How Customers Pay for Shipping

Zoey stores can charge customers for the cost to ship their order during checkout, or through an invoice. The shipping needs and fulfillment workflow of your store will determine how best to charge customers for shipping.

There are essentially two ways customer can pay for shipping:

• Display the shipping rate estimate during checkout and capture payment for it.
• Let customers select a zero-dollar shipping method during checkout, then add the shipping cost to their the invoice.

Collecting Payment for Shipping Cost during Checkout

Zoey offers connections with many popular shipping services and can accept table/matrix shipping rate data for complete control of the amount presented during checkout.

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The amounts displayed during checkout may not always represent exactly how much it cost to ship.

Shipping Methods provide estimates through shipping APIs and the actual cost to ship can change each day. Stores may need to send multiple shipments causing the cost to exceed what the customer is shown in checkout. This guide will show how that extra amount can be charged to the customer, and how the workflow can be improved.

Integrating with ShipperHQ or ShipStation helps this by providing the most accurate estimates during checkout.

How to add the extra charge to your customer's order will depend on the status of the existing invoice.

If customers pay with Credit Card method set to Authorize Only then there is space in the workflow to add costs to the invoice manually, through the Shipment, or through ShipStation.

Orders being paid by ACH during checkout cannot have shipping costs added to the invoice while the payment is processing. In those cases ACH should only be allowed as an Invoice Payment method so that customers must wait for the full shipping cost before paying. Otherwise, wait for the ACH to clear and then create an additional invoice.

Charging Customers for Additional Costs

If the Invoice is Open, simply open the invoice and click Edit Invoice. Change the Shipping Amount or other totals to request that new amount for payment.

If the Invoice is Paid, then it cannot be edited. Click the Invoice button near the top of the Order to create an Additional Invoice . This requires a Virtual Product placeholder to create an extra invoice for a fully paid order. Your customer will be notified by email of the amount being requested for payment. Add Invoice Comments to describe the charge.

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There is always a way to request additional costs be paid by the customer.

If you have to do this often then we recommend looking into adjusting the workflow so that customers are invoiced the full shipping cost before accepting their payment.

Invoice the Actual Shipping Cost (No Shipping Estimate during Checkout)

Invoicing your customer the cost to ship is recommended for stores that ship through freight, or have dynamic shipping workflows.

Customers would select a zero-dollar shipping method during checkout and then the Invoice would contain the actual shipping amount for them to pay. This lets you charge customers for the exact cost of the label(s) to ship their order.

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Capturing the exact shipping cost on the invoice means that the Order is likely being shipped before being paid by the customer.

The true shipping costs are determine when purchasing the label from the carrier so the order will be shipped out while the customer's invoice is awaiting payment.

Zoey has multiple ways to automatically create or update an Invoice's shipping amount. A full guide for adding shipping cost to the Invoice is available here.

The important take-aways from this guide are that:

• When shipping costs are presented during checkout and the customer is able to pay immediately, there can be situations where that amount does not cover the entire cost to ship. The solution for that is too either get more accurate estimates, or to delay payment so that the shipping amount can be updated with the true cost.
• There are multiple integrations which can automatically update the shipping amount on an open invoice, or create a new invoice with that amount.
• ACH and Credit Card payments should be captured only after a satisfactorily accurate shipping rate is provided.
• An extra invoice can be created to request payment for additional shipping charges only after the existing invoices are fully paid.