Whether these charges are added to the shipping fees of a carrier depends on how you've configured the Add handling costs option of the particular carrier.
If you want free shipping to be available for orders that are above a specified price or weight, you can set that price/weight using the two fields labeled Free shipping starts at.
There are also options for selecting the default carrier and for configuring how the list of the available carriers should be displayed on the frontend.
Product Options Related to Shipping
Each product has some options related to shipping that apply only to that product. To configure them, on the form for adding/editing products click on the Shipping tab. You can specify the weight and dimensions of the product package, add some additional shipping fee and choose the carriers that can be used to deliver this product.
For some more details and screenshots read the tutorial on how to manage shipping and carriers in PrestaShop 1.5-1.6.