Ecommerce operations

Enterprise ecommerce operations: slots, shipping zones, business accounts and delegated buyers

The difference between a store that takes orders and a store that can fulfil them is almost entirely operational: can you promise a delivery window, can you charge the right fee for the right area, and can a company buy from you the way companies actually buy, with more than one person on the account.

GoGee handles those three as first-class data rather than as checkout add-ons.

GoGee feature series · 18 of 33

How it's actually built

Slot templates: Weekday, start and end time, capacity override
Slot exceptions: Date-level overrides for closures and one-off changes
Shipping zones: Name, country (default ZA) and a region list
Shipping rates: Per zone and courier, with subtotal bands and free-over threshold
Business accounts: Business flag on the profile; orders record who placed them
Delegated buyers: Permission of viewer or purchaser
Delegate lifecycle: Pending, active, revoked or expired, with invite token and expiry
Delegate rule: Unique index allows one active delegate per owner

How the pieces connect

01Input
Slot templates
Weekday, start and end time, capacity override
02Deterministic
Slot exceptions
Date-level overrides for closures and one-off changes
03Deterministic
Shipping zones
Name, country (default ZA) and a region list
04Deterministic
Shipping rates
Per zone and courier, with subtotal bands and free-over threshold
05Output
Business accounts
Business flag on the profile; orders record who placed them

Enterprise ecommerce ops, data flow, generated from the shared GoGee feature diagram template.

Shipping that matches how couriers actually price

A zone is a named area with a country and a list of regions. Rates hang off the zone and the courier, and each rate carries a price in cents plus optional minimum and maximum order subtotals and a free-over-this-amount threshold.

That structure covers the real-world cases without custom code: a flat metro rate, a heavier outlying-area rate, a band that only applies to small orders, and free delivery above a threshold that finance chose rather than the developer.

Multiple couriers can quote the same zone at different prices
Subtotal bands let small orders carry their true cost
Free-over thresholds are data, not a hard-coded rule

Delivery slots and their capacity

Slot templates are defined per weekday with a start and end time and a capacity. Overrides handle public holidays, stock-take days and the December week where the schedule changes daily. Availability comes back from a database function with capacity, booked and remaining counts, so what the shopper sees is what the warehouse can service.

Business accounts and delegated buyers

A profile can be flagged as a business, and every order records the user who placed it, which is the smallest change that makes B2B reporting possible at all. On top of that sits delegation: an account owner can invite someone else to act on the account, with a permission of either viewer or purchaser.

Delegates move through a real lifecycle, pending, active, revoked, expired, with an invite token and expiry. Access is granted through database functions used inside row-level security, so a delegate's reach across orders, order items, invoices and addresses is decided in the database rather than remembered in the UI. A unique index enforces one active delegate per owner.

Viewer sees the account; purchaser can transact on it
Invites expire instead of living forever in an inbox
Revoking a delegate closes their access to invoices and addresses too

Questions we get asked

Can a company have several buyers on one account?

Delegation supports one active delegate per account owner, with a permission of viewer or purchaser and a full pending, active, revoked or expired lifecycle.

Can delivery pricing differ by area?

Yes. Rates are defined per shipping zone and courier, with optional subtotal bands and a free-over threshold.

How are public holidays handled in the slot calendar?

With date-level overrides on top of the weekday templates, so the recurring schedule stays intact.