Can I Link Shipping Cost To Specific Product Types?

[wolfetone]

Hi guys,

I've been asked to perform some essential upgrades to a Zen Cart website that we made just over 9 months ago. The client has asked for a way to have different shipping rates depending on the product type that the customer buys.

For example, if a customer buys a dress (it's a fashion website), the shipping is £10. But if the customer just buys a pair of shoes on their own, the shipping should be £5. And if they just buy a tiara or something small, the shipping should be £2.50.

Now, the guy who sorted this all out is no longer with the company, so I've had to learn about Zen Cart very quickly. In the shipping module, I expected to see an option to create custom shipping options, that I could then link to specific product types. But I dont seem to be able to do this.

Could someone please tell me, or at least point me in the right direction to solve this problem?

Thank you all very much

[Ajeh]

The easy way to do this is use the products_weight as the amount to charge per quantity on a Product ...

Example: Set the Product Weight to 2.50 for $2.50 ...

Then Quantity 3 would be: $7.50

Now, use the Per Unit perweightunit shipping module ...

In the Configuration ... Shipping/Packaging ... set the Maximum Weight to 5000 and the two Tare charges to 0:0 ...

[wolfetone]

Hi thanks for that :)

That would help me out, but the customer has expressed her desire for a £5 charge to be added if more than one dress is ordered (if the customer orders three dresses, delivery for one is £10, while the other two will be £5 each). How can i incorporate this into it?

[Ajeh]

Now you are getting more customized ...

For that you may want to build a Product Type shipping to manage this ...

But now, you need to have built separate Product Types for each kind of Product ...

Or, build a custom shipping module based on master_categories_id where the master_categories_id on the products would never be a mixed Category of Products ...

Or, well ... I think you are doomed ...

There are so many things that can happen to break the master_categories_id concept ... say you want a Category for a Clearance Sale to use SaleMaker ... that requires the Products to use the Clearance Sale as its master_categories_id ... and that breaks pattern ...

You have Dresses, Shoes and Tiaras ... is there anything that marks these product types as a group, before you go to the extreme of make actual Product Types? There needs to be a trigger ... and if it "lives" in the products table, that trigger makes it easier to count how many of something are in the cart ...