Google Checkout HTML API - Flat-rate Shipping

Overview

Google Checkout defines flat-rate shipping options as options for which a change in the shipping address does not affect the shipping cost. Flat-rate shipping options are a good solution for merchants who do not calculate shipping rates based on the total weight of the order or on the buyer's shipping address.

This document explains how to include flat-rate shipping options in a Checkout API request. It also explains how to set shipping restrictions to limit the geographic areas where a flat-rate shipping option is available. Finally, this document provides several HTML examples that demonstrate how you would provide flat-rate shipping options for several different shipping scenarios.

Setting Shipping Restrictions

Shipping restrictions allow you to limit a shipping method so that it is only available for shipping addresses in specified geographic regions. You can allow customers to ship items (or prevent customers from shipping items) to specific states, zip codes or regions of the United States. You can also allow shipping to other countries or to the entire world. In addition, you can specify whether each shipping option is available if the shipping address is a U.S. post-office box. For more information about specifying geographic areas for shipping options or tax rules, please see the separate document that explains Checkout API HTML parameters for specifying geographic areas.

Google Checkout will allow your customer to select any shipping option where all of the following conditions are true:

• The shipping address is included in the list of allowed areas for the shipping option.
• The shipping address is not included in the list of excluded areas for the shipping option.
• If the shipping address is a P.O. box, then the shipping option does not contain a shipping restriction specifying that the option cannot be selected to ship an order to a P.O. box. Please see the allow-us-po-box parameter definition for more information.

Note: Google Checkout's default behavior is to allow shipping to all postal addresses for the merchant's home country. For example, for U.S. merchants, Google Checkout default behavior is to allow shipping to all U.S. postal addresses, including military bases. As such, if you do not ship to all U.S. postal addresses, you do need to specify shipping restrictions in your Checkout API requests. For U.K. merchants, the default shipping area is all U.K. postal addresses.

Checklist for Launching Flat-Rate Shipping

The following checklist will help you to ensure that you have correctly implemented flat-rate shipping.

• Checkout API requests may not include two or more shipping methods that have the same name. As such, you must specify a unique name for each shipping method that you offer. Shipping method names are specified using the name hidden input parameter. To verify that all names are unique, Google Checkout trims whitespace characters from the beginning and the end of the name string. Google Checkout then does a case-insensitive comparison of the names to ensure that they are unique. For example, Google Checkout would consider all of these names to be identical:

  Regular shipping
  REGULAR SHIPPING
      Regular shipping
  ReGuLaR sHiPPing
  

• Verify that you have specified the correct shipping cost using the price element. If you offer more than one flat-rate shipping option in your Checkout API request, you must specify the price for each of those options. If you do not specify a price for a shipping option, Google will not add shipping charges if the buyer selects that shipping option.

HTML Examples for Flat-rate Shipping

The HTML examples below demonstrate several use cases for implementing flat-rate shipping. Please note that the examples only include the HTML input parameters relevant to the shipping methods for the sample orders.

Example 1 – Using Flat-rate Shipping

The following example shows two flat-rate shipping methods. The first shipping method, which is for UPS Next Day Air shipping, costs $20.00. The second option, which is for UPS Ground Shipping, costs $15.00.

<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.name"
  value="UPS Next Day Air"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price"
  value="20.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>

<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.name"
  value="UPS Ground"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.price"
  value="15.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>

Example 2 – Using Shipping Restrictions

In this example, the merchant offers the same two shipping options as in example 1. However, in this example, the merchant has added shipping restrictions to both shipping methods. These restrictions specify that neither option will be offered if the shipping address is a P.O. box. In addition, the next-day shipping option will also be unavailable if the shipping address is in either Alaska or Hawaii.

The following list explains how Google Checkout will handle different shipping addresses based on the HTML in the example:

• Google Checkout will not allow the buyer to complete the order if the selected shipping address is a P.O. box.

• If the buyer selects a shipping address in Alaska or Hawaii (that is not a P.O. box), then Google Checkout will only offer the second shipping option (for ground shipping) to the buyer.

• If the buyer selects any shipping address that is not a P.O. box and is not in Alaska or Hawaii, then Google Checkout will offer both shipping options to the buyer.

<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.name"
  value="UPS Next Day Air"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price"
  value="20.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.excluded-areas.us-state-area-1.state"
  value="AK"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.excluded-areas.us-state-area-2.state"
  value="HI"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.allow-us-po-box"
  value="false"/>

<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.name"
  value="UPS Ground"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.price"
  value="15.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-2.shipping-restrictions.allow-us-po-box"
  value="false"/>

Example 3 – Offering Delivery or Pickup with Flat-Rate Shipping Options

This example demonstrates how you could offer free delivery using a flat-rate shipping method. The example also includes a pickup shipping method. In this example, the request uses shipping restrictions to specify that delivery is only available in two zip codes in Manhattan's Upper East Side neighborhood. You can charge a fee for delivery by setting the value of the price parameter to the delivery fee amount.

<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.name"
  value="Delivery"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price"
  value="0.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.allowed-areas.us-zip-area-1.zip-pattern"
  value="10021"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.allowed-areas.us-zip-area-2.zip-pattern"
  value="10022"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.flat-rate-shipping-1.shipping-restrictions.allow-us-po-box"
  value="false"/>


<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.pickup-1.name"
  value="Pickup"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.pickup-1.price"
  value="0.00"/>
<input type="hidden"
  name="checkout-flow-support.merchant-checkout-flow-support.shipping-methods.pickup-1.price.currency"
  value="USD"/>

HTML Parameter Definitions