Your preferred carrier may not ship to PO boxes. If that’s the case, you can use Intuitive Shipping to block customers with PO Box addresses from checking out. The setup process is simple and only takes a few steps.
Additionally, you can set up an alternative shipping method with a national carrier that delivers to PO boxes.
How It Works
We’ll show you how to prevent customers with a PO Box address from checking out completely, so that only customers with a street address can get a shipping method at checkout.
When you add the PO Box exclusion condition to your Scenarios, customers with a PO Box address will see an error message on the checkout page. They will be unable to check out until they enter a valid street address. We recommend including a statement somewhere on your store’s website, such as your Shipping page or in the footer, indicating that you do not ship to PO Boxes.
If you have more than one Scenario, be sure to add the PO Box condition to each Scenario affected by your restriction.
If it's feasible, we recommend offering an alternative shipping method that ships to PO boxes, such as Australia Post, Canda Post or USPS. We'll show you how to configure Scenarios that have a PO Box inclusion condition.
Add A PO Box Exclusion Condition
These steps will show you how to prevent customers with a PO box address from getting shipping methods assigned to the Scenario.
1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.
2. Create a Scenario or edit an existing one.
Learn more about creating a Scenario.
4. If you're creating a new Scenario or updating an existing one, select Set restrictions or make sure it's already selected.
Condition match must be set to 'All conditions'.
This setting is required when you add a PO Box condition to an existing set of conditions. If your existing Scenario requires the 'Any condition' or 'No conditions' setting, please contact us for assistance.
If you're updating an existing Scenario with conditions, you'll need to 'Add another condition' before completing the next three steps.
5. Select 'Post office box' from 'Customer conditions' as the condition type.
6. Leave the condition logic set to 'Equals' and change the condition value to 'No'. This will prevent customers with a PO box from activating a shipping method from this Scenario.
You must save the Scenario before you can add a shipping method. Each Scenario must have at least one shipping method assigned to at least one zone.
If you're creating a new Scenario, you'll need to create a shipping method as well.
- Create a custom service shipping method (custom rates, free shipping).
- Create a parcel service shipping method (carrier rates).
- Create a local delivery shipping method (distance-based rates).
If you're adding a PO box exclusion condition to an existing Scenario, you don't need to add a new shipping method or edit an existing one.
8. If you have - or need - more than one Scenario that requires the PO Box exclusion condition, repeat Steps 1 to 7 for each additional Scenario.
Add A PO Box Inclusion Condition
These steps will show you how to offer an alternative shipping method to customers with a PO box address, if it's feasible.
1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.
2. Click Edit beside an existing Scenario that includes an 'exclusion' PO box condtion, such as the Scenario created in the previous section.
Learn more about creating a Scenario.
3. Click Duplicate below the Scenario heading to create an exact copy of the original Scenario, including conditions and shipping methods.
4. Change the Scenario title from ‘Copy of [original title]’ to something that helps you identify it as PO Box-inclusive, such as ‘PO Box Only’ or by adding something similar as a suffix to the original title, like 'Standard Shipping - PO Box only'.
5. Locate the existing ‘Post office box’ condition - the one that was set to exclude PO boxes in the original Scenario - then change the condition value to ‘Yes’. This will allow customers with a PO box to activate shipping methods from this Scenario.
Change The Shipping Method
Because the inclusion Scenario is a duplicate of the original, it has the same shipping methods that were added to the original. You'll need to remove them from the duplicate and add a shipping method that supports PO boxes.
1. Click Edit beside the existing shipping method copied from the original - the one that can’t ship to PO boxes.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, then click the Delete button. This will permanently delete the shipping method and return you to the Scenario's edit page.
Learn more about how to delete a shipping method.
3. At the bottom of the Scenario's edit page, click the Create shipping method button.
4. Create a new shipping method that supports PO boxes, such as a parcel service shipping method for Australia Post, Canada Post or USPS.
Learn how to create a parcel service shipping method.
5. Repeat all of the steps in this section to add a PO box inclusion condition to other Scenarios.