Forcing a billing address on digital products

-- HikaShop version -- : 4.2.2
-- Joomla version -- : 3.9.14
-- PHP version -- : 7.3

We have several digital products that we do not charge shipping for, but the last HikaShop update changed the way digital orders were handled so that they did not mandate a shipping address when the order is placed. My business's version of SAP expects a shipping address for all orders so these orders are now failing.

Previously, we handled digital products by not giving them a weight, meaning they wouldn't be charged shipping. However this now means that the shipping address is no longer required, hence the problem. How can I still offer free shipping on digital products, but require a billing address?

I have tried to create a new (free) shipping method, but I don't know how to assign products to qualify for the free shipping, while still making sure that orders containing physical products are charged for shipping (as I had tried to do with a discount).

Hi,

In the HikaShop configuration you have the "force shipping regardless of weight" setting.
If that setting is activated, then products without a weight will require a shipping address and a shipping method.
If that setting is deactivated, then products without a weight won't display the shipping address area nor the shipping method selection area.
This has always been the case even in early versions of HikaShop.

So as you suggest, in your case, you would want that setting activated, and the have a free shipping method for the digital products. You can do so by creating a warehouse via the System>Warehouse menu. Then, in each digital product edition page, select that warehouse in the warehouse setting. And in the free shipping method settings page, select that same warehouse.
It should then work like you want.

Hi Nicolas,

Thank you for getting back to me, apologies for the delay in replying. I will experiment with what you suggest trying two different warehouses and see if that works.