Question for anyone who sells clothing in their shop...

[STFlats]

Hi,

I have a shop that I JUST installed that will be selling custom t-shirts, hoodies and so on. I wanted to know from those of you that already sell clothing how have you set up your shipping for these items since they don't weigh much? For example, if someone buys a single t-shirt from us, I can obviously send that in an envelope rather than a box and if someone is buying a hoodie, I can send that in a USPS Priority Flat Rate box fairly easily... But what do I do if they buy a few shirts, a couple of hoodies and so on? Since these items (not the hoodies) can weigh less than a pound each and shipping a single shirt is far easier than shipping a single skateboard as we do in our other shop, how do you handle this?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you and take care...

[myairnet]

This is pretty easy. I suggest you to look for programmer in scriptlance, then offer the job to them.

[Kim]

Hire a programmer? NOT NEEDED.

Remember the KISS rule - Keep It Simple

A weight-based table is probably the easiest. Assign a weight to each product and the price based on the weight. Use an average since sometimes it will be a bit high other times a bit low but in the end it will all average out.

[STFlats]

Oh, no... Definitely not going to hire a programmer. If I could afford that, I would have hired someone to set up my shop all together and only have to add my products...

What I was hoping for is someone who currently has a shop that sells clothing such as t-shirts and sweatshirts who has already worked this out to give me some insight on how they handle it. I just dont want to get to a point in which a customer buys one t-shirt and the shipping price comes to more than $10.00... Know what I mean? I've seen online stores where you can buy 1 to 5 shirts and the shipping price is the same. Also, which do you use that's best for this type of product - UPS or USPS?

Thanks for you help!

[Ryk]

Did you not see Kim's post? Give a weight to each item, then ship by total weight of the order using either the USPS, UPS, table or zone shipping module, whichever is appropriate to you.

[STFlats]

Did you not see Kim's post? Give a weight to each item, then ship by total weight of the order using either the USPS, UPS, table or zone shipping module, whichever is appropriate to you.

I absolutely saw Kim's post but maybe you didn't see mine! I am absolutely aware of the fact that I can apply weight to each item and then ship by total weight using one of the shipping methods... I do that in my other shop that has larger, heavier items that ship in one box at a time. What I asked was this:

"I've seen online stores where you can buy 1 to 5 shirts and the shipping price is the same. Also, which do you use that's best for this type of product - UPS or USPS?"

I wanted to know if anyone has done this or it is even possible. I've seen online stores ship 1 to 5 t-shirts for one single price. For example, the package ships for $6.00 USPS whether there is one shirt in the package or 5. Thats what I am asking. And then I asked if they found one shipping method was better for these types of products - USPS or UPS?

[Ryk]

Example; a t-shirt weighs 1 unit; therefore 5 t-shirts weigh 5 units, 10 weigh 10 and so on.

If it costs the same to ship up to 5 , and the same (but different!) to ship 6 to 10, then you use a table rate set to weight. Go to admin > modules > shipping > table rate and refer to the comments when you hit the edit button which should illustrate what I'm trying to say.

I believe that UPS/USPS ship by weight and so the principle will apply - but I think with those the calculations are done at the carrier end after ZC has passed the total weight.

[keepitreal]

for starters, you need to get a scale and determine the weight for 1, 2, 3, 4, t-shirts, etc.

i suggest shipping via USPS.

i use them this for selling t-shirts from my website. you can add delivery confirmation for tracking, etc.

adding to what others are telling you....it' easiest to use "weight ratio tables".

so, when you create a product, you give it a number in the "weight field".

example, a t-shirt = 1 (this equals 1 lb.)

then your shipping calculations need to have a ratio.

for example, shipping items that equal 0-4 lbs will cost $5.50 (you determine this cost) and 4 - 8 lbs will cost $10.25 (again, you determine this cost).

and so forth.

2 things....

1. you do need to create a spreadsheet for these ratios and upload them as the shipping config/file.

2. determine how much one of your t-shirts will cost to ship from USPS by the method you want to ship. Just go to the post office with your t-shirts and ask them to weigh and quote you the shipping cost and with what shipping options (i.e., priority mail, first class, etc)

east to do...you just have to spend some to to research it and figure it out.

hope this helps!

[STFlats]

Keepitreal, thank you... Yes, that helps very much. That is exactly what I needed to know. I will have to figure out how to setup the spreadsheet but I will research that further. Thanks Ryk as well for the clarification. Thanks Kim.

Most appreciated...

[khopek]

I've been wrestling with this issue and ended up temporarily just using Table Rate and setting it to dollar amounts.... I actually just bought a shipping scale so I can weigh the items then am planning on using the UPS and USPS modules to give the customer real-time rates. For me a T-shirt ends up at about a pound with the packaging and a Hoodie ends up at almost 2lbs.

Is there anyway to update all shipping weights at one time? I'm not looking forward to going through each product page to update the weight when the weight is going to be about the same for each item in the same category...