Overview

In order to sell products, your store requires that you have locations set up. In Solidus, locations are split up into states, countries, and zones.

Group	Contain
Group States	Contain
Group Countries	Contain States
Group Zones	Contain Countries or states

Both states and countries refer back to the territorial borders you would find on a map. (For example, the United States contains 50 states and 16 territories; Canada contains 10 provinces and 3 territories.)

Zones are more flexible. They can be set up in whatever way serves your store's business needs.

Locations affect shipments and taxation

Locations are required because they affect how orders are taxed and how shipping is calculated.

For example, if your store is located in Arizona, United States, an order from within Arizona state would be taxed and shipped differently than an order being shipped to Tokyo, Japan.

Zones are your own unique groups of regions

Zones are used to make logical groups of countries or states that are unique to your store. Zones allow you to set specific around how shipments and taxes are handled for customers in specific regions. These rules can be as general or specific as you need. For example, a country or a state could be included in multiple zones, or none at all.

Whenever you create a tax rate or a new shipping method, it must be tied to at least one zone. For a deeper discussion of zones see the Zones article .