Guide · Ultineo E-commerce
Delivering abroad: zones, rates and times you can keep
This guide is for a merchant who ships from one place to several countries and wants a price and a time for each of them. A delivery promise is arithmetic: your preparation time plus the carrier's time, with a price by zone and by weight. You will be able to build that promise, show it to the buyer and check each parcel against it.
Checked against the product in November 2026
In this guide
1. Write down where your carrier delivers, and how fast
2. Group countries into zones and price them by weight
3. Add your own preparation time
4. Ask the customs and import tax question before the first parcel
5. Check what the buyer sees at checkout
6. Record each parcel the day it leaves
7. Follow each delivery to its end, then correct the promise
The arithmetic of a delivery promise
- Your preparation time
The time an order waits before it is handed to the carrier. It depends on you alone, and it counts as much as the journey.
- The carrier's time
The time the carrier quotes for a destination, as a minimum and a maximum. Take it from the carrier's terms, country by country.
- The promise is a sum
Add minimum to minimum and maximum to maximum. The buyer reads one range and remembers its last day.
- Countries grouped into zones
A zone groups the countries that share one service, one time and one price. Two countries belong together when the same answer is true for both.
- A price by weight
Within a zone, the price depends on the weight of the parcel, in bands. Know the packed weight of what you sell before you set any rate.
- Working days
Carriers and warehouses count in working days; buyers look at a calendar. Say which days you mean, and count the weekend before you promise a date.
1. Write down where your carrier delivers, and how fast
Start from the carrier, not from the shop. For each service, note three things per destination: whether it goes there, the minimum and maximum time it quotes, and whether that time is in working days.
Keep the services you can describe in a few words: each option the buyer chooses must stand for one time per destination.
Example. A shop of kitchen knives ships with one carrier. Its standard service quotes three to five working days to neighbouring countries, and six to ten further away. The merchant notes the two ranges.
In Ultineo. In Shipments, open the Settings tab. In the Carriers box, click "Add carrier", type its Name, then click "Create the carrier". In the "Delivery methods" box, click "Add delivery method" and enter a Name, the "Minimum delay (working days)" and the "Maximum delay (working days)".
2. Group countries into zones and price them by weight
Read the carrier's rate table, and put together only the countries that share the same service, the same time and the same price.
Then price by weight. Weigh each product packed, with its box and padding, and find the bands your parcels fall into.
Example. Once packed, the parcels of the shop weigh 300 g, 1.2 kg or 4 kg. The carrier quotes 6.90, 9.50 and 15.00 euros to the first zone, and 12.00, 17.50 and 29.00 euros to the second. The merchant enters three rates per zone.
In Ultineo. In the "Delivery zones" box, click "Add delivery zone": tick the Countries the zone serves, choose the "Delivery method" and fill in the "Delivery rates" for each weight band. Leave the delays of the zone empty to use the delay of its method. To change the "Shipping weight (kg)" of a product, click Edit on its Overview tab.
3. Add your own preparation time
The carrier's clock starts when the parcel is handed over, not when the buyer pays. The time between the two is your preparation time: picking, packing, waiting for the collection. Measure it, and keep a minimum and a maximum.
Then add the two ranges. Count in working days, and check what happens to an order paid on a Friday.
Example. The shop needs two working days to prepare an order, and its carrier quotes three to five to the first zone. The promise reads "five to seven working days", and an order paid on a Friday is handed over the following Tuesday.
In Ultineo. On the Settings tab of Shipments, in the Preparation box, click "Set the preparation time" and enter the "Minimum (working days)" and the "Maximum (working days)". The preparation time is added to every delivery time your shop shows. Saturdays and Sundays are not counted.
4. Ask the customs and import tax question before the first parcel
When a parcel crosses a customs border, two things can be added to your promise: the time of clearance, and an amount of customs duties and import tax. Who pays that amount, you before departure or the buyer on delivery? This is agreed with your carrier.
This guide gives no customs or tax advice. Put the question to your carrier and to a qualified adviser, then write the answer where the buyer reads it before paying. An unexpected charge is one reason a parcel is refused: our guide to parcels that come back covers that case.
Example. The second zone lies outside the customs territory of the shop. Its carrier confirms that duties and import tax are collected from the buyer on delivery, and that clearance can add days. The merchant says both on her delivery page.
In Ultineo. Ultineo does not arrange your international transport or settle customs obligations for you. In Shipments, a claim against the carrier can be opened with the Type "Stopped at customs".
5. Check what the buyer sees at checkout
A promise exists only where the buyer reads it. Go through your checkout with a delivery address in each zone, and read each option, its price and its time as a stranger would.
Look for three faults: a country with no option, a country with two options that nobody can tell apart, and a time that leaves out your preparation.
Example. The merchant enters an address in each zone. The first shows one option, at the expected price. The second shows none: one country had been left unticked. She ticks it and tries again.
In Ultineo. Once a zone is created, your customers see its option for their country, the cheapest first. Activating a country does not create its zone: on the Countries tab of Publication, each activated country shows its "Delivery zone" (see our guide to selling in a new country).
6. Record each parcel the day it leaves
The promise starts to be measured when the parcel is handed over. Record it that day: which order, which carrier, which tracking number.
If a warehouse prepares your orders, ask it for one file per day with these three columns, and deal with the rejected rows before the evening.
Example. At 5 pm the warehouse sends a file of 38 rows. Of these, 36 orders are recorded as shipped and two rows are left to check: one order was not paid yet, one order number does not exist.
In Ultineo. In Shipments, on the "All shipments" tab, click "Import shipments", choose your CSV file in File and Shipments in Content, then click Import. Each paid order in the file is marked as shipped with its carrier and tracking number, and its buyer receives an email. The Result lists the "Lines to check" with their reason. For one shipment, click Detail on its row, then Edit, and fill in the Carrier and the "Tracking number".
7. Follow each delivery to its end, then correct the promise
A tracking number is not a delivery. Decide who closes each shipment, and on which evidence: the carrier's tracking page, a file of deliveries, a word from the buyer.
Once a month, compare the dates: paid, handed over, delivered. If a zone often ends on the last day of its range or after it, lengthen the range or change the service.
Example. In one month the shop sends 40 parcels to its second zone, promised in eight to twelve working days. Six arrive later. The merchant raises the maximum of that zone by two days and asks the carrier about the six.
In Ultineo. You mark a shipment as shipped and as delivered yourself. On its Settings tab, click "Mark as shipped" when the parcel has been handed to the carrier, then "Mark as delivered" when it has reached its recipient, or import a file with Deliveries chosen in Content. The Tracking tab shows the steps Registered, Shipped and Delivered with their status and date.
Checklist
Your delivery promise, point by point
- 1. Get the carrier's figures
For each country: the service, its rates by weight and its time, as a minimum and a maximum in working days.
- 2. Price each zone by weight
Group the countries that share a service, a time and a price, then set one rate per weight band from packed weights.
- 3. Add your preparation time
Measure it, keep a minimum and a maximum, and add them to the carrier's time.
- 4. Ask who pays at the border
Customs duties, import tax and clearance time: your carrier and a qualified adviser answer, and the buyer reads the answer before paying.
- 5. Order as a buyer
Go through checkout with one address per zone and read each option, its price and its time.
- 6. Record, then compare
Record each parcel the day it leaves, record its delivery, and set the dates against the promise every month.
Go further
- Capabilities
Set up your delivery abroad with Ultineo E-commerce
Send your application: our team reviews each one before an account is opened.
Questions
A zone groups the countries you serve under one delivery method, with a price for each weight band. Create the carrier and the method first, then the zone, on the Settings tab of Shipments.
The delivery method carries a "Minimum delay (working days)" and a "Maximum delay (working days)", and your preparation time is added to every delivery time your shop shows.
No. You create the zone yourself on the Settings tab of Shipments, where only the countries your shop sells in can be ticked.
Yes. A shipment can contain several parcels, each with its own tracking number: open the shipment and click "Add a parcel". When you click "Mark as delivered", the order is marked delivered once none of its shipments is still on its way.
Yes. Click "Import shipments" on the "All shipments" tab and choose a CSV file that holds, in this order, the order number, the carrier and the tracking number. Only paid orders are shipped, and importing the same file twice ships nothing twice.
No. It identifies the parcel. The shipment is marked as delivered when you click "Mark as delivered", or when you import a file with Deliveries chosen in Content.