Shipping Set up Questions

[musegirl]

Like so many, I am challenged by the task of setting up our shipping.



Our site will be selling numerous items -- t-shirts, buttons, CDs, posters, etc. We anticipate having both domestic and international customers. In the past, our approach to shipping has been to charge a flat rate ($3.50) and add $1 for each additional item purchased domestically and $4.75 for international shipping plus the $1 shipping charge. . Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to set up these types of scenarios. Can someone give me a hand? Thanks very much!



Lisa

[E-junkie_Chef]

The closest we can come to this scenario is -



* Charge $4 for domestic orders and then $1 for each additional item

* Charge $4.50 for international orders and then $1.50 for each additional item



To do that, set the weight of your product to 1 and packaging type to any and capacity to anything as well.



Then in your shipping settings -



* Set handling to 3.00

* Set domestic shipping cost per ounce to 1.00

* Set international shipping cost per ounce to 1.50

* Set the container weight and cost of whatever container you selected for your product to 0.

[E-junkie_Guru]

We have some new shipping config features in development that are due to go live soon which may work for you, but until then, you may find it helpful to know the basic formula we follow when calculating shipping charges presently:



((cost per oz.) X (total product wt. + container wt.)) + (container cost) + (handling cost)



The (cost per oz.) part would be determined either by a flat per-oz. rate you specify for Domestic or International shipping, or otherwise by standard USPS rates if you have your zipcode entered without any custom rates in Seller Admin > Cart Shipping Settings (we compare USPS First Class vs. Priority and apply whichever rate is cheaper). Note that you can "game" the formula by applying non-literal figures for various settings, so the formula adds up the way you want. Creative examples are given on our Shipping help page:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.shipping.htm



The closest I can figure to what you describe might go something like this:

In Admin > Cart Shipping settings, delete your zipcode, set your handling charge to 3.50, Domestic rate to 1.00, Int'l rate to 1.25, leave all container costs/wts. at 0.00, and set the shipping weight in each product's configs as 1.00. This would charge 4.50 (=3.50+1.00) first-item and 1.00 each-add'l for Domestic, and 4.75 (=3.50+1.25) first-item and 1.25 each-add'l for International. You can adjust the various figures to get them to add up differently, but I couldn't quite figure how to get exactly what you'd described.

[musegirl]

Chef and Tyson, thanks for the responses. Tyson, I think your second solution might work best. I'm going to try to make it work. One of the more challenging aspects that came up in a couple of your suggestions involves shipping containers. This is an element that trips me up alot. When you are selling a range of goods, each on its own may require a different container (a CD can go in a small envelope) but a t-shirt would go in a larger package. If both items are purchased, does the algorithm understand which packaging to use? Maybe I'm just overthinking???

[E-junkie_Chef]

System does not combine boxes or envelopes .. but "tubes" have the unique property of being combined. So if you say that CD goes in small tube and T-shirt does in large tube, then if both are sold, the system will only use large tube as it will think that the content of small tube can also fit in the large tube.



Of course, packaging capacity will play a role here. If you say in your t-shirt's settings that only 1 t-shirt can go in the large tube, then of course the system will not think of combining the large and small tube as it will think that the large tube is already full and will base the calculation on presence of a large and a small tube.

[E-junkie_Guru]

BTW, packaging capacity and whether or not container types combine is pretty much academic if you set all your container-type costs and weights to 0.00 -- those really only come into play if you are using container weights or costs to make the formula add up a certain way.

[musegirl]

Thanks again to you both. I will try to make this work for now. Looking forward to seeing what the upcoming shipping enhancements bring.

[musegirl]

Still having a problem with this.



As recommended, I have the Handling set for $3.25 per order and a $1.00 charge per ounce domestic and $1.25 international. I have set each item to weigh 1 ounce. I have set nothing in the containers. That should make for a $4.25 order minimum. Unfortunately, if I fill the cart with 10 items, it's only counting the first 1 oz. and setting the shipping at $4.25 instead of $13.25.



Have I missed something?



Thanks.



Lisa

[E-junkie_Guru]

I looked into your settings, and the only oddities I found were that your T-shirt products did not have Shipping enabled at all, and most of your other products did not have any packaging type specified. I would not expect leaving the packaging type blank to have any effect (for the same reasons I explained above), but just in case the issue with no Shipping enabled on T-shirts doesn't explain things, try setting any packaging type for each your products and see if that resolves the matter.