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.
1. Shipping Setup
Shipping is configured at Catalog 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 Catalog 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 inquiry and web store mode
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 Catalog Settings > Shipping on the top of the settings screen:
3. What Happens at Checkout
When a customer opens the checkout form, 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 web store and inquiry mode. 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
The Overwrite Existing Product Shipping Data tool lets you copy the currently saved default shipping settings into products that already exist in your catalog. This is useful when you update your main shipping setup and want older products to use the same shipping values without editing them one by one.
The tool always uses the currently saved shipping defaults. If you changed the shipping table above, save those settings first, and then run the overwrite action.
Depending on your current shipping source mode, the tool can overwrite:
- Shipping labels
- Shipping prices
- Both labels and prices together
Availability depends on the shipping mode:
- Shipping options and prices set per product – you can overwrite labels and prices.
- Global shipping options with prices set per product – you can overwrite prices only.
- Global shipping options and prices for all products – the overwrite tool is not needed because products do not keep separate shipping data.
Notes and shipping address settings are global, so the tool does not need to copy them.
To use it:
- Save your shipping defaults.
- Go to the Overwrite Existing Product Shipping Data box.
- Select which shipping values should be updated in existing products.
- Optionally enable Overwrite with empty defaults too.
- Click Apply Selected to Existing Products.
By default, EPC does not replace existing product shipping values with empty default values. This protects product data when a default field is blank.
If you enable Overwrite with empty defaults too, empty default values will also be copied to products. This can be used to clear old product shipping labels or prices in bulk.
A shipping price of ‘0’ is treated as a valid value, not as an empty one. This means you can overwrite an existing product shipping price with ‘0’ when you want to make a shipping option free.
The overwrite does not update every product instantly in one page load. EPC queues the task and runs it through the existing product data updater. During that time, the admin box shows the overwrite progress until all matching products are processed.
In short, this feature is meant for bulk maintenance. It helps you keep existing products aligned with your current default shipping configuration while still giving you control over whether labels, prices, or empty values should be overwritten.
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.