If you are changing your per product rates in Better Shipping, the changes should happen instantly. So if you are not seeing changes on your checkout it could be due to Shopify caching the shipping rate on your checkout.
Caching is when Shopify will 'store' your shipping prices temporarily (24 hours) in your browser cache. This is so your website will load faster for your customers (so it is actually a good thing!). However, when we are setting up the shipping rates, it actually stores each of our test orders, so when we change something, it doesn't show the new change, so we have to manually clear it each time we change something in the Better Shipping rates.
There are several ways to get shopify to generate a new shipping rate and clear the cache while we are testing. The fastest and easiest way when you are testing your shipping rates and prices, is to just change the zip code in the customer address page.
When the zip code changes, Shopify will always request a new rate from Better Shipping.
To do so:
- Add a product to your cart
- Checkout
- In the customer address, put in your address. E.g. New York 10001
- Click "Continue to shipping method"
- Note shipping price
- Change the shipping price in Better Shipping and press "Update and Save"
- Back on your store, click on the "Customer Address" link
- Change the zip code to 10002
- Click "Continue to shipping method"
- Note shipping price has been updated.
In this example the per product rate is set to $5 per product in Better Shipping.
And we use the first New York zip code of 10001
And we can see the shipping price has generated correctly at checkout. Note the link to go back to quickly change the customer address after we change the shipping price in Better Shipping.
Now change the shipping rate to $10 per product in Better Shipping.
Going back to the customer address page, update the zip code to 10002.
And we can see the cache has been cleared and we have the new price generated at checkout.
You can keep incrementing the zip code as much as you like after each change, as long as it is different!
Another way to clear the cache is by changing the quantity of items in the cart. Each time the shopping cart changes, Shopify will also reset the cache.
The final way to clear your cache, is to clear your browser cache completely. This will remove all previous cart sessions and can be a good idea if you have already been using a lot of different zip codes, and want to start from the beginning again. It will also clear your Shopify session so you will have to log into Shopify again once you have cleared your cache.
Instructions for clearing your browser cache can be found here
After you clear your browser cache, the first time you go into your shop you will be look like a first time customer to Shopify, so it is also a good way to test everything is working correctly in your store.
The other problem you might be having if your shipping rate is not changing is the Better Shipping service may not be installed. There are options above to find out if this is the problem you are having. Here are the links to the above sections if you think the shipping service may not be installed:
- No shipping services installed in your Shopify Admin
- Carrier calculated shipping feature is not installed in your store
- How to use Test Mode
- Zip/Post code restrictions on your store
- No shipping rates in Better Shipping
You can then go and do another test order to confirm the app is working as you expect. If your test order is still not working, you can email us at better.shipping@atomyard.com and we can help you out!