Configuring the Paazl Delivery Matrix
This article explains the concepts behind Paazl delivery matrices. Delivery matrices enable you to specify shipping rates for particular shipping options. Paazl will only send your webshop shipping options that match the criteria you specify within your delivery matrix
A matrix defines which shipping options have to be used with which:
- products
- countries
- postal code areas
For each shipping option, you can also specify how much time will be required to get the product into your warehouse and ready for shipping.
Based on your delivery matrix configuration, Paazl sends shipping options to your checkout for display either in the Paazl Checkout widget or your own UI. Paazl will only send those shipping options that match the criteria you specified when setting up your delivery matrix. If no shipping options match a given product or geographical area, Paazl will return a message saying that no shipping options are available.
Note
If you are having difficulty getting a shipping option to display in your checkout, see Why isn't the shipping option in my checkout?
Configuring delivery matrices contains a worked example of how to configure your products and shipping options.
Where to find your delivery matrices
To access your delivery matrix pages, log into your Paazl web app account and go to .
The delivery matrix page
Your delivery matrix configuration consists of delivery matrix pages. Each page consists of a set of matrices for particular area of the world. This could be a country, or a postal code area within a country.
A delivery matrix page allows you to define up to 702 separate product categories (from "A"to "Z", followed by "AA" to "ZZ") using characteristics such as weight, volume and price. The delivery matrix page shows all the shipping options you have at your disposal based on the various carriers you have contracts with.
Each delivery matrix page has the following layout.
Product characteristics
When entering values into the product characteristic fields, note that decimals are indicated using the decimal point, for example: 1.7
The value you enter for "Order value" is a scalar (i.e. has no currency unit). This is because you are responsible for managing currency units in your webshop's checkout page.
Shipping rules
You create a shipping rule from a matrix when you link a specific shipping option to a specific product category by entering a shipping rate at the intersection between the product category and the shipping rate. The shipping rules you create will appear as shipping options in your checkout.
Note
If you don't enter a shipping rate at the intersection between a product category and a shipping option, the shipping option will not appear in your checkout. This applies even if the checkbox next to the shipping option shows it has been selected.
To add a new matrix, click "Add matrix" at the bottom of a delivery matrix page.
The following is an example of a shipping rule.
How a delivery matrix works
The moment a customer accesses your webshop's checkout page, Paazl screens the order characteristics concerned in order to match the product with one or more shipping options.
When your webshop sends Paazl details of the destination country or postal code range concerned, it first looks for a corresponding delivery matrix page. If you have not set up a delivery matrix page for the country or postal code range, Paazl will return a message saying that no shipping options are available.
Once Paazl has identified the right delivery matrix page, it goes through the page's delivery matrix columns from left to right until it finds an exact fit with the characteristics of the product concerned. Paazl stops looking as soon as it has found a match. In other words, the first match wins!
If you want to display several shipping options for a given product, simply associate the shipping options concerned with the product's matrix by activating them and assigning them shipping rates as explained above in "Shipping rules".
Note
The value of any given product characteristic in a matrix is the maximum possible value that characteristic can have to fit a given matrix. For example, say you enter a value of 10 for weight in Matrix A. If a product has weight 10 kg, it will stay in Matrix A. If it has weight 10.1 kg, it will move to Matrix B.
Note
We recommend you always have an empty matrix as your last matrix. By an "empty matrix" we mean a matrix with no product characteristics defined. This will allow you to define a "catch all" shipping rule that will always apply should a given product not fit any of the matrices.
Postboxes
In the Netherlands, only PostNL (a Dutch carrier) is allowed to deliver packages to postboxes. For this reason, the Dutch delivery matrix page contains an option to restrict the shipping options displayed in your webshop checkout to those supplied by PostNL.
Shipping options
The shipping options that you see on a delivery matrix page are those that have been configured for you by Paazl Customer Support and that ship to the country concerned.
To be able to use a particular shipping option in a shipping rule, you have to activate it by clicking the checkbox next to it. You will then be able to edit the shipping option's rate, and add delivery date related information to the associated shipping rule.
Note
When you activate a shipping option on one delivery matrix page, it will be active on all delivery matrix pages to which it applies. This also means that when you de-activate a shipping option on one delivery matrix page, it will be inactive on all pages. It is important to keep this in mind when you use shipping options that ship to several countries and postal code sets. You can prevent a shipping option from being shown if you remove all configured shipping rates.
Shipping option rates
A shipping option rate is simply a value that will be quoted on your checkout page. If you are using your own user interface to display shipping options, you will have to assign the currency symbol yourself.
As shown in the screenshot below, you enter shipping rates at the intersections of the shipping option concerned and the product categories it ships.
If you are using Paazl Perfect or the Paazl widget to display shipping options, you can configure the currency to be displayed by logging into your Paazl web app account and going to . At the top of the Paazl Perfect settings page you will see currency display options.
Delivery date variables
Your delivery matrix provides you with options for specifying how long shipments will be in transit once they have been picked up by a carrier, and how long your warehouse needs to get a particular order ready for pick-up by the carrier. You can do this for each shipping rule.
Paazl will include this data in its calculation of the delivery date. See Delivery date calculation formula for a full explanation of how Paazl calculates delivery dates.
Note
If a carrier provides a delivery date service, this will override Paazl's calculation.
These variables are explained in the following table.
| Delivery date variable | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Delivery days (min‑max) |
The minimum and maximum of days a shipment could be in transit. The following considerations apply:
|
| Delivery days | The number of days a shipment will be in transit. The shipping option concerned will be displayed as offering an exact (nominated) date. |
| Processing days | The number of days it takes to get a product into your warehouse and ready for pickup by a carrier.
Note This option is only available for your webshop's country of origin (as specified in your web app account under ) |