Help with Royal Mail?

[ulsterscot]

We are based in the UK but ship worldwide with Royal Mail. At the moment our Cart just charges the same no matter where the item is going £9 flat rate or £5 per item.

We want to have 3 charges one for UK, one for Europe and one for rest of world. How can we do this ? Do we need an add on ?

Just want to set a nomimal average amount to charge for each of above 3 destinations and not need to worry about the weight of the products.

ulster-scots.biz

[schoolboy]

If you intend to use Royal Mail (and possibly Parcelforce too, because RM will only ship to a maximum weight, thereafter parcelforce is needed), then this should be done properly.

Your CUSTOMERS will expect to see an accurate rate, and (in truth) it is only fair that you offer it.

If you don't set it up properly, you face two potential scenarios:

1. If you say you are using Royal Mail, and I check the rate you are charging against the rates advertised by Royal Mail, I would be extremely annoyed if RM says that the applicable rate is £3.50, and you are trying to hit me with £9.00. I would probably abandon the purchase, and not come back.

2. Similarly, if I do the same check, and find that RM would charge £15 for shipping, and you are charging £9, then I am likely to conclude the purchase, knowing that the £6 difference is coming straight out of your profits.

So... you can lose either way. Inaccurate shipping is one of the single-biggest reasons why many online shops fail. You can lose sales (abandoned carts) and you can eat into profits (funding the difference between your quoted rate and the real rate).

RM is complicated to install and configure - especially for international zones, where there are 11 world zones, and up to 25 different seer5vices offered to these zones, and with each service, up to 60 price bands.

11 X 25 X 60 = 16,500 pontential options for shipping calculations...

Now... it is unlikely you will offer ALL RM and ParcelForce services, but even if you just offer 3 or 4 of these, you still need to include international options.

We have installed these shipping setting on a number of stores, and it takes some doing!

We have used the BIG ROYAL MAIL modules to do this, available in free add-ons.

I understand there is a new "simple Royal Mail" module on offer, but we have not used it.

[reevesofbath]

Hi, I am useing the royal mail add on with the parcelforce as parcelforc is far to expensive , I use parcel to go, i have adjusted the modual to take there rates, I know that it still shows as Parcelforce but it is far cheaper, regards Dave

[SteveHale]

Hi reevesofbath

We too use Parcels2Go in our shipping sometimes, their rates vary a lot of course depending where the item is going and so on and it's size/weight. We also have a ParcelForce contract for up to 30kg at around £18 to most European destinations.

So the point of my reply is that you don't actually have to put up with the set text in the shipping module, if you don't want to, and can change it to remove the words ParceForce to something like:-

Parcel2Go int shipping:

You could use the Zone Rates module and amend the heading and the text that shows.

You do this by editing the file here (in a proper text editor NOT Word or anything like that):-

/includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/zones.php (make a backup of this file first).

Change the text in these lines (normally around line 45):-

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_TITLE', 'Zone Rates');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_DESCRIPTION', 'Zone Based Rates');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_WAY', 'Shipping to Zone');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_UNITS', 'lbs');

To:-

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_TITLE', 'International Shipping Rates - Parcel2Go');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_DESCRIPTION', 'Zone Based Rates');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_WAY', 'Parcel2Go Shipping to Country: ');

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_UNITS', 'kilograms');

Note how you can also change the default "lbs" to "kgs" or "kilograms" as well to show this at the checkout.

We use the Zone rates for carrier shipments outside the UK and enter into Zone2 "00", then the rates we want.

We use the Table shipping module for our contract in the UK for PaarcelForce (flate rate of £7.50 {that's what we charge the customer inc vat, not what we pay} for 24hr/overnight shipping) and have changed the text in this to:-

define('MODULE_SHIPPING_TABLE_TEXT_TITLE', 'Expedited Shipping');
define('MODULE_SHIPPING_TABLE_TEXT_DESCRIPTION', 'Expedited Shipping');
define('MODULE_SHIPPING_TABLE_TEXT_WAY', 'ParcelForce Overnight (NOTE: If you are out PF will leave item at nearest Post Office): ');
define('MODULE_SHIPPING_TABLE_TEXT_WEIGHT', 'Weight');
define('MODULE_SHIPPING_TABLE_TEXT_AMOUNT', 'Amount');

Cheers

SteveB