Create A Next-Day Shipping Option With Variable Cut-Off Times

Offering a next-day shipping option to customers is a great way encourage business - especially local business if you're only offering a 'next-day' service to nearby customers. With Intuitive Shipping, you can easily set this up by adding a ‘current time’ condition to a Scenario with your next-day shipping method. This ensures customers qualify for next-day service as long as they place their order before the cut-off time you set.

But what if your cut-off times vary? For example, your cut-off for next-day local delivery might be 2:00 pm Sunday through Thursday to allow time for preparing Monday to Friday deliveries. If your warehouse now closes earlier on Fridays, Thursday’s cut-off may need to be set to noon instead. Adding multiple ‘current time’ conditions to the same Scenario won’t work because they create conflicts. In this case, you can use condition groups to manage different cut-off times without causing calculation issues.

 

 

How It Works

Intuitive Shipping condition groups let you bundle multiple conditions together into a single set, which can then be added to a Scenario just like an individual stand-alone condition. This approach reduces the number of Scenarios you need to create, saving setup time and making ongoing maintenance simpler.

It also helps resolve situations where individual conditions might otherwise conflict - like next-day shipping options with variable cut-off times! Adding multiple, individual conditions to a Scenario will not work for this setup because conditions can only be set to ‘All’ (every condition must be met), ‘Any’ (any condition can be met), or ‘None’ (no condition can be met).

For example, if you add four conditions like these:

1. Current day of the week equals Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

2. Current time of the day less than 14:00 (2:00 PM)

3. Current day of the week equals Thursday

4. Current time of the day less than 12:00 (noon)

When the Condition match is set to 'All', the first and third conditions conflict, making it impossible for both to be true - for example, it cannot be both Monday and Thursday. It also makes 2:00 pm the default cut-off time because 12:00 noon is already 'less than' 2:00 pm.  

Using ‘Any’ as the Condition match means the shipping method could appear at unintended times. In this example, an order could be placed on either Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and it could be either before 2:00 pm or 12:00 noon on any of those days.

Changing the Condition match setting to ‘None’ would apply restrictions in reverse - a customer would only see next-day delivery if their order was placed on a Friday or Saturday after 2:00 pm.

The solution is to create two condition groups. One group checks if the current day is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday and the time is before 2:00 PM. The other group checks if the current day is Thursday and the time is before 12:00 noon. You can then add both groups to your next-day shipping Scenario and set the condition match to ‘Any’. Don't worry, we'll show you how to do all of that!

 

Alternative Shipping Options

If you don’t currently have a 'standard' shipping method that displays to all customers, or at least those who miss the cut-off time for 'next day', we recommend creating one. After completing this guide, create a new Scenario without any ‘time’ or ‘day of week’ conditions so it can be displayed at any time, including alongside your next-day delivery option.

 

Create The First Condition Group

This condition group will allow customers to choose next-day delivery for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday - when they order before 2:00 PM on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Condition groups from the drop-down list.

 

2. Click the Create condition group button.

 

General Settings

1. Enter a condition group title, like ‘Next-Day Sunday to Wednesday 2PM'.

 

2. Leave the condition group status set to ‘On’.

 

Conditions

1. Leave Condition match set to ‘All conditions’.

 

2. Select ‘Current day of the week’ as the condition type.

 

3. Leave the condition logic set to ‘equals’.

 

4. Select each day that will have the first cut-off time as the condition value. For this example, we’re selecting Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, which means the condition group will be applied only when customers place orders on one of these days of the week.

 

5. Click the Add another condition button.

 

6. Select ‘Current time’ as the second condition type.

 

7. Set the condition logic to ‘Less than’. This means the condition group will be applied only when customers place orders before the time selected in Step 8.

Alternatively, you can select ‘Less than or equals’ if you want the cut-off time to be before - or at -the time selected in Step 8.

 

8. Enter or select the cut-off time for the days of the week selected in Step 4 as the condition value. For this example, we’re selecting 14:00 (2:00 PM). This means the condition group will only apply when customers place their order before this time on any of the days selected in Step 4.

 

9. Click the Save button to save your first condition group.

 

 

Create The Second Condition Group

This condition group will allow customers to select next-day shipping for Friday if they place their order before 12:00 noon on Thursday.

To make setup easier, you can quickly duplicate the first condition group and make minor adjustments to the settings instead of creating a new one from scratch.

1. After saving your first condition group, scroll to the top of the page, then click Duplicate below the condition group heading.

 

2. Change the condition group title from ‘Copy of [the original title]’ to something else, like ‘Next-Day Thursday Noon’.

 

3. For the first condition (current day of week), deselect all of the days that were selected for the original condition group, then select the days that will have the different cut-off time as the condition value. For this example, we’re removing Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then selecting Thursday.

 

4. For the second condition (current time), re-enter or select the cut-off time for the days of the week selected in Step 3 as the condition value. For this example, we’re changing it to 12:00 (noon). This means the condition group will be applied only when customers place an order before this time on any of the days selected in Step 3.

 

5. Click the Save button to save your second condition group.

 

6. After saving your second condition group, scroll to the top of the page, then hit the back button above the condition group heading.

You should now see two condition groups: one for your first set of days and their cut-off time, and another for your second set of days and their cut-off time. For this example, we have one condition group for Sunday through Wednesday at 2:00 PM, and a second condition group for Thursday at 12:00 noon. These condition groups are now available to be selected as conditions in Scenarios.

 

You can create more than two condition groups if your cut-off times vary more frequently than what's shown in this guide. For example, if you have different cut-off times for Sundays and Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Thursdays, you could create 3 condition groups instead of two:

Group one:

• Current day of week is Sunday, Monday.
• Current time is less than 16:00 (4:00 pm).
• This means customers must place their orders before 4:00 pm on Sunday or Monday to get next-day delivery on Monday or Tuesday.

Group two:

• Current day of week is Tuesday, Wednesday.
• Current time is less than 14:00 (2:00 pm).
• This means customers must place their orders before 2:00 pm on Tuesday or Wednesday to get next-day delivery on Wednesday or Thursday.

Group three:

• Current day of week is Thursday.
• .Current time is less than 12:00 (noon)
• This means customers must place their orders before 12:00 noon on Thursday to get next-day delivery on Friday.

You can create as many groups as you need, as long as the 'day' and 'time' conditions within each group are related to each other.

 

 

Create A Next-Day Scenario

1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.

 

2. Click the Create scenario button.

 

General Settings

1. Enter a Scenario title, like ‘Next Day’.

 

2. If you want the Scenario to be available right away, leave the Scenario status set to 'On'. If you want to test it first before making it public, set it to 'Test'. Remember to set it to 'On' once you've completed testing.

 

Conditions

1. Select Set restrictions.

 

2. Set Condition match to 'Any condition'. For this setup, it means that any condition group can be satisfied for the shipping method to be displayed.

 

3. Select the first condition group created earlier as the condition type. For this example, we’re selecting ‘Next-Day Sunday to Wednesday 2PM’.

 

4. Leave the condition logic set to 'equals' and condition value set to 'true'. 

 

5. Click Add another condition.

 

6. Select the second condition group created earlier as the condition type. For this example, we’re selecting ‘Next-Day Thursday Noon’.

 

7. Leave the condition logic set to 'equals' and condition value set to 'true'. 

 

8. Click the Save button to save your Next-Day Scenario.

 

 

Add A Next-Day Delivery Shipping Method

1. Click the Create shipping method button to add a new shipping method for Retail (non-wholesale) customers. Some of the most common shipping methods are:

• Custom service - flat rates, rate tables, free shipping.
• Parcel service - real-time rates from carriers.
• Integration service - real-time rates from integrated services like ShipStation.
• Local delivery - distance-based rates.

 

 

Limit Next-Day Shipping To Locals

You can use any type of shipping method for next-day delivery and offer it to any of your customers. However, if you want to restrict next-day shipping to local customers only, there are a few different ways you can achieve this. 

Distance

If you opted to create a local delivery shipping method in the previous section, you can use distance to restrict next-day shipping. You can even offer different rates based on distance. For example, instead of offering a single flat rate for anyone who lives within a certain radius, you could build a rate table like this:

• $0.00 (free delivery) - up to 10 km.
• $15.00 - up to 25 km
• $25.00 - up to 50 km

 

Postal code or ZIP code

Alternatively, you can create any type of shipping method and assign it to a custom subzone that uses postal codes or ZIP codes to restrict who sees the shipping method at checkout. Assigning shipping methods to subzones works exactly the same way as assigning them to (parent) zones.

Subzones are created within a parent zone and the postal codes or ZIP codes used for your subzone must be valid within the countries, regions, provinces or states included in the parent zone. For example, if you're creating a subzone for Malibu and Topanga in southern California, the subzone must be created in a parent zone that includes California.

 

City Conditions

If you want to restrict next-day delivery to your city, or even the surrounding cities, you can add a 'city' customer condition to each of the condition groups you created in this guide. If you prefer this option, it doesn't matter what type of shipping method you use for next-day delivery. However, you'll need to add your city condition to each applicable condition group created near the beginning of of this guide.

1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Condition groups from the drop-down list.

 

2. Click Edit beside the first condition group you created earlier in this guide.

 

3. In the 'Conditions' section, click Add another condition.

 

4. Set the condition to read: City equals [city name - or names, separated by comma]

For example, if you want to apply the condition to your own city plus any surrounding cities, you can enter the city names like 'Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Fort Erie' (comma separated).

Do not add separate conditions for each city, as this would require the customer to live in all of the cities at the same time, which is impossible. Be sure to add them all to one condition, separated by commas.

Please note: City names should be formatted correctly, such as 'St. Catharines' (not 'Saint Catharines') or 'Fort Erie' (not 'Ft. Erie'). City names entered in an incorrect format may result in conditions not working as intended.

 

5. Click the Save button to save changes to your first condition group.

 

6. Repeat steps 1-5 for your second condition group (and any additional condition groups if you created more than 2).

 

 

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