WooCommerce Major & Outlying Areas?

[squirrel]

Hello everyone. A client of mine has requested to charge R100 for major areas and R120 for outlying areas. The website is build with WooCommerce. What's the easiest method for determining major/outlying area?

 

[Johnatan56]

Setting up Shipping Zones

If you sell physical products on your WooCommerce store, you need to configure shipping zones. Shipping zones are the foundation for most shipping configurations in WooCommerce. How you configure your shipping zones determines the shipping options and rates customers see on the cart and checkout...

docs.woocommerce.com

It's the first hit on google.

 

[|tera|]

Setting up Shipping Zones

If you sell physical products on your WooCommerce store, you need to configure shipping zones. Shipping zones are the foundation for most shipping configurations in WooCommerce. How you configure your shipping zones determines the shipping options and rates customers see on the cart and checkout...

docs.woocommerce.com

It's the first hit on google.

A bit of lmgtfy.

 

[squirrel]

Setting up Shipping Zones

If you sell physical products on your WooCommerce store, you need to configure shipping zones. Shipping zones are the foundation for most shipping configurations in WooCommerce. How you configure your shipping zones determines the shipping options and rates customers see on the cart and checkout...

docs.woocommerce.com

It's the first hit on google.

Thanks, but not necessarily the answer I was looking for. So how do you determine all the postal codes of the major centres? And outlying? Or are there particular cities considered "major"?

 

[Johnatan56]

Thanks, but not necessarily the answer I was looking for. So how do you determine all the postal codes of the major centres? And outlying?

Postal Code of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Postal Code of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa with map.South Africa Postal Code Lookup

postalcode.globefeed.com

Dude, Google.

 

[squirrel]

Postal Code of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Postal Code of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa with map.South Africa Postal Code Lookup

postalcode.globefeed.com

Dude, Google.

Thanks for trying to help, but I actually have Googled this thoroughly and can't find the answer. There is no DEFINITE list of "Major"and "Outlying" centres in South Africa or the postal code ranges for them.

The only other alternative, is to use for example, The Courier Guy plugin, which determines the delivery price based on the address entered. You can either override the option to set a fixed price or add a % on top of the amount they charge, however neither of these options are what I am looking for.

 

[Johnatan56]

Thanks for trying to help, but I actually have Googled this thoroughly and can't find the answer. There is no DEFINITE list of "Major"and "Outlying" centres in South Africa or the postal code ranges for them.

The only other alternative, is to use for example, The Courier Guy plugin, which determines the delivery price based on the address entered. You can either override the option to set a fixed price or add a % on top of the amount they charge, however neither of these options are what I am looking for.

Find South Africa Postal Codes Inside a Radius

Specify a radius to search within South Africa and return all postal codes inside

www.freemaptools.com

Map the major areas and anything else in SA is outlying.

Also seems very strange not to use the courier you're using's plugin.

 

[tRoN]

Hi

Any feedback on this @squirrel ?

I need post code ranges for Major Centres of Bloemfontein, CPT, Durban, East London, George, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Nelspruit, PMB, Polokwane, PE, Pretoria.
Rest will be all be regional

 

[SYNERGY]

Hi

Any feedback on this @squirrel ?

I need post code ranges for Major Centres of Bloemfontein, CPT, Durban, East London, George, Johannesburg, Kimberley, Nelspruit, PMB, Polokwane, PE, Pretoria.
Rest will be all be regional

South African Postal Codes in South Africa – Zip Codes South Africa Postal Codes Directory

South African Postal Codes in South Africa – Zip Codes South Africa Postal Codes List Database Directory

www.blaauwberg.net

 

[squirrel]

Ended up using postal codes, not 100% and a mission.

 

[tRoN]

Ended up using postal codes, not 100% and a mission.

I’ve pm’d you

Would you be able to share that list of postal codes ?

 

[DA-LION-619]

I’ve pm’d you

Would you be able to share that list of postal codes ?

https://www.postoffice.co.za/Questions/postalcodes.xls

 

[tRoN]

https://www.postoffice.co.za/Questions/postalcodes.xls

Thanks. But needed it divided as either regional or major centre

 

[DA-LION-619]

Thanks. But needed it divided as either regional or major centre

Guessing that's going to change by courier but using the full list you can sort it to create a range for major centers like

Postal Code	Country Region	Province Name	Province Region
0299	Northern	Gauteng	Pretoria/Tshwane
0499	Northern	North West	Northern
0698	Northern	Limpopo	Southern & Western
0999	Northern	Limpopo	Northern & Eastern
1399	Northern	Mpumalanga	Northern
1699	Northern	Gauteng	East Rand / Ekurhuleni Metro
1799	Northern	Gauteng	West Rand, Mogale City/Krugersdorp, Roodepoort
1999	Northern	Gauteng	Soweto and Vereeniging/Vanderbijlpark
2199	Northern	Gauteng	Johannesburg, Randburg, Sandton
2499	Northern	Mpumalanga	Southern
2899	Northern	North West	Southern & Central
3199	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Northern
3299	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Pietermaritzburg
3599	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Midlands
3799	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Between Durban & Pietermaritzburg
3999	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Zululand
4099	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Durban / Ethekwini
4299	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	South Coast
4499	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	North Coast
4730	Eastern	KwaZulu-Natal	Griqualand East & Umzimkulu
5199	Southern	Eastern Cape	Former Transkei
5299	Southern	Eastern Cape	East London
5499	Southern	Eastern Cape	Border
5999	Southern	Eastern Cape	Northern
6099	Southern	Eastern Cape	Port Elizabeth
6499	Southern	Eastern Cape	Western
6699	Western	Western Cape	Garden Route & Oudtshoorn
6899	Western	Western Cape	Klein Karoo
7099	Western	Western Cape	Great Karoo
7299	Western	Western Cape	South-East of Cape Town
7399	Western	Western Cape	West Coast
7599	Western	Western Cape	Northern Cape Metropole
7699	Western	Western Cape	East of Cape Town
8099	Western	Western Cape	Cape Town & Cape Peninsula
8299	Western	Northern Cape	Namaqualand
8799	Central	Northern Cape	Eastern
8999	Central	Northern Cape	Gordonia
9299	Central	Northern Cape	South West
9399	Central	Free State	Bloemfontein
9699	Central	Free State	Northern
9899	Central	Free State	Eastern
9999	Central	Free State	Southern

 

[TCGITdept]

It would be easier to configure your zones to province

Services are divided into 3 areas to cover South Africa.

local, national and regional depending on the "collection" and "delivery" address

If the collection address is in a regional area, then all your quotes should be ECOR ("R" for regional)

Local :

If you only use flyers then we recommend making use of the LOF service (reminder that we do supply and deliver free flyers)

If you send flyers and parcels then we recommend using the LOX service if you only want 1 choice on your checkout page for local deliveries

For “Local” most developers allow LOF (Local Overnight Flyer) or LOX (Local Overnight Parcel) anything weighing over 30kg you will only get the ECO service for local

For “National” the cheapest is ECO

For “Regional” the cheapest is ECOR

Main City regions	Province	Service expected
Johannesburg	Gauteng	ECO
Pretoria	Gauteng	ECO
Bloemfontein	FreeState	ECOR
CapeTown	WesternCape	ECO
Durban	KwaZulu-Natal	ECO
PortElizabeth	EasternCape	ECOR
EastLondon	EasternCape	ECOR
George	WesternCape	ECO
Kimberley	NorthernCape	ECOR
Ladysmith	KwaZulu-Natal	ECO
Nelspruit	Mpumalanga	ECOR
Polokwane	Limpopo	ECOR
Potchefstroom	NorthWest	ECOR
Welkom	FreeState	ECOR
Witbank	Mpumalanga	ECOR
Provinces	Service expected
Limpopo	ECOR
Mpumalanga	ECOR
Gauteng	ECO
North West	ECOR
Free State	ECOR
KwaZulu-Natal	ECO
Eastern Cape	ECOR
Northern Cape	ECOR
Western Cape	ECO

A basic alternative would be to use multiple zones but my knowledge is limited to zones set as a “province” level, potentially we have 9 provinces so you could have 9 collection points.

I have seen a lot of problems on checkout pages when using multiple zones, which is why we always recommend using "South Africa" only.


Example scenario 1

If you have 2 warehouses with all the products, for example Western Cape = Cape Town and Gauteng = Johannesburg, an easy way to set this up would be to add 2 zones.

Add a zone with Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West…Then add the courier guy as a shipping method and setup the JHB warehouse as the collection address.

Then add another zone with Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Western Cape…Then add the courier guy as a shipping method and setup the Cape Town warehouse as the collection address.


Example scenario 2

If you have 5 stores in Gauteng.

In WooCommerce, you can use a variety of options to create zones, including countries, states, provinces, continents, ZIP codes, and wildcards
If you start using zip codes, it's going to be a nightmare to setup and give you problems, just to sort out who is going to handle Gauteng.

The second question you need to ask yourself which branch is going to supply the other 8 provinces.

If you nominate one store to handle Gauteng
You could nominate the other 4 stores to handle the other 8 provinces...

Set your zones like this and add The Courier Guy as a shipping method to each zone (you now have 5 different collection addresses)
Store 1 = Gauteng orders
Store 2 = Norther Cape, Western Cape
Store 3 = Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal
Store 4 = Free State, North West
Store 5 = Limpopo, Mpumalanga

 

[Bryn]

I would suggest strongly incentivising Pargo or similar click-and-collect delivery for your rural deliveries. I've overseen order fulfilment for two fairly popular retailers and one major retailer, and the cost of rural deliveries is brutal. A huge portion incur fees of R600-900 each, and we had the luxury of using uAfrica to select the cheapest option of several popular couriers on a per-order basis (for the two smaller retailers). Still brutal. Once we switched to a big price gap between Pargo and door-to-door for all areas outside main centres, the unforeseen costs and stress went down to zero basically.

Aside from the costs, the never-ending headaches of delivery issues and angry customers were a huge drag on the team. Issues with regional deliveries were basically non-stop. It doesn't seem like anything is reliable besides click-and-collect for these customers.