Overview

Zones

Zones can be used to group together address locations. They are given a name, such as New England. They contain one or more "Zone Members".

Zone Members

Zone members are assigned to a zone. They represent a location, and can be generalized, or specific. For example, a zone member can indicate:

 

• A country
• A state or province
• A city
• A postal code
• A range of postal codes
• Another zone (to nest zones inside a larger zone)

 

For example, the buit-in zone New England has (6) Zone Members (one for each US state in New England).

What You Can Do with Zones

Zones can be used to do the following, based on were your customer is located:

• *Limit the use of a Shipping Courier
• *Limit the use of a Shipping Service
• *Control when a Rate & Service Rule is offered
• Offer discounts
• Offer downloads
• Add additional fees
• Enable/Disable payment methods
• Automatically add users to groups

 

Built-in Zones

Squirrelcart comes with many built-in zones, for common groupings of countries, areas, and US states:

 

Domestic

This is a built-in automatic zone. It automatically determines whether an address is domestic, based on the address of your store.

 

International

This is a built-in automatic zone. It automatically determines whether an address is international, based on the address of your store.

 

US - Contiguos States

48 contiguos states, plus Washington DC.

 

US Census Bureau Zones

There are several built-in zones based on the US Census Bureau designated regions and divisions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States#Census_Bureau-designated_regions_and_divisions

 

United Nations M.49

This is the UN standard for grouping countries into regions, such as Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Northern America, etc...

Viewing Zones

Click the Zones menu link in the control panel

You'll see a table showing all your Zones.

Creating a Zone

If the zone you need is not built-in, you can create a custom zone as follows:

1. Click the Zones menu link in the control panel
   
2. Click
3. Enter a Name, and an optional description to help identify the purpose of the zone.
4. Click

Once the zone is created, you'll need to add at least one Zone Member to it, for it to work. When you save the Zone record, you will see more options to add Zone Members. See the next section for instructions.

 

Adding Zone Members to a Zone

Open the zone record you wish to work with. From that record, there are two ways to add zone members.

Zone Entries

Each location requires a separate Zone Member. For example, to add 3 countries to a zone, you will need to create 3 Zone Members, one for each country. The fastest way to manage multiple zone members is by creating a Zone Entry. Zone Entries are records used to make adding and modifying multiple zone members faster and easier. To create a Zone Entry:

1. Click the Add New Entry button in the Zone Entries fieldset on the Zone record you are working with:
   
   
2. Set the Entry Type to one of the following:
   Countries
   States or Provinces
   Cities
   Postal Codes
   Postal Code Range
   Zones
   
3. After setting the Entry Type, the Location Info fieldset will change based on your selection. Fill out the fields in that section.
4. Click

 

Zone Members

If you wish to add a single location to a zone, you can add a Zone Member directly, without the aid of a Zone Entry:

1. Click the Add New Member button, in the Zone Members fieldset:
   
2. You will see this form:
   
3. Fill out the fields, being as general or vague as you like.
4. Click

 

Managing Zone Members (editing and deleting)

1. Open the zone record you wish to work with
2. There are two ways to manage Zone Members. See the Adding Zone Members to a Zone section above for more info.
   
   To manage Zone Members directly, click the Manage Members button in the Zone Members fieldset (see above).
   
   To manage Zone Members via a previously created Zone Entry, click the Manage Entries button in the Zone Entries fieldset (see above).
   Note: you will not see a Manage Entries button unless the zone members were originally added via a zone entry.
3. Click

Restricting Store Features by Zone

For Shipping

Because the first three items in the What You Can Do with Zones section's list above (marked with an asterisk) are related to shipping, we've made the fields to assign zones a bit more prominent. For Shipping Couriers, Services, and Rate & Service Rules, you will find a Restrict with Zones fieldset which looks like this:

 

 

To restrict shipping to certain zones:

1. Determine the zones you wish to offer a particular shipping scenario to
2. Determine where you want to assign the zone restriction.
   
   You can assign zones to three different shipping records. All three are related, and each has more precidence than the next. From most to least precedence in order:
   
   a. Shipping Courier
   USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc...
   
   b. Services
   First-Class Mail, Priority Mail, Standard Mail, etc... (these are all offered by USPS)
   
   c. Rates & Service Rules
   For each service, you may have created one or more Rate & Service Rules to control when each service is offered, and what the cost will be. For example, you might have one that offers Priority Mail at $7.50 when the weight total for an order is between 1 and 2 lbs.
   
   If you assign a zone restriction to a Shipping Courier, it will also restrict all its services, and all Rate & Service Rules for those services. 
   
   If you assign a zone restriction to a service, it will only restrict that service, along with any Rate & Service Rules using that service.
   
   If you assign a zone restriction to a Rate & Service Rule, it will only restrict that one rule.
3. Once you have decided on either a, b, or c above, open the corresponding record.
4. Select the zones you want to offer the (Courier/Service/Rate & Service Rule) to, using the Zones field in the Restrict with Zones fieldset on the record form. To select more than one value, hold down the CTRL key.
5. Click

For Everything Else

Anything in the control panel that has a Rules fieldset on it's record form can be restricted to certain zones. For help working with rules, see the Managing Your Store > Rule System section of this documentation.

 

You can assign zone restrictions to Customer and Order (in progress) type rules:

For Customer rule types, add a condition like this:

 

For Order (in progress) rule types, add a condition similar to the above. For Apply When, you can choose either Zone (shipping) to match against the shipping address of the order, or Zone (billing) to match against the billing address.

 

 

 

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