[intro]If you provide your own delivery service within a specific location for your customers, then you may find that Delivery Slots are very beneficial for your EKM online shop. 

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[caution]You won't be able to edit these settings if your EKM online shop is on the Lite Tier. You will need to upgrade by following the steps in this Guide. [/caution]

Using Delivery Slots on a specific Delivery Method allows you to tailor the settings to suit your Products and services. Delivery Slots can be customised to take into account different days and times, location, prices and weight restrictions, so you can create a bespoke delivery solution for your EKM online shop.

Creating a new Delivery Method

1. From the Dashboard, click Settings at the bottom of the left-hand menu:

2. On the Settings page, click Delivery on the left-hand side:

3. Now you need to click the green button on the far right-hand side to Add Delivery Method:

4. At the top of the page, ensure that the Delivery Type is set as Custom on the drop-down menu:

5. Further down the page, ensure that the Enable Delivery Method box is ticked:

6. The next box depends on the type of Products that you sell on your EKM online shop. If you only deliver some items locally, but not all, you may need to leave the box unticked and amend the individual Products themselves to apply to this Delivery Method, which can be done within the Add/Edit Product window or by using spreadsheets and the Import/Export System feature. However, if you can deliver all Products using this Delivery Method, you need to ensure that this box is ticked:

[remember]If you assign a Delivery Method to some Products but not others, you will need to advise your customers that these items will need to be purchased separately, as only one Delivery Method can be used per order on the Checkout Flow. [/remember]

7. Now you need to select the Country where you will be doing your deliveries, and complete the Name, Display Name and Description fields accordingly:

8. Now you need to complete the fields for Price, Tax Rate and add any Delivery Notes for this particular Delivery Method:

9. Your next step is to tick the box for Delivery Slots:

10. This will reveal several fields that need to be completed to configure your Delivery Slots. First, you need to add in a figure for Minimum Days For Delivery. For example, if a customer places an order on Monday, will it be delivered to them on a Tuesday? If so, add 1 to the field provided:

11. The next field you need to complete is Maximum Days For Delivery - this is the amount of time in days between the customer placing the order and receiving it. Add a figure into the field provided:

This takes us down to the Delivery Slots fields, where you configure the Delivery slots per day. There are two ways that you can configure your Delivery Slots, and this depends on how your delivery works. 

Time Slots

1. Using Time Slots is ideal if you have more than one driver and one vehicle making your deliveries for you. To set up some Time Slots, click the down arrow on the far right-hand side of the day of the week you’re configuring:

2. This will reveal fields for the Start Time and End Time. The Start Time is the earliest time the delivery will be made, and the End time is when the latest time the delivery will arrive. If we imagine we have two drivers making our deliveries, and one of them works from 8.30am-5.30pm and the other works from 8.30am to 3.00pm, then we would add in the times like this, pressing the green Add Time Slot button on the far right-hand side to add in each Time Slot. To add the first period click the clock symbol and select a time from the drop-down menu. Repeat this process for the second period, again, clicking the clock symbol and selecting the time from the drop-down menu:

3. Now you need to work out how many deliveries can be made within this period. In my example, we have two drivers delivering and we’ll allow each driver 30 mins to make each delivery, so potentially, both drivers can make 12 deliveries between 9am-12pm. Add this figure into the Maximum Orders field and click the green Add Time Slot button on the far right-hand side:

[caution]You can leave the Maximum Orders field blank, but doing this will mean that the value of the field is automatically 'unlimited'. With this in mind, we'd advise adding a figure to this field to prevent potential customer disappointment in case their order does not arrive on time. [/caution]

4. The system will automatically then guess what the next Time Slot will be, based on the settings of the last. You can amend the times and Maximum Orders by clicking in the relevant fields, before clicking the green Add Time Slot button on the far right-hand side again:

5. Now, if one of my fictitious drivers makes their last delivery at 3pm and then goes home, that leaves a single driver making deliveries until 5pm, so I amend my Time Slots for the rest of the day, allowing time for a single driver to make their deliveries:

Using Time Slots in this way allows you to cater for more than one driver being available at once, and time to factor in lunch breaks and early finishes. 

All Day Slots

1. If you would prefer not to make any time commitments, you may find using All Day Slots more beneficial. To begin, click the down arrow to the far right-hand side of the day of the week you’d like to configure:

2. This time, you need to click the box for All Day Slot, and again, add in the potential number of deliveries your driver could make in a single day, before clicking the green Add Time Slot button on the far right-hand side:

[caution]You can leave the Maximum Orders field blank, but doing this will mean that the value of the field is automatically 'unlimited'. With this in mind, we'd advise adding a figure to this field to prevent potential customer disappointment in case their order does not arrive on time. [/caution]

3. Configuring your Delivery Slots this way is ideal for small companies where a certain amount of freedom can be allowed for your driver.

[tips]If you tick the box for an All Day Slot, this means that any Time Slots you previously created for the same day will be deleted. All Day Slots mean the entire day, so if you wish to limit the times that your drivers deliver your orders, you may be best using Time Slots instead of All Day Slots. [/tips]

[remember]You only need to configure the days where you deliver. If there are any days where you don’t provide delivery, don’t configure these. [/remember]

Copying Delivery Slots

1. You can simply use the Copy Schedule button to copy your Delivery Slots onto different days of the week to suit you, by clicking the button:

2. Then you need to tick the boxes in the window provided to copy those Delivery Slots onto different days of the week or click the switch on the top left-hand side to apply these Delivery Slots to all days of the week, before clicking the green Apply button in the bottom right-hand corner:

Location Restrictions

1. Location Restrictions allow you to tailor this Delivery Method around your specific delivery area, by using postcodes - these are incredibly useful when using Delivery Slots as you may only be able to deliver to customers within a specific area. Tick the box on the far right-hand side to begin:

2. This will reveal several settings. The Shop Postcode is based on the postcode of your EKM online shop which is displayed on the Shop Details page and using the Restrictions Type, you can select either to deliver to addresses within a radius of your EKM online shop: 

3. Or you can also use Postal Codes. For this option, you will need to enter a list of postcodes that you can deliver to, and ensure that the Postal Areas drop-down menu is set to ‘Allow’:

[tips]For a list of postcodes, click on the image on this page to see a list of postcodes for your area. [/tips]

Price Restrictions

1. You may want to place a minimum or maximum price limit on the orders that you are delivering, to prevent customers from ordering amounts that are too small to deliver without you incurring a cost, or orders that are too big for you to be able to deliver using your standard vehicle. With that in mind, you need to tick the box on the far right-hand side:

2. This will reveal several settings. You can set a Minimum Order Value by ticking the box on the far right-hand side:

3. This will reveal a field where you can add in the Minimum Order Value:

4. This process is the same for setting up a Maximum Order Value too - by ticking the box and adding an amount to the field provided. 

Additional Costs

Looking further down the page, you can customise this Delivery Method further by adding in Additional Costs. For example, if you have two different-sized delivery vehicles, you can take this into account by using Additional costs, so the larger orders are charged accordingly as they will be delivered using the larger vehicle. 

1. As an example, I’m going to charge customers a little extra to have larger orders delivered using my large truck. To do this, I add in a Price To, which corresponds with any Minimum or Maximum Order Values I had set up above, before clicking on the green Add Row button, like this:

[remember]Additional Costs, when added at the Checkout Flow, will include the Price of the Delivery Method too, which is set towards the top of the Delivery Method's settings page. [/remember]

2. In the next row, I add the amount that I would charge for delivery using my larger vehicle, so orders where the subtotal is between £48.51 and £73.50, will be charged an extra £8.50. When I’ve added in my amounts, I click the green Add Row button on the right-hand side again:

[caution]Price Restrictions are based on the subtotal of the order, so be aware that your Tax settings will affect the figures added. [/caution]

Weight Restrictions

Weight Restrictions are used in conjunction with the weights added to each Product so that as customers add more Products to their Cart, your EKM online shop will work out the total weight of all the items and charge the customer the correct amount for delivery. Using this method is the most effective for ensuring that both yourself and your customer are not left out of pocket as the result of unexpected fees caused by the finished parcel being a lot heavier than expected. 

[caution]Before you begin to configure the Weight Restrictions on your Delivery Method, you need to ensure that you have installed the Product Attributes feature, enabled the Weight Attribute and applied a Weight value to each of your Products. [/caution] 

1. Tick the box for Weight Restrictions:

2. Like the Price Restrictions settings further up the page, you can customise the weight of orders - this prevents you from having to deliver orders too small to warrant a vehicle delivery, or too big where your vehicle couldn’t possibly carry such a heavy order. To add a Minimum Order Weight, tick the box on the far right-hand side:

3. This will reveal a field for you to add in the Minimum Order Weight in kilograms. The process is the same for adding a Maximum Order Weight - simply tick the box and add a weight value in the field provided:

4. As before, you can customise this Delivery Method even further, by adding in Additional Costs. To do this, add a Weight To value in the field provided, before clicking the green Add Row button:

5. You then need to complete the Weight To and if you need to, add any Additional Cost fields - making sure that these coordinate with any Minimum and Maximum Order Weights that you’ve set up above - before clicking the green Add Row button:

[remember]Additional Costs, when added at the Checkout Flow, will include the Price of the Delivery Method too which is set towards the top of the page. [/remember]

6. When you have finished creating this Delivery Method, you simply need to click the green Save button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page:

[tips]When you have finished adding this Delivery Method, it’s a good idea to test it out on your EKM online shop using an incognito/in-private browser. If you’re not sure how to do this, this Guide will help you. [/tips]

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[contact] If you need our help with your EKM online shop, contact your Ecommerce Expert or the Customer Support Team, who will be able to point you in the right direction. We're open from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-5.30pm weekends. If you'd like to suggest a feature or an upgrade on any of the EKM platforms, please let us know on the EKM Suggestions Board. If you have a non-account-specific question to ask the EKM Team, join us in the EKM Community. [/contact]