CIS x WooCommerce Plugin - Features & Benefits
Introduction
The Big Post Shipping Plugin on WooCommerce offers Big Post customers the following benefits:
- Provides real-time, accurate shipping quotes directly from the Big Post system to your customers.
- Get shipping rates for both small and large, heavy, and bulky items, accommodating a wide range of products.
- Enhance your customers’ shopping experience with an optional ‘Quick Quote’ widget on your product pages.
- Provide your customers with Business to Business, Residential Delivery, and Depot Collection rates at checkout and on the product page. The plugin even prompts customers to confirm if they have access to a forklift, enabling Business to Business quotes for bulkier items to be offered; and provide the option to select ‘Authority to leave’ services for home deliveries.
- Easily despatch your goods to over 180 Big Post depots nationwide for collection.
- Access great shipping rates from top carriers including TNT, Couriers Please, Northline, Capital Transport, Hi Trans, Hunter Express, Allied Express, Aramex, and more.
- Saves time and money by enabling customers to book freight jobs directly into the Big Post system during their online purchase, reducing manual data entry.
Quoting & Booking
The Big Post Shipping Plugin allows your customers to obtain a shipping quote directly from the Big Post System and will automatically create a Big Post job with the receiver's details as the order is placed. Once the job is created via the plugin, you can edit, delete, or despatch it to the carrier within the Big Post system at your convenience.
During the online transaction, your customer can:
- Choose between Residential Delivery, Business Delivery or Depot Collection. Residential Delivery options may include 'Authority to Leave' or a 'Tailgate Home Delivery' for bulky freight.
- Be provided with the cheapest quote or earliest estimated time of arrival (ETA) from Big Post's portfolio of carriers. You can customise this to restrict certain carriers of your choice from being included in the results.
- Once the transaction is complete and the customer has submitted their order, the delivery will be booked into the Big Post system, listed in your pending jobs. While the job is still 'pending', you will be able to edit it before despatch.
- If your customer has purchased multiple small items, such as cartons or satchels, you can choose to consolidate or reconfigure the packaging by editing the product dimensions and re-quoting, potentially saving on your freight cost.
Cart & Checkout Shipping Quote
At checkout, when a customer enters their shipping address, Big Post will automatically calculate the shipping cost for their items based on the dimensions and weights of the products saved on the plugin platform, referred to as the Custom Integration System (CIS). The system then offers Residential, Business, and Depot Delivery options on the checkout page for the customer to select from to continue with payment.
Product Quick Quote
While browsing your store, customers can easily access a quick shipping quote directly from the product page. By default, the shipping quote widget appears just below the product price, though it can be minimized if preferred.
To get a quote, customers simply enter their postcode and select one of the delivery options: Residential, Business, or Depot. For larger or bulkier items, an additional prompt will appear to confirm if a tailgate or crane truck is required for Residential Delivery. For smaller Residential Deliveries, customers can choose between Signature or Authority to Leave (ATL) services, adding more flexibility to their delivery preferences.
Pickups
Pickups can only be made from a single location per transaction. The following options are available for pick-up locations:
- You can enter as many pick-up locations as desired if you ship stock from multiple warehouses.
- You can assign specific pick-up locations to individual products.
- If a product is available at multiple warehouses, your customer will receive the cheapest freight quote. For example, if you have warehouses in Sydney and Adelaide and your customer is in Brisbane, the plugin will return the cheapest freight quote (typically from the closest warehouse).
Important note: The plugin will not return a freight quote if your customer's single transaction involves the purchase of goods from multiple locations. In other words, if your customer adds multiple products to their cart that are not stocked in the same warehouses, the plugin will not return a shipping quote.
As a result, the plugin may not be suitable for retailers who have different types of stock located at multiple warehouses. For example, if 'Item Blue' located in Sydney and 'Item Red' located in Melbourne are often purchased together, but are stocked in two different warehouse locations, the plugin cannot create a Big Post job originating from two locations.
Order Submitted
After the buyer has paid for and submitted their order, the job will be created automatically and will appear within the Big Post system under "Pending Jobs".
While the job is pending and has not been despatched yet, you can edit the job details, such as items, addresses, contact details, etc. If you wish, you can manually consolidate the items in the order and potentially save on shipping.
Changes made to a job will result in a new quote, please note that any changes in price will not be automatically credited or debited to your customer, it is your responsibility to receive the shipping fee from the receiver, before despatching the job.
Please note that the plugin will not consolidate multiple items into one package, so the shipping cost will be calculated as multiple items under the same consignment.
Carrier Restrictions
Shipping costs in the back end are calculated for each order as they would be on the Big Post system. That is, when a quote is requested in the back end, the price results shown are for each carrier and service that are suitable for the job. The plugin integration feature then filters these results and offers your customer the cheapest or fastest delivery quote, depending on your settings.
You can change your settings to filter out specific carriers or only take some carriers into consideration before offering your customer the best quote.
Not all carriers are equipped to handle every job. Before limiting carrier options, please consider the following factors to avoid potential errors where no suitable delivery options are available for your customers:
- Job types: Can the selected carriers deliver to both residential and commercial addresses?
- Service types: Do they offer options like signature on delivery or authority to leave (ATL) services?
- Pick-up and delivery areas: Do the carriers adequately cover regional and remote areas?
- Package weight: Are your products within the weight limits set by the carrier?
- Additional considerations: Other restrictions, such as product type or handling requirements, may apply.
Please note that quotes for Capital Transport's On-Demand service, which provides same-day metropolitan pick-up and delivery, are only available through the Big Post system. Due to the on-demand nature of this service, these rates cannot be accessed via the plugin.
Installation & Support
The plugin is offered as a free service to our existing customers. As such, there is a qualifying period of two invoices (two weeks) before the plugin will be offered to new customers. This gives customers new to Big Post the opportunity to learn how to use the Big Post system. This includes our Quick Quote feature, how to despatch jobs, print off labels and how our invoicing works. Once you have qualified to use our plugin, feel free to contact our friendly IT support staff who can assist you with starting your integration with Big Post. Our freight plugin has been designed to be installed, customised and presented on your website as easily as possible.
If you decide to integrate your website with our system, we will provide you with a detailed, user-friendly guide. This guide outlines each step of the installation and configuration process, ensuring you have all the necessary tools to implement the plugin successfully. While we are happy to assist if you encounter any challenges or need clarification on specific steps within the installation process, it's essential that you follow the guide carefully to ensure a smooth setup.
Your active participation is required to complete the setup.
If you do face any issues, feel free to submit a ticket or email us at helpdesk@bigpost.com.au, and we'll be happy to assist you.
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