Configure > Shipping

Warehouses

A warehouse is used for all products. You must have at least one warehouse to ship anything in AbleCommerce. Even digital goods must belong to a (virtual) warehouse. Your default warehouse will always be known as your Primary Warehouse. You can select a different primary warehouse at any time.

The primary warehouse information is shown on your invoices. It can also be used if you have setup tax rules and the taxable area is within your default warehouse address. This typically applies to international merchants who use VAT and must display prices with tax. In this case, a taxable product will be shown with tax in the case of the warehouse address being within the taxable region or zone.

When you create multiple warehouses, you are creating new shipping origins. A warehouse doesn't have to be a physical location, it is essentially used to create orders with multiple shipments using different shipping services or methods. The example below shows the selection of shipping methods for two shipments.

Multiple shipments can be created for two reasons:

The order contains items from more than one warehouse. One shipment created per warehouse.
The customer has selected multiple addresses for different items in the order. One shipment per address.

All the products in your catalog are assigned to a warehouse. It is a requirement, so it is best to setup warehouses before adding your products. If you will only be using one shipping origin, then it isn't necessary to create more than one warehouse unless you have products with unique shipping requirements.

Following, are some examples of how warehouses can be used in AbleCommerce:

Products shipping from different physical locations - You might be shipping products from different origins. Warehouses are used so accurate shipping rates can be calculated by using actual shipping locations.
Products with free shipping - By putting the product into it's own warehouse, you can assign a free shipping method that is only available to the products in that warehouse.
Products with special shipping requirements - An oversize or overweight product may need to use a shipping method for freight. You could have products that require special shipping methods, insurance or handling fees.
Products that ship (don't ship) to certain destinations - Used in combination with shipping zones, you can sell products that have unique shipping requirements based on where the shipment destination is. (e.g. Alaska and Hawaii, Canada, etc.)

To summarize; if you want to offer shipping methods that are only available to specific products, or destinations, you will need a new warehouse.

Create a New Warehouse

AbleCommerce is installed with one default warehouse. All products must belong to a warehouse.

From the top menu, go to Configure > Shipping > Warehouses.
From the Warehouses page, click the ADD WAREHOUSE button.
From the Add Warehouse page, you will see a form to enter basic address information.
Enter the Name for the warehouse. This will be displayed within the order administration.
Enter the street, city, country, state, and zip code. Make sure to use the correct zip code, especially if using a live shipping service.
If desired, enter the phone, fax, and email. This will be displayed on the packing list.
Click the SAVE button when finished.
You will return to the Warehouses page where your new warehouse will be shown.

Note that the product count is shown for each warehouse. After you create a new warehouse, you should assign products to it.
- The Primary Warehouse is indicated by the green checkmark icon in the first column.
- You can change the address or name of a warehouse by clicking the EDIT icon.
- You can remove a warehouse by clicking the DELETE icon. You cannot delete the default warehouse.

Moving Products to a different Warehouse

You can add products to a warehouse from the product editing pages, or move them from the warehouse page.

From the Warehouses page, click on the linked number of products for the warehouse you want to move products from.
This will display a list of all the products that belong to this warehouse.

Each product has a link to the Edit Product page.
From the first page, select one or more products by checking the box for each. You can check the box in the upper-left corner to select all products on the page.
In the lower-right corner, select a warehouse from the Move Selected to option list.
Click the GO button. Selected products on this page are moved.
You need to repeat this process for each page in the product listing.

Edit or Delete a Warehouse

From the Warehouse page, you can use the EDIT icon to change the name or address information used for a warehouse.
If you click the linked number in the Products column, you will be presented a list of all products assigned to this warehouse. You can click on any linked Product name to go directly to the Edit Product page. If you try to DELETE a warehouse with existing products, you will be given an option to move all products in the warehouse to a different one.
The Delete Warehouse page is shown above. In the right column, is a list of all products that are assigned to this warehouse. These will be moved when the warehouse is deleted.
Select a warehouse from the Move to Warehouse option list.
Click the DELETE button to continue, or CANCEL to quit.

Adding or Changing a Product's Warehouse

When you add or edit a product, you can select the Warehouse from the SHIPPING, TAX & INVENTORY section.