Understanding shipping, local delivery, and pickup in Lightspeed eCom
As a Lightspeed Retail POS merchant who starts their way in online selling, you have three ways of delivering goods to your customers: via shipping, local delivery, or by offering in-store pickup.
In your Lightspeed eCom, you can set up each of these three methods or combine them to provide a better shopping experience. For example, you can offer Buy Online Pickup in Store for bicycles, CBD, beauty products, while offering in-house delivery for food and beverage. You can create as many of each shipping method as you want.
Lightspeed eCom does not ship your packages for you. Instead, eCom is integrated with different carriers and postal services that you can connect to your store so that customers will be able to choose it at checkout.
Each method can have its own rates and delivery zones, and if you connect several outlets to your eCom, you can also specify what outlets to associate with each delivery/pickup method to get a better control over fulfilling orders.
Shipping methods and outlets
When you enable eCom for your business, you choose which outlets to associate with your online store. Those outlets and their stock levels can help you to get a better control over delivery and prevent you from overselling.
Here’s how it works: when you create a shipping, delivery, or pickup method, you can associate it with a particular outlet. Once you do that, eCom automatically syncs stock levels of the outlet with the shipping method. If you have connected several outlets to your eCom store, you can associate different shipping methods with different outlets.
This outlet-delivery tandem is extremely helpful for multi-outlet stores since it allows you to set up shipping rules. Rules allow you either to restrict delivery/pickup methods with insufficient inventory or let customers to choose any delivery/pickup method irrespective of stock levels of the corresponding outlet.
In case you do not restrict delivery, you may need to transfer out-of-stock items between outlets to fulfill the order. That’s why limiting outlets based on their inventory level works best with in-store pickup and local delivery since you don’t have to transfer out-of-stock goods between outlets in a short period of time.
Learn more about shipping/pickup rules for multi-outlet stores →
Shipping carriers and delivery services
Lightspeed eCom is integrated with the most popular carriers all over the world. It’s possible to connect any carrier or delivery service, including your own delivery. Each shipping method with a specific carrier can have its own delivery zone and rate.
Here are examples of shipping services you can connect to your store:
- US: USPS, FedEx, UPS
- Canada: Canada Post, UPS, FedEx
- UK: Royal Mail, GLS, DHL
- Belgium: Bpost
- Australia and New Zealand: Australia Post, Sendle
Shipping and delivery rates
Rates is what you charge your customers for shipping or delivery in addition to the cost of products in the order.
Each shipping/delivery method in your store can have its own quote. For example, you can set up a free pickup, charge $5 for local delivery, use live-rates for domestic shipping with USPS, and charge $15 for worldwide shipping with DHL.
When you set up a shipping,delivery, or pickup method, here’s what fees options you have:
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Real-time rates. Calculated automatically by a shipping carrier based on distance, weight, and size of the order. Customers will see real-time rates at checkout and pay the exact shipping cost.
To use live-rates, you have to specify the zip code of your Retail POS outlets on the Setup → Outlets and registerspage.
- Flat rates. Remain the same for all orders in your store, disregarding item quantity, weight, size, or how you ship them. Use flat rates if your carrier doesn’t provide automated rates or if you deliver yourself and know your delivery expenses.
- Custom rates. Rates based on price or weight. Use custom rates if your carrier doesn’t provide automated rates, or if you want to be very specific about how much to charge customers for different items in your store.
- Free rates. All shipping costs will be covered by you, not your customers. You can offer free shipping for all orders or encourage shoppers to buy more by creating a minimum order total for free shipping. For example, offer free shipping on orders over $100.
Shipping and delivery zones
A delivery zone is a geographical area where you ship to, limiting order delivery to that exact area. For each shipping/delivery method you can set up a shipping zone as big as a block, a city, a state or province, a country, or the whole world.
When you set up a pickup, its “delivery zone” is actually an outlet you associate it with.
It’s up to you what to offer your customers:
- In-store pickup. The most cost-effective and easy-to-manage option if you are just starting online.
- Local delivery. Accept orders from local customers only by offering delivery to the nearest blocks or throughout the city. You can deliver yourself or hire a local delivery service.
- Domestic shipping. Ship to specific cities, states, provinces, or throughout the country.
- International shipping. Ship to particular countries, or worldwide.
Shipping labels
When it comes to shipping (not local delivery or pickup), you need to buy and print a shipping label. Shipping labels display information for shipping companies, like customer's address, package weight and dimensions, shipping class, etc. This label is attached to a packaging so that a carrier knows where to deliver a parcel.
You can purchase labels right from your eCom admin if your business is located in the US, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. To do this, you first need to install the Shipping Labels app, and then you can buy labels.
Customer experience with choosing shipping methods
Once you set up at least one shipping, delivery, or pickup method, that method will appear at checkout. Customers can then view all available methods and choose the one that best suits their preferences.
Here’s how choosing shipping methods look for customers:
Next steps
- To test the water, you can begin with setting up in-store pickup. This is the easiest method since customers will arrive at your store, and you don’t have to deliver items manually.
- Choosing shipping strategy →
- Create product-specific shipping rates →
- Add tracking number to the order so that customers can track their orders →