Shipping Setup: Complete Guide for Your Store

Setting up shipping is one of the most important steps when launching your online store. Watsy gives you full control over your delivery pricing — down to individual communes across all 69 wilayas and 1,541 communes. Unlike other platforms that lock you into fixed carrier prices, you decide exactly how much to charge for every location.

Why Watsy Shipping is Different

Most e-commerce tools in Algeria give you a basic shipping table and call it a day. With Watsy, you get:

• Per-commune pricing: Set different prices for each commune within a wilaya — not just one flat rate per wilaya.
• Free delivery promotions: Offer free delivery to specific wilayas or communes to boost sales.
• Disable home delivery per commune: Some remote areas can't receive home delivery? Disable it for those communes while keeping pickup available.
• Multiple shipping profiles: Heavy items, fragile goods, or digital products? Create separate profiles with different rates and assign them to specific products.
• You set the prices: You are not locked to any carrier's price list. Set your own margins and delivery fees.

---

Step 1: Access Shipping Settings

1. Log in to your Watsy dashboard.
2. Click on Shipping in the sidebar menu.
3. You will see your Default Profile — this applies to all products unless you assign a different profile.

Step 2: Add Delivery Rules

The first thing to do is tell Watsy which wilayas you ship to and how much it costs.

1. In the "Add or Update Rules" section, click Select Wilayas.
2. Pick the wilayas you want to ship to (you can select multiple at once).
3. Enter your delivery prices:
   • Home Delivery (DZD): The price for delivering to the customer's home address. Leave it empty if you don't offer home delivery to these wilayas.
   • Pickup Point (DZD): The price for customer pickup at a stop desk/relay point. Leave it empty if you don't offer pickup.
4. Click Add / Update Rules.

Tip: You can select all 69 wilayas at once and set a base price, then come back and customize individual wilayas later.

Step 3: Edit a Single Wilaya

Need to change the price for just one wilaya?

1. Find the wilaya in your rules list.
2. Click on it to open the edit modal.
3. Adjust the Home Delivery or Pickup Point price.
4. Click Save.

Step 4: Customize Communes

This is where Watsy really shines. Click the "Communes" button on any wilaya rule to access commune-level settings.

For each commune, you can:

Set a Custom Price

Enter a different price in the Home or Pickup field. This overrides the wilaya-level price for that specific commune. Great for:

• Charging more for remote communes
• Offering discounts for nearby communes

Offer Free Delivery

Enter 0 in the price field. The customer will see "Free" instead of a price at checkout. Perfect for promotions or VIP areas.

Disable Home Delivery

Toggle off "Home Delivery" for a commune. The customer can still use Pickup (the stop desk at the wilaya level) but won't see a home delivery option. This is useful for:

• Remote communes where couriers don't deliver to homes
• Areas with difficult access

Disable All Delivery

Toggle off "Enable commune" to completely block delivery to that commune. The customer won't see any delivery options.

Use the Wilaya Price

Simply leave the price fields empty. The commune will automatically inherit the wilaya-level price.

Step 5: Pricing Quick Reference

Here is a simple reference for how pricing works:

• Ship to a wilaya — Add a rule with prices
• Stop shipping to a wilaya — Delete the rule
• Free delivery to a wilaya — Set price to 0
• Custom price for a commune — Open Communes, enter the price
• Free delivery to a commune — Open Communes, set price to 0
• No home delivery to a remote commune — Open Communes, toggle off "Home Delivery"
• No delivery at all to a commune — Open Communes, toggle off "Enable commune"
• Different rates for heavy products — Create a new shipping profile

Step 6: Understanding Delivery Types

Watsy supports two delivery types that map to how Algerian logistics actually work:

Home Delivery

The courier delivers the package directly to the customer's address. This is per-commune — meaning you can control it at the commune level because some areas are harder to reach than others.

Pickup Point (Stop Desk)

The customer picks up their package from a physical hub in the wilaya capital. This is a wilaya-level service — if the wilaya has a desk, all customers in that wilaya can use it regardless of their commune.

Step 7: Multiple Shipping Profiles

Not all products cost the same to ship. A t-shirt is lighter than a refrigerator!

1. Go to Shipping in your dashboard.
2. Click "Create Profile" and give it a name (e.g., "Heavy Items", "Electronics", "Fragile").
3. Set up rules just like you did for the default profile.
4. Go to any product and select the profile in the Shipping section of the product sidebar.

Products without a specific profile automatically use the store's Default Profile.

What Your Customers See

When a customer visits your checkout page:

1. They select their Wilaya (province) from a dropdown.
2. They select their Commune from a filtered dropdown.
3. They see the available delivery options:
   • If both Home and Pickup are available — they choose.
   • If only one type is available — that one is shown.
   • If delivery is free — they see "Free" instead of a price.
   • If the commune is disabled — no delivery options appear.
4. The delivery fee is automatically added to the order total.

Common Questions

Q: I changed a price but the old price still shows at checkout? Make sure you clicked Save after editing. Changes take effect immediately.

Q: Can I offer free delivery as a promotion? Yes! Set the price to 0 for any wilaya or commune. The checkout will display "Free" in the customer's language.

Q: A customer says they can't order to their commune. Why? Check if that commune is disabled in the Communes settings. Also verify that the wilaya rule exists.

Q: What happens if I don't set commune prices? The commune automatically uses the wilaya-level price. You only need to set commune prices when you want to override the default.

Q: Can I set different pickup prices per commune? Technically yes, but pickup is a wilaya-level service (the desk is in the wilaya capital), so the same price for all communes usually makes more sense.

Conclusion

Watsy gives you the most flexible shipping setup available for Algerian e-commerce. You control every price, every commune, every delivery type. Set it up once and your checkout handles everything automatically — from calculating the right price to showing the right options to your customers.