If you sell a shipping product via Digistore24, you can add any shipping costs to the product price on a country-specific basis, instead of integrating them into the product price.

This has the following advantages:

• More transparency about the components of the product price

• Country-specific shipping costs (a separate shipping cost rule for each country is possible)

• The shipping costs are fully attributed to the vendor (no involvement of the affiliate or joint venture partner)

• Less risk and planning security lead to higher profits

For VAT reasons, shipping products outside Germany is not allowed via Digistore24 since the VAT law change on 1.1.15. More information can be found here.

How is the shipping cost rule displayed?

When a customer provides an address for a country for which you have created a shipping cost rule and clicks on your order form, the shipping costs will be displayed in addition to the product price and VAT.

Shipping costs should be treated tax-wise in the same way as the product being shipped.

For products with reduced VAT

Books, magazines, audiobooks (only on physical media!), and dietary supplements are taxed at 7%.

For mixed orders, shipping costs should be taxed according to the various tax rates.

A list of these products with reduced VAT can be found in this article.

Are the shipping costs displayed gross or net?

In the payment plans of your product, you can set whether all prices on the order form are displayed gross (including VAT) or net (VAT is added if applicable). Note that this also affects the displayed shipping costs.

An example:

You sell a shipping product and have set in the payment plan of your product that your product costs 10 € and is displayed as a net price.

Your customer accesses your order form and provides a German address.

You have set in your shipping cost rule for German customers that 5 € shipping costs are charged.

The following is displayed to the customer on the order form:

Create a shipping cost rule

If you sell your products worldwide, it makes sense to create a separate shipping cost rule for each country.

You can add as many countries as you like to each shipping cost rule. For example, if the shipping costs for three countries are identical, it is most practical to create only one rule for the three countries.

If no shipping cost rule applies to a country, the order cannot be completed.

Step-by-step instructions

1. In the vendor view, go to settings > shipping costs and click the create shipping cost rule button.

2. Enter a name. This name is only visible to you. Recommendation: If you sell a product in several countries and therefore create several rules, it is useful to choose a name that allows you to distinguish your rules well, such as “[product name] – [country/countries].”

3. If you want to activate/use the shipping cost rule immediately after saving, set the switch to active to yes.

4. In order, you can determine the position of this rule if you have created multiple rules. This also affects which rule is used. Digistore24 checks in order which rule applies. The first applicable rule is used.

   An example:
   Rule A in position 1: country = Germany; Rule B in position 2: country = all. Both rule A and rule B apply to Germany (Germany is included in “all”). However, due to the order, rule A is used for orders with German shipping addresses. Rule B applies to all other countries.

5. In for products, select the product(s) for which you want to create the shipping cost rule.

6. In for countries, you can select the countries for which this shipping cost rule should apply. By default, all countries are selected. If you click the checkbox next to “all” at the top, all checkboxes are removed, and the countries are deselected. Note that Germany is only present at the top of the country list. Also note that if you selected EU (except Germany) or outside EU at the top, the respective matching countries are not selected separately. Be sure to check that no other countries are accidentally selected before proceeding to the next step.

7. In for currencies, select the currencies for which this rule should apply. In calculation is..., you can set whether the shipping costs are charged once or monthly. If you sell your product as a subscription or installment payment, you should choose the monthly calculation regardless of the payment interval you choose. The shipping costs are then prorated to the respective payment interval.

   An example:
   Your customer receives and pays for your subscription product once a year. However, since the shipping costs are prorated monthly, the customer pays 1/12 of the actual shipping costs per month.

   Attention:
   Do not enter the total shipping costs, but only what the customer will ultimately pay monthly, i.e., the total shipping costs divided by the number of months between the subscription's billing intervals:

   • For an annual billing interval, enter 1/12 of the total shipping costs.

   • For a semi-annual billing interval, enter 1/6 of the total shipping costs.

   • For a monthly billing interval, enter the total shipping costs.

   • For a weekly billing interval, enter 4 times the total shipping costs.

8. If your customer can buy your product multiple times, set in the costs apply... whether the shipping costs are calculated individually for each item (i.e., shipping costs x quantity) or whether the shipping costs apply to the entire order regardless of the quantity.

9. If your customer can buy your product multiple times, you can set in discount levels that they will receive a discount from a certain number of ordered items. You set this discount in the next step shipping costs.

10. Now set the shipping costs that should apply to the countries selected in step 6. If you activated discount levels in step 10, you can specify the discount percentage from a certain quantity here.

11. In the texts window, you can change the default description “postage & packaging” or “shipping & handling” for the German or English order form.

12. If you are satisfied, click save at the end.

An example of a shipping cost rule:

Vendor Max Mustermann sells a shipping product. Max now wants to set the following:

1. The product can only be shipped to the EU (including Germany).

2. Shipping to Germany is free.

3. Shipping to the rest of the EU countries is charged at 6 €.

Max now creates two shipping cost rules:

1. He creates the first shipping cost rule for Germany by selecting Germany under for countries. He enters 0.00 euros under shipping costs.

2. He creates the second shipping cost rule for all EU countries (excluding Germany) by selecting EU (except Germany) under for countries. He enters 6.00 euros under shipping costs.

Since he does not want his product to be shipped to countries outside the EU, he does not create a shipping cost rule for these countries either. If a customer outside the EU wants to order Max's product, they will be informed that shipping is not possible.

Prohibit shipping to individual countries

If you do not want every customer – regardless of their country – to be able to order your product, you can exclude individual countries from the shipping cost rule.

To do this, it is sufficient if you do not create a shipping cost rule for the selected country.

An example:
A customer from Iceland wants to order your product. Since no shipping cost rule applies to Iceland, the customer is informed that shipping to Iceland is not possible, and the order cannot be completed.

You do not necessarily have to create shipping cost rules!

If there is no shipping cost rule for your product at all, the order can be completed normally. Adding shipping costs is purely optional.

What happens when a customer changes packages?

A “package change” refers to an increase or decrease in the number of ordered products within a subscription.

When a package change occurs, the old subscription cycle is usually interrupted and the cycle is restarted on the day of the package change.

However, if the package change is made for a product that falls under the shipping cost rule, the old subscription cycle remains.

An example:
Customer Max Mustermann has taken out a monthly subscription for your product and orders 10 items each month. The billing is always done on the first of the month.

On February 15, Max Mustermann makes a package change and increases the quantity to 15 items per month.

With a shipping cost rule: The increased billing still takes place as usual on March 1.

Without a shipping cost rule: The increased billing takes place directly on February 15, and from now on, the monthly billing takes place on the 15th of each month (i.e., March 15, April 15, etc.).