Set up shipping costs per product eg some by weight some by price

[RodG]

Hi and thanks in advance, we are currently charging at standard AusPOST postage rates. We have some products in stock outher products we do not stock so it is hard to do a weight.

If you are going to use Australia Post as your method of delivery you have no option other than to charge by weight. Attempting to use any other method is sure to give incorrect quotations.

The reason for this is simple. Australia Post charge you by weight.

Also many of our products are very small and light while outhers are quiet heavy.

This is a situation that almost all of us find ourselves in. If not directly, then certainly indirectly. If someone buys 100 of any given item, the total weight on the parcel(s) will be 100 times greater than if they buy a single item, and your postage costs will need to reflect this.

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We do not currently ship by weight & have been caught out,
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I'm not really sure what you are saying here. How can you not ship by weight if you are using Australia Post as your shipping method?
Perhaps you are saying that you currently don't *quote* by weight, so therefore you have been caught out because austrlia post *charge* by weight. If that is the case, then surely it must be obvious that the only solution to your problem is to quote by weight.

is it possible to sell / ship some products by weight and others by item.

Assuming it is possible to set zencart up to do this, how are you going to explain that to the post office when you go to mail your parcels? Are you going to insist that because it is item 'A' it is ok for them to charge you by weight, but because it is item 'B' they should ignore their usual weight based charges and charge by the item?

If I install weight do I have to show a weight on each item?

No, you don't *have* to, but if you wish to obtain accurate quotes then obviously you are going to need accurate weights.

or can we just show weights for shipping, for the larger / heavier items. I am very new to all this so please forgive my limeted knowledge.

If you are using Australia Post as your delivery method then you MUST quote your parcels according to how THEY charge and not by how you would like them to charge. There really is no other way around this.

You didn't specify which of the Austpost postage modules you are using. The 'original' module (ported from osCommerce) has limited functionality. However the 'improved' module supports almost all of the Australia Post available shipping methods and will cater for almost every scenario. However, in order to do this it does require each item in the store have accurate weights and dimensions. It may be a bit of a pain to set up all of your items with this information, but it is the only way if you require accuracy.

Cheers
Rod