Introduction:

This add-on is a Flat Shipping Type for the concrete5 eCommerce add-on that also supports Free Shipping by product sets. When configuring the Shipping Type, you can specify those product sets for which you wish to offer free shipping. In the event that a customers order consists entirely of products eligible for free shipping, then no shipping will be charged at all. When an order contains some products that are eligible for free shipping, and some that are not, then shipping is only charged on those products not eligible for free shipping.

As of version 1.2, this shipping type can now work in conjunction with other shipping types. There is a new configuration option that will ensure this shipping type is only offered when all of the products in an order are eligible for free shipping. If some products in an order are not eligible for free shipping, then this shipping type is not offered to the customer and they need to use any other shipping types that may be available.

By providing this new option, you can ensure your customers can receive free shipping when ordering only products that you are happy to ship for free (such as gift certificates).

Additional Functionality:

This add-on comes equipped with two additional blocks.

The first is a Shipping Calculator block. This block allows you to place a link anywhere in your website, which when clicked will calculate the shipping cost based on the products in the current order. The actual text displayed for the link is configurable, so you can set it to whatever you like (eg Calculate Shipping, Shipping Calculator, Shipping Cost etc).

Note, the Shipping Calculator block has been designed only to work with the Free Shipping by Product shipping type and as such has made some basic assumptions so that it can calculate the shipping correctly.

1. It has assumed that the shipping cost is flat and independent of the shipping destination. By doing this, the shipping can be calculated without the customer having to enter the shipping address
2. The shipping costs are calculated taking the standard eCommerce discounts into consideration. For example, if the Free Shipping discount is currently enabled it will be applied when calculating the shipping cost
3. The Shipping Calculator also shows the total cost of the current order, taking into consideration the shipping cost and any other product discounts that apply (such as eCommerce Basic Discount or Product-Specific Discount). Note, there is one exception here – if the discount requires a Coupon Code to be entered, then this discount will not be applied when using the Shipping Calculator as there is no mechanism provided to enter the Coupon Code when the shipping is calculated

NB: for Internet Explorer, the Shipping Calculator requires version 7 or higher. For IE browsers below version 7, the Shipping Calculator link will be hidden, even if the block has been added to a page.

The second block is a Free Shipping Highlighter. The purpose of this block is to complement individual product detail pages, and show whether the product being viewed attracts Free Shipping. As with the Shipping Calculator block, the text that is displayed for this block is configurable.