Doozy of a shipping question

[elcap1999]

I have a doozy of a shipping question, so here we go... I sell peppers and pepper-based producs, and for each product category, I need to have it's own shipping set up. Here's the breakdown:

• Hot sauces
• Barbecue sauces
• Pepper powders
• Dehydrated whole peppers
• Fresh whole peppers

- For the hot sauces & barbecue sauces, I can fit 3 bottles into a USPS Small Flat-Rate Box, so I would like to do a table method, that for every 3 they order (even of the different varieties of sauces I make), it'll only charge the rate for a single flat-rate box.

- For pepper powders & dehydrated peppers, I'm selling by the ounce, so I can fit quite a lot into a small flat-rate box, and can conceivably put up to a half-pound in there, so I'd like to have the small-box flat rate go per half-pound

- Fresh whole peppers, I will be selling by the small flat-rate box, so for each of these sales, I wanna have one flat rate box rate per order.


If that doesn't make sense, please let me know but that's my current situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[RixStix]

Are the categories mutually exclusive or can 2 bottles of sauce be combined with 3 ounces of powder in the same order/shipping box (as an example?

See if this type of setup arrangement will work for you.
If items can be combined, what you are asking can be accomplished using weights and no special code modifications. The settings also allow for a step up to a medium flatrate box instead of multiple small flatrate boxes. The idea could be expanded to include the Regional A box which is between the small and medium flatrate boxes in size and cost.

Assuming that you only ship via USPS, in the USPS shipping module
select domestic small flat rate box. Set max weight for that box to be 0.5 pounds.
select domestic medium flat rate box. Set max weight for that box whatever you think is reasonable.

Individual product weights
Set weight for bottles/sauces to 0.15 pounds
Set weight for powders/dry peppers to 0.06 pounds

If a customer chooses 3 bottles, weight = 0.45 pounds and can see rates for small and medium flat rate boxes
If a customer chooses 4 bottles, weight = 0.60 pounds and will only see the rate for a medium flat rate box
If a customer chooses 8 ounces of powder, weight = 0.48 pounds and will see rates for small and medium flat rate box
If a customer chooses 9 ounces of powder, weight = 0.54 pounds and will see rate for medium flat rate box.

If a customer chooses 2 bottles and up to 3 powders, weight = 0.48 and will see rates for small and medium flat rate boxes.

The above also assumes Configuration => Shipping/Packaging => small & medium tare weights to be 0:0 since you are not concerned about the weight of the packaging.

If you have more categories and/or products, you might have to tweak the settings to accomodate the various possibilities of combinations.

[Ajeh]

20 questions ... if not following RixStix line of thinking where you are actually using the Shipping Module for USPS

1 You are not *really* using USPS shipping module on your site, but want to make shipping worked based on your knowledge of your packaging and actually USPS, correct?

2 From your list, are these actual Categories, meaning are these the master_categories_id of these Products?

• Hot sauces
• Barbecue sauces
• Pepper powders
• Dehydrated whole peppers
• Fresh whole peppers

[elcap1999]

Yup, I was looking to set up the USPS module on my site in the next couple of days as a matter of fact, and those are the top level categories under Products at my site. Since I'm so very new at setting up a zencart, I'm not sure if those are the master_category_id's or not

[mshultise]

I sent a private message to you about how we ship our coffee and items Flat Rate USPS. It may give you ideas.

You are running into the same problem we did. You want to use a flat rate (if it fits it ships) shipping option with items which vary in size and weight.

We use ZoneBased shipping and don't go to USPS for costs because they can't tell you how many of a product fits in their boxes, etc.

We chose our most commonly shipped products and determined how many would fit into each type of shipping box we had. The uncommon items were "adjusted" to fit. You want to get right, the cost to ship your largest and/or most popular items and perhaps find a different way to handle shipping cost for small items (maybe include a ballpark shipping cost). I include $1.50 to the price of calendars because if they order them by themselves, it covers the cost of first Class shipping. If they order the calendar with a bag of coffee, I add an extra calendar or other item to offset that they paid an extra cost that was hidden in the price.

We use the WEIGHT configuration in the cart more to indicate volume. If you can fit 5 one pound bottles in a box, or you could fit 25 envelopes of items in the same size box, we would internally configure the envelopes of product to weigh .2 pound (1/5 of a pound each). Then the cart is told that 5 pounds fits in a box that costs $5.05 and that is what the customer would be charged for 5 bottles or 25 packets or 3 bottles and 15 packets, etc.

We created spreadsheets that help decide how the Zone rates are configured and the spreadsheet does almost all of the work. You just enter the result in your shipping module.

Here are files I created for customers:

http://planet-aloha.com/files/Explanation.doc
http://planet-aloha.com/files/USA-Shipping.xls
http://planet-aloha.com/files/INTL-Shipping.xls
http://planet-aloha.com/files/Canada-Shipping.xls

In the example files, the customer is using a regular flat-rate envelope, not the new padded ones. When USPS prices change, just update the 3 costs at the top and reenter the string of charges to the Zone area in the shipping module. The spreadsheet is also a reminder of what fits in what size container. Odd items are "standardized" to parts of a pound per the explanation.

[jcbazemore]

I sent a private message to you about how we ship our coffee and items Flat Rate USPS. It may give you ideas.

You are running into the same problem we did. You want to use a flat rate (if it fits it ships) shipping option with items which vary in size and weight.

We use ZoneBased shipping and don't go to USPS for costs because they can't tell you how many of a product fits in their boxes, etc.

We chose our most commonly shipped products and determined how many would fit into each type of shipping box we had. The uncommon items were "adjusted" to fit. You want to get right, the cost to ship your largest and/or most popular items and perhaps find a different way to handle shipping cost for small items (maybe include a ballpark shipping cost). I include $1.50 to the price of calendars because if they order them by themselves, it covers the cost of first Class shipping. If they order the calendar with a bag of coffee, I add an extra calendar or other item to offset that they paid an extra cost that was hidden in the price.

We use the WEIGHT configuration in the cart more to indicate volume. If you can fit 5 one pound bottles in a box, or you could fit 25 envelopes of items in the same size box, we would internally configure the envelopes of product to weigh .2 pound (1/5 of a pound each). Then the cart is told that 5 pounds fits in a box that costs $5.05 and that is what the customer would be charged for 5 bottles or 25 packets or 3 bottles and 15 packets, etc.

We created spreadsheets that help decide how the Zone rates are configured and the spreadsheet does almost all of the work. You just enter the result in your shipping module.

Here are files I created for customers:

http://planet-aloha.com/files/Explanation.doc
http://planet-aloha.com/files/USA-Shipping.xls
http://planet-aloha.com/files/INTL-Shipping.xls
http://planet-aloha.com/files/Canada-Shipping.xls

In the example files, the customer is using a regular flat-rate envelope, not the new padded ones. When USPS prices change, just update the 3 costs at the top and reenter the string of charges to the Zone area in the shipping module. The spreadsheet is also a reminder of what fits in what size container. Odd items are "standardized" to parts of a pound per the explanation.

I'm trying to set our rates up the way you described above and it's not quite working out. We haven't negotiated our rates yet so as an example just to test the functions of the site out I'm assuming 2lb/$5.00, 4lb/$8.50, 6lb/$13.00 I put in the Zone 1 Shipping table as follows: 2:5.00,4:8.50,6:13.00 but when I add 2 half pound bags of coffee and 1 one pound bag (total 2 pounds) it's pricing the shipping at $13. Just to make sure it was doing math right i changed the calculation method to "item" and it quoted me the $8.50 rate. In the shipping estimator it's showing the Items:3, Weight:2 lbs Amount:$35

Any ideas on what is causing this?

[Ajeh]

Check your settings in Configuration ... Shipping/Packaging ... for what your Tare Rates and Maximum Weight are set to ...

For Zone Rate, usually use:
Tare Rate: 0:0
Maximum Weight: 5000

so that all shipping is based on actual weight set in Zone Rates zones ...

[jcbazemore]

I'm trying to set our rates up the way you described above and it's not quite working out. We haven't negotiated our rates yet so as an example just to test the functions of the site out I'm assuming 2lb/$5.00, 4lb/$8.50, 6lb/$13.00 I put in the Zone 1 Shipping table as follows: 2:5.00,4:8.50,6:13.00 but when I add 2 half pound bags of coffee and 1 one pound bag (total 2 pounds) it's pricing the shipping at $13. Just to make sure it was doing math right i changed the calculation method to "item" and it quoted me the $8.50 rate. In the shipping estimator it's showing the Items:3, Weight:2 lbs Amount:$35

Any ideas on what is causing this?

Nevermind. I found the setting under Configuration-Shipping to adjust the Tare weight. I noticed after asking the question that on the line for the rate it was showing a different number of pounds and suspected a Tare weight listed somewhere!

[jcbazemore]

Check your settings in Configuration ... Shipping/Packaging ... for what your Tare Rates and Maximum Weight are set to ...

For Zone Rate, usually use:
Tare Rate: 0:0
Maximum Weight: 5000

so that all shipping is based on actual weight set in Zone Rates zones ...

Thanks Ajeh! I saw your response when my screen refreshed after posting response that I found the Tare weight. I'm looking forward to all these pieces coming together to get our store up and running!

[Ajeh]

Glad that you are getting a handle on this, thanks for the update ...