Step-by-step guides
How to turn on shipping with Bosta for your Hekana store, step by step
A walkthrough of the dashboard steps: the pickup address, enabling Bosta, the shipping price your customer sees, and how to check that a governorate is covered.
4 min read
Shipping with Bosta on Hekana is set up from one place in the dashboard, and it does not ask you for an API key or an account of your own with the carrier. This guide follows the pages in the order you will meet them.
The idea in a minute
- The pickup address is where the courier collects your parcels. You cannot enable any carrier without one.
- Enabling Bosta needs your acceptance of the carrier terms, and no login details.
- The shipping price for the customer is yours to set: the automatically calculated price, the calculated price plus an amount you add, or different prices per governorate.
The steps
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Open the carriers page. In the dashboard sidebar open the Shipping section, where you will find the Shipping Carriers page. Bosta is in the list with its status: enabled and ready, enabled and needs setup, or not enabled.
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Add the pickup address. If you have none yet, the page tells you to add one to start shipping orders. You can add it there, or from the Addresses & areas page in the Shipping section. Choose Add address and fill in the contact name and phone, the governorate and city, and the street address. Pick the Area from the list that appears: it is the carrier's own list, which is what sends the courier to the right place. The short label, landmark, building, floor and apartment are optional.
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Enable Bosta. On the carriers page turn Bosta on. The screen says there are no credentials to enter. You will also see the prices, the terms, and the service levels, fees and compensation limits, and you must accept the terms for enabling to complete. Read them before you accept.
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Save if asked. If a message says you need to save for it to apply to your checkout, save.
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Set the shipping price your customer pays. Open Bosta from Manage, and in the Shipping price for the customer step choose one of three:
- Use the automatically calculated shipping price, worked out from the customer's governorate.
- Add an amount to the shipping price, applied in every governorate.
- Different prices per governorate, if you have already set them.
The price you set here is what the customer sees. The actual carrier charge is calculated when the shipment is created.
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Try the price before you publish. On the same page, Try the shipping price lets you pick a governorate and see the estimated cost to you, the amount you added, and what the customer will pay.
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Look at the additional settings. Under Additional settings there are advanced options, including letting the courier open the parcel, which works together with automatic shipping. Change them only if you need to.
Automatic shipping creates the shipment when you confirm the order. If it is off for you, look for the Auto-create shipments option in the shipping settings.
Check that a governorate is covered
The carrier decides which areas it reaches, and Hekana only shows them. On the Addresses & areas page use Check a governorate and pick one. You will see the enabled carriers that reach it, or a message that no enabled carrier does. On Bosta's own page, Governorate coverage shows how many governorates the carrier covers and which ones it does not.
For cash on delivery, the carrier collects the cash from the customer and remits it to Hekana, and it is credited to your balance. Each shipment's charge is deducted from your balance and appears in the transaction log. For managing cash on delivery itself, see the cash on delivery guide.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an API key or an account with Bosta?
No. The Connect screen says plainly that there are no credentials to enter, and Hekana handles the carrier account.
Can I enable Bosta without a pickup address?
No. The screen says a carrier cannot be enabled without one, because the courier has to know where to collect.
If I change the shipping price, do orders already placed change?
No. Changes apply to new orders only.
Who collects the parcel from me?
The carrier's courier, from the pickup address you saved.
How do I know shipping is working?
Bosta's status on the carriers page should read enabled and ready. If it says enabled and needs setup, open the page and finish the missing step.
What to read next
Shipping prices can be set in other ways too, and there is a difference between a flat rate, a per-governorate price and free shipping. This guide explains them: how to set shipping prices in Hekana. To understand shipping cost from the ground up, start with the shipping guide for online stores, and for more on the page itself see the shipping feature.
