Shipping - In A Nutshell

Shipping rates live in three places: the generator workbook, Maropost (Neto) shipping rate tables, and Google Merchant Center (GMC). This section covers how rates are generated and how to keep the three in step. It also covers which of those values shoppers see on altapac.com.

The Shipping Matrix Generator

The generator is a folder with an Excel workbook (Shipping Update.xlsx) and a Windows program (Parent_Shipping_Conversion.exe). You edit rates in the workbook, then run the program to build the import files. It only runs on Windows.

• To change prices or delivery times, see Price Updates.
• To add a new shipping category, see Shipping Matrix Generator.

Uploading to Neto

The generator writes import files to its files_for_import folder, and these get imported into Maropost’s shipping rate tables. The original page said the same import goes to every Maropost store in the group, not just altapac.com. The steps aren’t written down yet. See Uploading to Neto for what’s known.

Uploading to GMC

GMC shipping rates have been updated through Google’s API using Postman, not from the generator itself. The steps aren’t written down yet. See Uploading to GMC for what’s known.

What shoppers see

The product page’s availability card asks Maropost for shipping options (for one unit, to an Australian postcode) and builds its delivery lines from what comes back. Two values from your rate tables are customer-facing.

Value	Shown as	Shown when
daily_close_time (dispatch cut-off)	“Order by 2pm for dispatch today”, or “Dispatches next business day” once the cut-off has passed (Sydney time)	With or without a postcode. Uses the earliest cut-off across the delivery options
delivery_time (days)	“2–4 days to 2000”, or “3 days to 2000” if every option has the same time	Only after the shopper enters a postcode. The range runs from the fastest to the slowest delivery option
Rate cost	”Shipping from $12 to 2000” or “Free shipping to 2000”	After a postcode is entered. Cheapest delivery option

Each line disappears on its own when its value is missing, so a half-filled matrix shows fewer lines rather than wrong ones.

On 2026-10-21, the options returned to postcode 2000 for two sampled products were Road Express, Click n Collect Burwood, Click n Collect Artarmon and, on one of them, Warehouse Pick-up. Every option had a cut-off of 00:00, so the dispatch line didn’t show. Road Express had a delivery time of 1 day on the EGR Core Canopy and none on the Thule Caprock rail mount.

The dispatch and days lines also depend on stock. They only show for products that ship from stock we hold: In stock, Low stock, Final stock and Special order in stock. Supplier-shipped, special-order, pre-order, incoming, backorder and sold-out products get the cost line only, and a “No longer available” product gets no delivery lines at all.

Not live yet

On altapac.com today, the dispatch and days lines show whatever the stock state, so a supplier-shipped or backordered product can still promise “1 day to 2000”. Limiting them to products that ship from our stock arrives with the next theme release (AUD-17, AUD-54).

Values that mean "not set"

• A cut-off of 00:00 means “not configured”, not midnight. The dispatch line is hidden.
• A delivery time of 0 or blank hides the days line for that option.
• If only some options have a delivery time, the page says “from 1 day to 2000” (fastest known option) instead of a range.

The cut-off line doesn't check weekends or public holidays

It only compares the time of day. On a Saturday morning it still says “Order by … for dispatch today”.

The delivery time a shopper sees is the single value Maropost holds per rate, which the generator fills from the Delivery Times sheet (the maximum delivery time). See Generator sheets explained. The generator doesn’t mention daily_close_time.

Pickup-only products (shipping category 20)

Shipping category 20 is the pickup-only category (owner-confirmed 2026-07-29). A product in it has its Delivery tab hidden on the product page, which opens on Pick up instead. A product is also treated as pickup only when Maropost returns options for it but every one is a pickup option. Shoppers then see “Available for pick up only”. In a 2026-09-25 check of 3 products against 7 postcodes, no quote came back with pickup options only, so in practice category 20 is what triggers it.

Category 20 is hard-coded in the theme. If the pickup-only category is ever recreated or renumbered, the theme has to change too. See Hard-coded IDs.

For developers

• Product-page delivery lines: src/templates/products/includes/availability.template.html in Altapac-ReDev (the [%shipping_methods%] block, cutoffMinutes(), renderDelivery(), and sh_type_id eq '20').
• AUD-17 fix: commit 3ab9b8e (SHIPS_FROM_STOCK map) is on development, not on main or staging.
• Design notes: docs/map/availability/issues.md, item 5.