Flat Rate shipping

[schoolboy]

There is obviously more detail than I describe. I can only give you an overview of the techniques. Just HOW it is done is something you must tackle (or hire someone to tackle it for you).

Does your shipper charge PER ITEM?

If they do ... all well and good.

If they don't, you will have some serious marketing and business challenges.

I take it you are using a drop shipper.

If you are you can be sure they have a LOT of other people doing what you are doing.

And it is likely that all these other people are all competing with each other to sell that supplier's products, so you will be competing with many others who could be charging lower prices.

Now, if your drop shipper is applying UPS rates (or whatever rates) and you apply PER ITEM rates, your customers will see their shipping costs escalate dramatically if they put several items in their cart.

Your competitors who mimic the supplier's shipping rate will fare better. Their total price to the customer will be lower than yours.

Where do you think people are going to shop? Not with you.

If you are working with a drop shipper, then RULE ONE is that you mimic exactly, their shipping method and rates.

In an earlier post I said:

Shipping, and calculating it accurately, is one of the more challenging areas of online shopping. Get it wrong, and you see your profits going into the pockets of shipping companies. Charge too much, and your customers think you are robbing them and abandon their carts.

read that post again.

[frank18]

If the intention is to have a rate per item (irrespective of that item's actual weight), then the need for weight is completely negated. All you are doing here is using the field (normally used for weight value) as one side of a simple multiplication equation......

Makes sense to me schoolboy. I was probably too focused on the term WEIGHT.

Frank

[schoolboy]

Makes sense to me schoolboy. I was probably too focused on the term WEIGHT.

Frank

Hey Frank

Of late the wife's been getting me to focus on WEIGHT too... My OWN

(and I have to admit, she has a point).

[outeredge2]

There is obviously more detail than I describe. I can only give you an overview of the techniques. Just HOW it is done is something you must tackle (or hire someone to tackle it for you).

Does your shipper charge PER ITEM?

If they do ... all well and good.

If they don't, you will have some serious marketing and business challenges.

I take it you are using a drop shipper.

If you are you can be sure they have a LOT of other people doing what you are doing.

And it is likely that all these other people are all competing with each other to sell that supplier's products, so you will be competing with many others who could be charging lower prices.

Now, if your drop shipper is applying UPS rates (or whatever rates) and you apply PER ITEM rates, your customers will see their shipping costs escalate dramatically if they put several items in their cart.

Your competitors who mimic the supplier's shipping rate will fare better. Their total price to the customer will be lower than yours.

Where do you think people are going to shop? Not with you.

If you are working with a drop shipper, then RULE ONE is that you mimic exactly, their shipping method and rates.

In an earlier post I said:

Shipping, and calculating it accurately, is one of the more challenging areas of online shopping. Get it wrong, and you see your profits going into the pockets of shipping companies. Charge too much, and your customers think you are robbing them and abandon their carts.

read that post again.

Thank you for that.

I understand what you are saying about the Dropping shipping. Yes I do do some drop shipping, not alot, but 2 companies I work with drop ship items from their ware house as they have so many item that I can not carry them all in house, but they have set prices they charge for shipping.

For example
Product Group 1 $149
Prodcut Group 2 $65
Product Group 3 $110

I'm not wanting to over charge my customers, I'm only wanting them to be charged the exact amount I'm being charged for the shipping.