How Shipping Works in eCommerce Product Catalog
The shipping system in eCommerce Product Catalog lets you define shipping methods, shipping prices, optional shipping notes, and optional shipping address forms for products. At checkout, EPC combines the available shipping options from the products in the cart and calculates the final shipping cost based on your shipping settings.
Shipping options are shown on product pages in every catalog mode. Shipping selection at checkout, address collection and shipping in orders and emails work in the Web Store and Inquiry Catalog modes.
1. Shipping Setup
Shipping is configured at Products > Settings > Shipping. Start with the Number of shipping options field at the top of the screen and click Update. This sets how many shipping option rows (slots) are available. Setting it to 0 disables shipping completely.
You can then configure shipping in two places:
- Global shipping settings – the Shipping Defaults table at Products > Settings > Shipping. It holds the default labels and prices, and the shipping notes and shipping address settings for every option.
- Product shipping settings – the Shipping box on the product edit screen. Depending on the shipping source mode, it lets you set a product’s own shipping labels and/or prices.
Each shipping option can include:
- A label such as Standard Delivery, Express Shipping, or Local Pickup
- A price
- An optional note displayed below the option at checkout
- An optional shipping address form shown only when that option is selected – this option is visible only in the Web Store and Inquiry Catalog modes
Notes and shipping address collection are always set globally in the Shipping Defaults table. They apply to the matching shipping option on every product and cannot be changed per product.
A shipping option is offered for a product only when it has a price. Leave the price empty to hide that option for the product. A price of 0 is a valid price: the option is shown as free, using the Free Shipping Text label.
2. Shipping Source Modes
The Shipping options source setting controls where product shipping data comes from:
- Shipping options and prices set per product (default) – each product keeps its own labels and prices. The Shipping Defaults values are pre-filled when you add a new product. If a product’s label is empty, the default label is used.
- Global shipping options with prices set per product – labels always come from the global shipping settings. Each product can set its own price; if a product’s price is empty, the default price is used.
- Global shipping options and prices for all products – both labels and prices come from the global shipping settings. Per-product shipping fields are disabled.
This gives you flexibility to keep shipping fully global, fully product-specific, or mixed.
The options are located at Products > Settings > Shipping on the top of the settings screen:
3. What Happens at Checkout
When a customer opens the checkout form (see Enable Shopping Cart Mode and Enable Quote Cart / Inquiry Catalog mode), EPC checks the products currently in the cart and builds the list of available shipping methods.
Products that offer shipping options with the same name are grouped together, and the customer picks one shipping method for the group. If products in the cart have different shipping option names, EPC shows a separate shipping choice for each group, labeled with the product names. The selected costs of all groups are added together.
If only one shipping method is available, EPC selects it automatically. If multiple shipping methods are available, the first one is preselected and the customer can choose the one they want.
The selected shipping method is then used to:
- calculate the shipping total
- update the order total
- save the selected shipping method with the order
- show the selected shipping price in notification emails
4. How Shipping Cost Is Calculated
The Checkout Shipping Cost section on the shipping settings screen offers three Shipping Cost Mode options. They decide what a shipping option costs when several products in the cart offer an option with the same name:
- Highest cost of all products in cart (default) – the option costs the highest price any of those products has for it.
- Sum of each product shipping cost – the option costs the sum of those products’ prices for it.
- Shipping cost calculation disabled – the shipping section is not shown at checkout.
The shipping method selected at checkout determines the final shipping amount saved with the order.
5. Shipping Address Collection
You can enable shipping address collection for selected shipping options in the Web Store and Inquiry Catalog modes. Tick Enable in the Collect shipping address column of the Shipping Defaults table for each option that needs delivery details.
When shipping address collection is enabled for an option, EPC shows an additional shipping address form only after that option is selected. This makes it possible to collect delivery details only when they are actually needed.
The default shipping address form includes these fields:
- Full Name
- Company
- Address
- Postal Code
- City
- Country
- State
- Phone
- Comment
The submitted shipping address is saved with the order and can also be included in notification emails.
6. What Is Saved With the Order
After checkout, EPC saves the shipping information together with the order. This includes:
- the final shipping total
- the selected shipping method label
- the shipping address, if collected
On the order edit screen, the order summary shows the shipping total as Shipping, followed by the selected method. The delivery details area can also show the saved shipping address.
7. Shipping in Notification Emails
EPC notification emails include shipping data in two ways:
- Shipping price and selected shipping method – shown automatically in the order totals, for example Shipping (Express Shipping).
- Shipping address, when one was submitted – placed where your template has the [shipping_address] shortcode.
If the template does not contain [shipping_address], EPC still adds the address automatically: before the payment details section when the template has one, otherwise at the end of the message. This way both the customer and the store administrator can see where the order should be delivered.
8. Overwrite Existing Product Shipping Data
When you change the Shipping Defaults, existing products keep their own shipping labels and prices. The Overwrite Existing Product Shipping Data tool below the Shipping Defaults copies the saved defaults into your published products in bulk. You choose whether labels, prices or both are overwritten, depending on the shipping source mode.
See Overwrite Existing Product Shipping and Attribute Data for the step-by-step guide.
9. Typical Example
For example, if a customer adds a product to the cart and chooses Express Shipping, EPC will:
- add the Express Shipping price to the order total
- save Express Shipping as the selected shipping method
- show the shipping amount in the order summary
- include the shipping method in the notification email
- include the shipping address in the notification email if that shipping option required delivery details
10. Summary
In short, EPC shipping works like this:
- The number of shipping options turns shipping on (1 or more) or off (0)
- Shipping labels and prices can be global or product-specific; notes and address collection are global
- Customers select the available shipping method at checkout, with a separate choice for products that have different shipping options
- The selected method controls the shipping total added to the order
- Optional shipping address fields can appear only for selected methods
- Shipping price, selected method, and shipping address can all be saved and shown in order notifications
This makes the shipping system flexible enough for simple stores, product-specific delivery rules, and more advanced checkout flows where different shipping options require different customer details.