NitroSell shipping integrations give merchants the ability to present real-time shipping rates to web store customers during the checkout process. Most shipping integrations (UPS, FedEX, Canada Post) use a combination of product and customer data, including product weight and shipping address, zip code and state. Shipping service rate requests fail due to following common reasons:
Product weight: none specified, or too heavy;
Store address: incorrect store zip code or state;
Shipping address: incorrect customer shipping address, zip code, or state;
Service unavailable: the shipping service does not operate to the specified shipping address.
We’ve upgraded our checkout process such that these kinds of errors are presented to the customer, giving them the chance to correct the cause of the error and re-attempt the checkout process.
In this way, the customer is given the most information possible to complete the process. Taking the above screenshot an example (click to zoom), all the customer has to do is correct their address details and return to complete the checkout process.
* Please note that the above checkout and shipping integration updates are currently available only to webstores running in the Beta version of NitroSell eCommerce. Feel free to open a ticket on the Partner Portal if you would like to expose this functionality on your web store.
Posted by nitrosell on December 11, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Recently, we released a Canada Post shipping integration module to the Beta and Early Adopters’ versions of NitroSell e-Commerce. If your webstore is currently on this version, you can access the new module using from the Shipping & Taxes section on your WebStore Manager (WSM). Detailed configuration instructions and support can be found in KB article #486 (Configuring Canada Post Shipping Options). Using your personal Canada Post / Sell Online merchant dashboard you can configure options such as:
Insurance Fees
Handling Fees
Signatory Requirements
Fuel Surcharges
Custom Shipping Boxes
It is assumed that you already have a Canada Post merchant profile, so, before using the Canada Post shipping module, you will need to enter your Canada Post Merchant ID as detailed in KB article #131 (Configuring Shipping Options). As with our other shipping integrations, Canada Post requires that you first set up the various shipping services in RMS and synchronize those to your store, of which the following are supported:
Within Canada:
Regular Parcel;
Expedited Parcel;
Xpresspost;
Priority Courier.
From Canada to the US:
Small Packet-USA Surface;
Small Packet-USA AirExpedited Parcel-USA;
Commercial Expedited Parcel-USA;
Xpresspost USA;
Priority Worldwide USA.
From Canada to Worldwide:
Small Packet International-Surface;
International Parcel-Surface;
Small Packet International-Air;
International Parcel-Air;
Xpresspost-International;
Priority Worldwide.
If you are a Canadian merchant and would like to move your store to the Beta or Early Adopters’ versions to access this new feature, please feel free open a support request on the Partner Portal. We look forward to your feedback!
<SERVICE CODE=”1010″ NAME=”(Domestic) Regular Parcel”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”1020″ NAME=”(Domestic) Expedited Parcel”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”1030″ NAME=”(Domestic) Xpresspost”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”1040″ NAME=”(Domestic) Priority Courier”/>
<!– From Canada to the US –>
<SERVICE CODE=”2005″ NAME=”(To US) Small Packet-USA Surface”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”2015″ NAME=”(To US) Small Packet-USA Air”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”2020″ NAME=”(To US) Expedited Parcel-USA”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”2025″ NAME=”(To US) Commercial Expedited Parcel-USA”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”2030″ NAME=”(To US) Xpresspost USA”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”2040″ NAME=”(To US) Priority Worldwide USA”/>
<!– From Canada to Worldwide –>
<SERVICE CODE=”3005″ NAME=”(Worldwide) Small Packet International-Surface”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”3010″ NAME=”(Worldwide) International Parcel-Surface”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”3015″ NAME=”(Worldwide) Small Packet International-Air”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”3020″ NAME=”(Worldwide) International Parcel-Air “/>
<SERVICE CODE=”3025″ NAME=”(Worldwide) Xpresspost-International”/>
<SERVICE CODE=”3040″ NAME=”(Worldwide) Priority Worldwide”/>
Posted by nitrosell on November 11, 2009 at 5:20 pm
We are pleased to announce the early adopters‘ version of NitroSell eCommerce has been released as the live, stable version of the webstore! Thank you to those of you who chose to try it out over the past 10 months, assisting us with cementing the new features and product improvements.
For existing early adopters, this release will take place automatically.
If you wish to upgrade to this version, please open a ticket on the Partner Portal. You can expect to enjoy the following benefits:
Improved Standards Compliance
We strive to meet the standards set out by the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), and to test our software against the most popular browsers and operating systems. NitroSell eCommerce has been tested on:
FireFox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Opera
Safari
During the development of this release, we improved our adherence to accessibility standards, namely, Section 508 compliance, in which the software is now 100% compliant when using “out of the box” templates and themes.
New Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Features
NitroSell eCommerce maximizes your search engine ranking potential by employing safe, well-recognized techniques and technologies. In this release, we have improved the feature-set by enabling you to customize SEO-related elements of your store, such as title tags, META description and META keywords fields for department, category and content pages.
WebStore Manager (WSM) Enhancements By Section
Management
Page Content:
Support for custom, non-tabbed content pages;
Support for content on brand and theme search pages, as well as subcategory pages;
Advanced SEO page properties, such as title tag, META description and META keywords.
Configuration
WebStore
Product:
Store Product Restriction: Allows you to restrict displayed products to only those which are carried by a specified store.
Display:
Enable Department Grouping: Allows you to group departments, providing additional flexibility when customizing the navigational panel using NitroScript.
Shipping:
Enable Tax on Shipping: This option allows you to enable tax on shipping, which is not natively supported by RMS.
Shipping & Taxes
UPS & FedEX Shipping Integrations:
Updated United States shipping services;
Added support for Canadian shipping services.
Customers using this release will notice a marked difference in the user interface for the Shipping section, which now includes a suite of Tax on Shipping options.
Navigation Panel opened up to customization to those with NitroScript access.
Microsoft RMS / WebStore Integration Improvements
NitroSell eCommerce was designed to leverage the power of Microsoft RMS on your webstore. A new integration feature is Accounts Payments and Insufficient Credit Limit, which enables you to hide the ‘pay on account’ option when a customer has insufficient credit in RMS.
Our Knowledge Base in the Partner Portal contains information on this and many more value-added features that have been included. We hope you enjoy this release and, as always, we welcome your feedback!
Posted by nitrosell on August 18, 2009 at 12:07 am
Between Goods & Services Tax, Provincial Sales Tax, and Harmonized Sales Tax, getting your shipping tax set-up correct in Canada can be pretty confusing:
Goods & Services (GST):
Everything imported into Canada is subject to GST @ 5%. The GST is calculated after customs duties have been applied.
Provincial Sales Tax (PST):
This can vary from province to province, as do the goods and services to which the tax is applied and the way the tax is applied.
Harmonized Sales Tax (HST):
This is currently charged at 13%, but only in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador and is applied in these states rather than separate a GST and PST.
What makes things even more difficult is that the current version of RMS does not support tax on shipping! So how can you, as a dutiful and law abiding RMS-powered store owner apply these various taxes? The answer lies with NitroSell eCommerce! We have overcome the problem with a new WebStore Manager feature titled Enable Tax on Shipping.
The 6 Step Shipping Tax Solution – an Advanced Example:
Let’s use the following Canadian based example.
Example (and crazy!) tax rates:
HST: 10%;
GST: 20%;
PST: 25%.
Test Cases:
Ontario – charge GST and PST on Shipping;
Nova Scotia, new Brunswick or Newfoundland, Canada – charge HST on Shipping;
Any other Province in Canada – charge GST on Shipping;
Any country outside of Canada – do not charge tax on shipping.
Steps:
Create a new item with Item Lookup Code shipping in your RMS item list. This non-inventory item must exist in your point-of-sale at the time of processing the order for the WSM option to work correctly;
RMS Shipping Item
Set-up your Customer Tax, Sales Tax, and Item Tax options and Item Options in Store Ops Manager. This can tricky, so make sure to zoom into the screen shot below if you need more detail;
RMS Store Operations: Tax Assignment to the Shipping Item
Ensure that your store configuration is set to assign tax schedules on a per item basis:
RMS Store Operations: Tax Method and Basis
Synchronize these changes to your web store, and log into your WebStore Manager. If you browse to the Shipping Options tab, you should find the Enable Tax on Shipping option available to you. A related knowledge base (KB) article can be found here that goes through all the options in detail.
Enable Tax on Shipping Option on the WebStore Manager
Configure your shipping & tax options in your Web Store Manager as required. Here, you will see the flexibility of NitroSell eCommerce because you can set up the options to meet as many tax-on-shipping requirements as you need. Try out the test cases above for yourself!
Tax Configuration for Canada and Ontario on the WSM
Now you can test your new tax on shipping configuration. In our test, we shipped an item worth $100 to Ontario with a shipping cost of $97.10. Notice how the tax correctly calculated the GST + PST shipping tax configuration;
GST and PST Charged for Ontario at Checkout
Please note: this feature is currently available on the Early Adopters’ version of the webstore!
In a recent update to the WebStore Manager (WSM), we have greatly enhanced the shipping and tax configuration to enable more flexible configuration scenarios and to make the user interface (UI) more friendly.
In this first part of a three-part series, I cover the shipping methods section. I also demonstrate how you can combine shipping rules and Microsoft RMS’s shipping services to create dynamic, tailor-made shipping options for your webstore.
As always, we rely on feedback from our customers and business partners to help us improve our software and documentation. If you have any requests or questions, please leave a comment below!
FireFox
Internet Explorer
Chrome
Opera
Safari
