What are Global Regions?
A Global Region is a specified area of Countries, States or Zipcodes.
What are Global Regions used for?
Global Regions are used for:
- Calculating Tax Rates
- Shipping
- Defining the regions where your store ships for live shipping rates (if ship outside of regions is not enabled under Stores > Store Settings)
- Rules within Custom Shipping Methods
How to define a Global Region:
- Browse to Global Settings > Payments & Taxes > Tax Regions
- Select New from the upper-right corner and enter a name for your Global Region in Region Name.
- Specify what the Region Priority and Type are. Whether it be a Country based or Zip Code based. Zip Code is used in State Matching as well.
- Define which States or specific Zip Codes you would like to be included the Global Region.
- Save the settings.
Considerations before you define the Global Regions for your store:
It is important to understand the heirarchy and overlapping rules to be able to correctly define Global Regions for your store. Often times when defining Global Regions, an overlap is not avoidable. The goal is to define Global Regions in a way that if there is an overlap of defined regions the system has a way to determine a single matched region to apply tax and shipping rates associated with the Global Region.
Hierarchy:
The Hierarchy is the search tier through which the match is made. The match is made from specific to non specific. First will be Zip Code regions, then it will move to State, then finally Country.
Example:
You have a Global Region setup for a zipcode match as 77707 and a Global Region setup for a State match as Texas.
If your customer uses the address:
1234 Creative Lane,Beaumont, TX, 77707
The most specific match is the zipcode and the system will use that as the Global region and tax rates and shipping rules associated with it.
Overlapping:
Overlapping is caused when two or more Global Regions of the same specificity (Region type: zipcode, state, country) contain the same regions.
Example:
You have a Global Region setup for 50 States of Region Type State and you have a Global Region setup for Texas of Region Type State
If your customer uses the address:
1234 Creative Lane,Beaumont, TX, 77707
Texas belongs to the Global Region 'Texas State' and to the Global Region '50 States'. There is an overlapping of the regions in this instance and the system has to choose one.
The system will only pick one Global Region, regardless if the same area is defined in another Global Region. Once a Global Region is selected, the associated Tax Rates and Shipping Rules associated with that Global Region will be applied. If the engine selects the 50 States Global Region, any Custom Shipping Methods or Tax Rates that are associated with Texas will not be applied. It will use the selected 50States Global Region to determine the Tax Rates and/or Custom Shipping Methods.
There are two ways to define which Global Region should be matched:
- Change the Heirarchy of one of them: you can make the United States Global Region less specific. Changing the United States Global Region to a Country Type instead of State will allow States to be chosen first. Any orders going to the specified State (example Texas) will be chosen first and the Shipping Methods and Tax Rates for this State can be applied, without being overlapped.
- Add a Sort Order to define which Global Region you would like selected: The higher sort order is selected. If you set a Sort Order of 10 for the Texas Region and a Sort Order of 5 for the 50 United States Global Region and the system will then use the Texas Region as the matched region and apply taxes and custom shipping methods associated with the Texas Region.
Tips:
A common breakdown for Global Regions is three defined Global Regions. One for the state the business resides in for Tax purposes. One Global Region for the remaining States excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Finally one Global Region for Alaska and Hawaii. Shipping is typically higher for Alaska and Hawaii and if it is for your business you could break it out as a separate Global Region.
Ship Outside of Regions is an option that allows other Zip Codes, States, Countries (Regions) not specified as Regions to be shipped to. This is usually used for International Shipping. Once this is enabled, all areas of the world (depending on Shipping Provider) are now open for orders.
The Ship Outside of Regions setting can be found in:
- Stores > YourStore[Active] > Store Settings.
- Scroll down to the Shipping Information section.
- Enable Ship Outside of Regions.