How To Setup Shipping?

[horrorware]

Hey, i have a store at http://www.horrorwarehouse.com and am abit confused with what shipping i should go with.

Should i go flat rate, per weight etc. Seems zen cart only allows you to setup one for a certain zone, can you use flat rate for 2 different zones as obviously UK postage is going to be different than say Germany or China, US etc?

Any help as how to get started is appreciated.

Cheers

[schoolboy]

The main thing about shipping is to FIRST establish WHO you are going to use to do all your shipping. This can be one organisation, or several organisations, and may include private courier services, and/or the postal services (such as Royal Mail).

Once you have selected your shipper, you need to get your head around HOW they charge, and HOW they calculate these charges. So, a comprehensive RATE CARD should be obtained from them.

In the case of Royal Mail... things get a little more complicated, because RM has almost 3,000 different parameters for posting stuff around the world. There are different rates for different countries, and of course a huge array of services (signed-for, large-letter, first class, second class, insured, small packet, large packet, next day, economy... the list is almost endless).

In any event, you need to make a choice about WHO you will use, and get a good understanding of how their services are configured.

NEXT, you need to look at how you can incorporate these configurations into zencart, and again, different modules provide different parameters.

If you are UK-based, and want to use RM / ParcelForce, then your zencart site should be properly configured for UK use. Standard ZC is configured "generically", so you will see that things like date formatting is in the USA style of mm/dd/yyyy and that spellings are USA (color vs colour, check vs cheque) and that weight parameters are LBS and not KG. Also, there are no UK Counties loaded in a standard install, and as many RM services are based on UK locality, your website needs to have these configurations built BEFORE you apply a shipping module.

Getting your shipping accurate is critical for TWO reasons:

1. Too cheap, and you will fund the difference out of your bottom-line profits.
2. Too expensive, and people will abandon your site and go elsewhere.

Once you KNOW exactly who you wish to use for your shipping, and WHERE in the world you are prepared to sell to (or deliver to), come back and tell us and we can make some more pointed suggestions.

[horrorware]

That was a well thought out post many thanks for taking the time.

I should have gave more information.

Firstly i will be using a mixture of royal mail and courier for both UK and foreign shipping orders.

I am not going to bother with first class or any untracked shipping due to the value of the items being sold so recorded first class will be the minimum i will offer. Maybe possibly special delivery also.

I am thinking that in which case it may be wise to calculate via weight?. I need to find out how to change zencart from Lbs to Kg as i have entered the correct weights of all my products so far such as 0.500 meaning half a kilo/500 grams.

Also, there are no UK Counties loaded in a standard install, and as many RM services are based on UK locality, your website needs to have these configurations built BEFORE you apply a shipping module.

I never knew about this, many thanks, where can i find how to rectify this?

Cheers again appreciate the help greatly.

[fairestcape]

Also, there are no UK Counties loaded in a standard install, and as many RM services are based on UK locality, your website needs to have these configurations built BEFORE you apply a shipping module.

I never knew about this, many thanks, where can i find how to rectify this?

You can try Jamie's (JSWEB) script:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=299

[horrorware]

You can try Jamie's (JSWEB) script:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=299

Thanks i will take a look at installing that later, cheers:).

Im not sure whether to go with a flat rate or per weight.

What does everyone think?

Any help appreciated as always.

[schoolboy]

Im not sure whether to go with a flat rate or per weight.

What does everyone think?

Any help appreciated as always.

Did you read my post #2 ?

Your decision is based on WHO will do your shipping and HOW they calculate their rates.

[horrorware]

Did you read my post #2 ?

Your decision is based on WHO will do your shipping and HOW they calculate their rates.

I did indeed and posted a reply above saying how helpful it was and who would be doing the majority of my shipping.

Which brings me back to whether i should price it at a flat rate or per weight?

I went into shipping per weight briefly but it doesn't show you anywhere to enter the prices per weight.

Cheers again

[horrorware]

This is quite difficult to get my head around as it seems flat rate only lets you offer one value which isn't going to work as any order outside of UK would be severely under-valued and thus loss.

Shipping by weight seems it is going to be the way to go but i can't see anywhere that lets you enter the value for each product.

[schoolboy]

You need the zonetables module. Trust me... if you are shipping to multiple ZONES, where different rates apply based on consignment weight, then go grab:

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?ma...roducts_id=695

NOTE: You MUST ste up all your ZONES and ZONE DEFINITIONS first... Then install this module.

[horrorware]

Thanks again much appreciated:).

I take it the ste was a spell error in your last line and that should have read set instead in which case i should make sure i have set up my zones and zone definitions?

Different rates are we talking about the tax rate here or the shipping weight price?

This is going to be difficult i feel lol.

Cheers again, i really appreciate the time you and others take to help.