GLS

GLS is an international delivery company that provides home and pickup delivery in Europe, United States, and Canada.

You can offer your customers a home delivery by adding a custom table with rates in your Ecwid admin or delivery through ParcelShop service points that can be added through the Sendcloud app.

You can add both delivery options to your Ecwid store, giving your customers a better shopping experience.

Adding GLS home delivery

This is a standard method of delivery, when a purchase is delivered to the address that a customer filled in at checkout.

You can manually add the GLS delivery options with their rates to your store checkout.

To offer GLS delivery options in your Ecwid store, follow these steps:

Step 1. Check the GLS Price calculator to find out shipping costs for different locations. This will help you charge your customers with delivery costs that are higher than your actual delivery expenses.

Step 2. Add GLS delivery options to your Ecwid store for different order weights and areas that you ship to:

1. From your Ecwid admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
2. In the Shipping block, click + Add Shipping.
3. Click Set Up GLS. This method is automatically offered for European stores. If you run business from another country, click View all carriers and choose GLS from the list.
4. Set up a delivery option.
   If you don’t want to charge your customers for delivery, you can set up free shipping for all orders in a certain area. You can limit free shipping availability by order subtotal, for example, if an order value is above €50 or choose other conditions.
   If you want to charge customers for shipping, in the Custom Rates block, click Set Up Custom Rates and set it up:
   • Shipping name at checkout
     Specify the name of the delivery method. Customers will see it at checkout.
   • Shipping rates
     Specify what customers should pay for an order of a certain weight by adding weight ranges and respective rates:
     

     

     Learn more about setting up custom rates based on weight ranges.
   • Description for customers (optional)
     Add the description for this delivery method that your customers will see at checkout.
   • Limit availability by order subtotal (optional)
     Specify the order subtotal before discounts. This delivery method won’t be available at checkout for orders below that amount.
   • Show approximate delivery date at checkout (optional)
     Turn this on to display the approximate delivery date next to delivery options at checkout. A clearly stated delivery date lets customers understand when they can expect to receive their order, resulting in a better shopping experience.
     From the Order preparation time dropdown select how many days it usually takes for you to prepare an order. That time will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
     From the Days when you pack orders dropdown choose when you pack orders for shipment.
     Set the final time to pack orders in the I pack orders received past this time on the next day box. Your schedule will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
   • Set shipping region
     Select the area where this delivery option applies. You can choose specific countries, cities or even zones in the city. Learn more about shipping zones in the Adding and managing destination zones article.
5. Click Save & Finish.

If you sell to customers in various areas, repeat the above steps to add delivery methods with other rates for each destination zone.

That’s it. Now customers from the selected areas will see the GLS delivery options at checkout:

Adding delivery through service points (via app)

GLS delivers not only door-to-door but through hundreds of ParcelShop acceptance points. This method is basically a pickup, when a customer chooses a convenient ParcelShop on the map at the checkout and their purchase is delivered there.

To set up service point picker at your checkout you need to connect your store to the Sendcloud app. Sendcloud is Europe's #1 shipping platform for e-commerce, so it can compliment your store not only with a service point picker but with automating and streamlining your shipping routine.

To add GLS service points to your store checkout:

1. In the Ecwid App Market find the Sendcloud app and click Install.
2. Choose to log into an existing Sendcloud account or to create a new account:
   

   

3. A new tab will open where you can enter your Sendcloud credentials or create a new Sendcloud account.
4. After you finish creating a new account or log into an existing one, go back to the tab with your Ecwid admin. You may need to refresh the page to connect your Ecwid store to your Sendcloud account.
5. To activate GLS service points in your Ecwid store, you should first enable GLS in your Sendcloud account. To do so, in your Sendcloud account, go to Settings → Carriers & Pricing and enable the needed carrier (you need to be on the Small shop, Large shop or Business plan in Sendcloud to activate own contract):
   

   

6. You will have to fill in your customer code, password, depot code and contract code and click Save.
7. After enabling the GLS shipping method in your Sendcloud account, go to Settings → Integrations and click the Edit button to change the shipping settings of your shop:
   

   

8. Tick the Service Point box and choose carriers for which you want to activate this delivery option. In our case it will be GLS. At the checkout your customers will see all service points from all the carriers you enable on this step. If you want to offer only GLS ParcelShops, uncheck other carriers.
9. Go to your Ecwid admin and open Shipping & Pickup, then choose Sendcloud: the shipping software for e-commerce. The Sendcloud app will open, where you can set up two options for a service point delivery — simple shipping method and advanced shipping method:
   

   

10. (optional) Enabling the simple shipping method will be available to all customers from all countries and they will be charged an entered amount. Fill in an appropriate name such as ParcelShop Delivery or Self-pickup so your customers could understand how their order will be delivered and enter the cost for this delivery option, then click Save.
11. (optional) Enabling the advanced shipping method will be available to customers and countries that you specified in the selected shipping method. You can select from the list of existing shipping methods in your Ecwid store you wish to use as a service point delivery shipping method.
12. Click Save.
13. Select which shipping method you want to synchronize with the Sendcloud app. Orders fulfilled by the selected shipping methods will be shown in your Sendcloud account.
14. Select shipping region. If you deliver with GLS to pickpoints, you should select all cities where you want to deliver to.
15. (optional) Add shipping markup if you need to cover additional handling expenses such as packing or insurance.
16. (optional) Specify the order subtotal before discounts. The delivery method won’t be available at checkout for orders below that amount.

Once your shop is connected to Sendcloud and you enabled simple shipping method or advanced method with delivery options that use pickpoints, your customers will see the service point map at checkout:

After a customer places an order, the information about the order will appear in your Ecwid admin and in your Sendcloud account in the Incoming orders. Once the order status is changed in your Ecwid store, it will be automatically changed in your Sendcloud account.