Shipping strategy is a set of essential logistics settings in a VTEX store, which refers to the combination of the following aspects:

• Shipping policy
• Loading dock
• Warehouse

The image below shows how these concepts relate to each other:

Shipping policy is a set of rules and settings that specify the shipping options that will be displayed to customers at checkout. When calculating the shipping time for an order, the VTEX platform takes into account several settings from the shipping policy, including:

• Carrier
• Carrier business hours
• Holidays
• Additional shipping costs
• Scheduled delivery
• Pickup points

To learn how to create a shipping policy, check the Creating a shipping policy article. For information on management, read the Managing shipping policies article.

Every shipping policy is associated with a shipping rate template, where you enter information such as:

• Carrier identification
• Carrier shipping cost
• Postal code ranges or polygons valid for shipping

Once the shipping rate template is associated with the shipping policy, this information becomes part of your VTEX logistics operation.

You can configure initial settings through the VTEX Admin or via API. If you are starting to configure your shipping strategy, we recommend the following order: