Shipping Methods

DecoNetwork provides a comprehensive set of tools to configure various shipping methods tailored to your business needs. Whether you're offering standard, expedited, or international shipping, you can set things up to provide a seamless and flexible shipping experience for your customers.

There are two main types of shipping methods you can configure in DecoNetwork: Custom and Live. Custom methods allow you to define your own rates and rules, while live methods connect to supported carriers to return dynamic rates at checkout. Once configured, all of the shipping methods your Fulfillment Center supports are made available in Business Hub for quotes and orders, and in your web stores for customers to choose during checkout.

Prerequisites

You must have administrator access to configure shipping methods

Why configure shipping methods

Shipping methods determine how delivery options and charges are calculated and presented at checkout and in Business Hub. Configuring your methods correctly helps you:

Offer appropriate delivery choices (e.g. standard, express, international) that match how you actually ship orders.
Ensure shipping charges reflect your costs and pricing strategy, reducing undercharging or overcharging.
Provide accurate, up-to-date shipping estimates by connecting to live carriers where supported.
Create a smoother checkout experience, improving customer confidence and helping reduce cart abandonment.

About shipping methods

DecoNetwork supports two primary types of shipping methods:

Custom shipping methods
Custom methods let you manually set up shipping rates using fixed prices or rules. You can base these rules on order variables such as:
- Order total
- Order weight
- Shipping zones (e.g. local, out-of-state, international)
This gives you full control over how much you charge different customers and regions, and is especially important if you accept out-of-state or international orders.
Live shipping methods
Live methods connect to supported shipping carriers to provide customers with up-to-the-minute shipping rates. Rates are dynamically calculated based on:
- Package weight and dimensions
- Shipping origin (your dispatch address)
- Shipping destination
- The selected carrier service (e.g. ground, express, international)
This helps ensure that the shipping prices you show closely match the carrier’s current rates.

Once configured, all of the shipping methods your Fulfillment Center supports are made available:

In Business Hub, for staff when creating quotes and orders.
In your web stores, for customers to select during checkout.

Step 1: Open Shipping settings

Log in to DecoNetwork Admin with an account that has administrator access.
From the main menu, go to Settings → Shipping → Shipping Methods.
Review your current shipping configuration, including your dispatch address and any existing shipping methods.

Note: Your dispatch address is critical for live shipping methods, as carriers use this as the origin address when calculating rates.

Step 2: Decide between custom and live methods

Before you start editing or adding shipping methods, decide which combination of custom and live methods best suits your business:

Use custom methods if:
- You want full control over your pricing tables (e.g. flat-rate local delivery, tiered rates by order value).
- You ship via carriers that are not integrated as live methods.
- You offer special in-house services (e.g. pickup, courier, local delivery runs) that don’t rely on carrier rates.
Use live methods if:
- You want to charge customers based on real-time rates from carriers.
- Your products have well-defined weights and dimensions, allowing accurate rate calculation.
- You want to reduce manual maintenance of shipping price tables.

In many cases, you may choose to offer a mix of both—for example, live carrier options alongside a custom “Local Pickup” or “In-store collection” method.

Step 3: Use the shipping method guides

Use the following guides to configure each part of your shipping setup in the Shipping settings area:

Configure core shipping settings

Manage live shipping methods

Connect to supported carriers

Use the live carrier-specific guides to connect your DecoNetwork site to supported carriers and start returning real-time shipping estimates:

Follow each guide for detailed, step-by-step instructions specific to that carrier or method type.

Best-practice tips

Test your configuration by placing test orders for different destinations, weights, and order values to confirm that methods appear and rates calculate as expected.
Define zones carefully so that local, domestic, and international customers are charged appropriate rates.
Keep product data accurate (weights and, if used, dimensions) to improve the accuracy of live carrier rates.
Offer a clear range of options (e.g. standard vs express) to let customers balance cost and delivery speed.
Review methods regularly to ensure they still match your actual shipping costs and carrier agreements.

Troubleshooting