Skip to main content

Shipping and Taxes

Webround Commerce adopts a modular approach to manage international logistics and taxation. The system is based on the combination of three fundamental pillars that allow you to define where you can sell, how much shipping costs, and what taxes to apply.

The three management levels are:

  1. Shipping Zone: Defines the shippability to a country.
  2. Shipping Method: Defines the available costs and carriers.
  3. Tax Zone: Defines the applied VAT rate.

1. Shipping Zone​

A Shipping Zone is your logistical authorization. If you want to sell in a specific country, you must create a shipping zone for that country. Without it, the checkout will be blocked for customers from that nation.

  • Surcharge Pricing: Allows you to apply surcharges (fixed or percentage) specific to a currency based on geography. Useful for managing duties and customs if you wish to do so.
  • Tax Integration: You can also define a specific tax rate at the shipping zone level, which is useful for managing taxes applied directly to transport costs.

2. Shipping Method​

A Shipping Method represents the service offered by a carrier (e.g., DHL Express, FedEx, Local Pickup).

Availability and Restrictions​

A shipping method is not universal. To make it operational, you must populate the availableCountries field. If a method is not linked to a specific country, it will never appear among the options available to the user.

Dynamic Cost Calculation​

Webround calculates shipping costs by summing the weights or volumes of the packages defined at the Product/Variant level. The calculation engine (pricing) allows for granular configurations:

  • Base: The fixed starting cost.
  • Per Kg / Per Volume: Incremental costs based on mass or size.
  • Thresholds (Weight/Volume Range): Define minimum and maximum limits to apply extra costs. This allows you to apply an extra cost per kg starting only from a certain value (e.g., from 10kg up to 100kg).
  • Free Shipping: You can set an order cost threshold (freeShippingThreshold) above which shipping becomes free. Use this for promotions like "Free shipping in Italy over €60".
Note on cost calculation

Use either volume (by setting package dimensions on the product/variant) or weight (by setting the package weight in grams on the product/variant). Do not populate both fields for calculation. This ensures correct calculation under every scenario.

Note on Free Shipping

If a user adds even a single product marked with the "Free shipping" option to the cart, the entire order will benefit from zero shipping costs.

3. Tax Zone​

A Tax Zone is the entity that determines how much VAT to apply to the cart based on the buyer's residence. It is essential to define a Tax Zone for every market in which you operate.

Stripe Integration​

Tax Zones include the stripeId (Tax Rate ID) field. This field is crucial for fiscal reconciliation:

  • If specified: Webround communicates the exact tax rate ID to Stripe. This ensures that invoices and reports generated on Stripe correctly show the separation between the taxable amount and VAT.
  • If NOT specified: Webround still calculates the correct total for the customer (thanks to the internal rate value), but Stripe will receive the total as a single figure without knowing the exact tax breakdown.

You can set a Tax Zone as Default to manage sales toward your main market and display prices with that rate applied by default.

Operational Summary​

To correctly enable sales in a new country (e.g., France):

  1. Create a Shipping Zone for France (FR).
  2. Create or update a Shipping Method, adding FR to the available countries and defining the costs.
  3. Create a Tax Zone for France, setting the rate (e.g., 20%) and the relative stripeId.

This structure guarantees surgical precision: you can have the same carrier costing €10 in Italy and €25 in France, while automatically applying the correct VAT for each customer.