The Pro Shipment Plugin for VirtueMart is a very intuitive plugin that helps you create shipments with basic rules or more complex rules. Easy to maintain since one plugin can replace many of the default VM shipment plugin. Faster checkout if you select Geo Ip Locator or default country option.
GET THE PLUGIN Demo
Features
- Shipping costs can be defined with rules depending on:
- Including or excluding countries of the delivery address
- Including or excluding Postal code (ZIP) of the delivery address
- Total weight of the order
- Total number of products in the order
- Sales price of the order
- Total volume of the order
- Coupon Code
- Product categories
- Maximum weight of at least one product
- Maximum dimension of at least one product
- Free shipping possible :
- Each rule is described via a very intuitive interface
- Can display a dynamic Spend X € more and get free shipping message to customers
- Easy maintenance and thus saving time: one shipment method based on PRO SHIPMENT plugin can replace a lot of shipment methods based on the VM default shipment method (weight_countries)
- Faster checkout if you select Geo Ip Locator option or default country/Zip option: there is always one shipment displayed in the cart avoiding this famous message "We are sorry, no shipment method matches the characteristics of your order."
- Include a debugging tool
Installation and Configuration
Install the plugin via the Joomla installer
- Once the plugin has been installed, you can go directly to http://yourwebsite.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=shipmentmethod
- Create a new shipment method by clicking on the new button
- Enter a shipment name
- Select in the Shipment Method parameter VM Shipment - Pro Shipment
- Click on the Save button
The shipment name and the shipment description given in the tab Description will not be used by the plugin on the frontend of your website, because the plugin uses the shipment name and the shipment description given in the rules.
Since those 2 fields are the one displayed in your shipment method list, you can use them as a memo to remember wat are this shipment method i used for.
Click on the Configuration tab
Logos
Click on the logo you wish to display on the frontend
Show shipment on product page
Select if you want this shipment to appear on the product details page.
Tax
Calculation rule to apply on the amount given in the rules.
Weight unit
Select the weight unit used in the rules
Length unit
Select the weight unit used in the rules
Rules
Each rule is defined with a shipment information, destinations, conditions, and fee amount
Shipment Name: is the name that will be displayed on the website. It is a required information.
Shipment Description: is the description that will be displayed along with the shipment name on the website. This field is interesting to add sales motivator text and encourage your customers to spend more in the shop:
- Free shipping for orders over X euros
- or add {getfreeshipment X} to display the dynamic text Spend X€ more and get free shipping
Countries: You can select one or more countries for which this shipment rule will apply
ZIP: you can add one or more ZIPS for which this shipment rule will apply. You can use wildcard character (*) or excluding character (-)
examples:
- 20000: the rule will apply if the ZIP code is exactly 20000
- 20*: the rule will apply if the ZIP code starts with 20
- -20000: the rule will apply if the ZIP code is not exactly 20000
- -20*: the rule will apply if the ZIP code does not start with 20
- PO* : the rule will apply if the ZIP code starts with PO, Po, or po
- -PO* : the rule will not apply if the ZIP code starts with PO, Po, or po
Adding or removing ZIPs are done with the button Add Zip, or clicking on the cross.
Conditions
They are based on
- Total Weight
- Total Number of products
- Sales Prices
- Total Volume
- Categories
- Maximum weight of at least one product
- Maximum dimension of at least one product
Where you can specify if it is
- equals (=)
- greater (>)
- less (<)
- greater or equal (>=)
- less or equal (<=)
- different from (<> )
than the specified amount.
Amounts can be given with a , or a . for the decimal separator.
If the rule is based on categories, enter in the amount field the category Id you want to use. If the product is in this category, the rule will checked.
- You can add a new condition by clicking on the button Add condition.
- You can remove a condition by clicking on the cross.
Shipping costs are often based on the Total weight of the order.
Shipping companies may have more conditions such as:
- Total weight of the order
- Total volume of the order
- Maximum weight of at least one product
- Maximum dimension of at least one product
- Product restrictions (not allowed to send alcohol for example)
Common free shipment rules are:
- Free shipping for orders over X euros: use condition Total amount of the order
- Buy product from category ABC, and get free shipping: use Product categories condition
- With coupon code XYZ get free shipping: use Coupon Code condition
Fixed amount: is a fixed cost for the shipping that will be used if all countries, ZIPs code and conditions are met. The shipping cost is in the vendor currency.
If the conditions of more than one rule are true, it is always the cheapest cheapest that will be displayed.
- You can add a new rule by clicking on the button Add rule.
- You can remove a condition by clicking on the cross.
Geo IP locator
Select No if you don't want to use a Geo IP locator. Otherwise select one of the 2 options: Component GEO IP locator or ipinfo.io
with the IP geo locator, if the client did not give at least a Bill To address, the plugin PRO shipment automatically detects the country and ZIP of the customer and adds the available shipping methods to the cart.
The Component GEO IP locator is a component available on the extensions.virtuemart.net that you must install first. It only provides the country based on the IP address of your client. This option is enough if your shipments are only based on countries, but not on ZIPs.
The ipinfo.io option provides more information about your client, such as the country, the ZIP and the state. This option is recommended if the rules are based on ZIps. It also has the advantage to avoid regularly updates of the database (like in the component solution).
Notes about ipinfo.io:
- This option ipinfo.io requires that the CURL function is enabled. And in some rare case, some hosts cannot connect to the host ipinfo.io, and thus no result is returned.
- If you need to make more than 1,000 API requests a day you must subscribe to a monthly paid plan. More information on their website. Note that requests to ipinfo.io are optimized: only one request is done per user session, and bot traffic is filtered by looking at the user-agent header.
ipinfo.io API key
If you have subscribed a paid plan at ipinfo.io, enter the key in this field.
Update cart with the address found
If a valid location has been found via the Geo Ip Locator, it is saved it in the cart, and thus saving time for your client, since some fields are pre filled. And (of course) when the customer gave a billing or shipping address, the cart is not updated.
Default Country , Default ZIP
It is also possible to set a default country and optionally a default ZIP to automatically add a default shipping method to the cart.
Even if you are using the Geo Ip locator option, you can add a default country and ZIP. If will be used in case, the Geo Ip locator returned no result. It can happen if:
- you are using the component Geo Ip locator, and IP is not present in the database. It can happen if the database has not been updated for a while.
- you are using the ipinfo.io service, but the service is not available during the request, or did not returned an answer
This insures that a shipment method will always be in the cart, and therefore the very frustrating message "We are sorry, no shipment method matches the characteristics of your order." will never be displayed.
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