Postage Cost Issue

[LindysGoodies]

Hi there guys,

My problem is as such;

We sell alot of products with different weight and dimensions. For instance, a sticker sheet weighs a couple of grams but is an A4 size (large envelope)....and 20 pieces of jewellery are a small handfull in size (small envelope) but the weight is considerabally different.

I need help people!

How can i accurately charge postage? If i go per weight, not always accurate because of the size, if i go by item, not always accurate because of weight and size......

Your help will be greatly appreciated!!

[ronlee67]

There are so many variables among the various online stores and the products they carry it is nearly impossible to to develop shipping modules to handle them all. It appears that most of your products are generally under one pound. These can go through the postal system using ounce based letter/package rates (in the US First Class Mail is based on ounce rates). You might want to consider rolling the cost of shipping into the price and offering free shipping these low weight items. For products over a pound you can still use weight based shipping charges on those.

About half my orders are under one pound so I use this method. I also found my sales on free shipping items went up despite the fact that I added that cost to the price.

[kuroi]

It would be normal to tie your method of charging to the that used by your shipping agent. You probably don't want to charge on weight if your shipping agent charges by size. Unfortunately you haven't told us the basis for calculating your costs.

In any case the concept of accurate charging is a bit spurious. It equates shipping charges with postage costs but they're not the same thing. Generally you would need to take account of the cost of packing and packaging too, or you might want to absorb some of the cost to make your store more competitive.

I'm guessing, since you refer to A4 envelopes and grams, that you're in Europe. Lindy's Goodies suggests an English-speaking country, which make your most likely location the UK. If so, have you looked at the Royal Mail modules?

[RodG]

Hi there guys,

My problem is as such;

We sell alot of products with different weight and dimensions. For instance, a sticker sheet weighs a couple of grams but is an A4 size (large envelope)....and 20 pieces of jewellery are a small handfull in size (small envelope) but the weight is considerabally different.

I need help people!

How can i accurately charge postage? If i go per weight, not always accurate because of the size, if i go by item, not always accurate because of weight and size......

Your help will be greatly appreciated!!

You didn't mention where you are located, however if you happen to be an Australian based business then the "AustPost Improved" should cater for all of your requirements. As long as you enter the correct weights and dimensions the module will determine whether the items will fit into envelopes or whether parcels are required.

Cheers
Rod

[LindysGoodies]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your responses.....

I live in Australia so yes, i would be using Australia Post.....

It's all well and good - but i now need to go back and change all the weights and dimensions for everything in the store....considering it is getting close to fully populated, this could be a very long....long...boring process. I would rather watch concrete cure.

I kind of have a hack fix, but really isn't quite appropriate in all cases, so what i'll do is refund money if i have to. I'm just using the table rate process and charging by order toal......not the most efficient and effective way - but it'll do for now.

[RodG]

Hi guys,

I live in Australia so yes, i would be using Australia Post.....

It's all well and good - but i now need to go back and change all the weights and dimensions for everything in the store....

As long as you entered valid weights when you entered your products you won't need to change these at all.

As for the dimensions, these are only required for two reasons. 1) To enable correct pricing for parcels that are subject to the Australia Post cubing rules, IOW, large but light items. If your items don't fit into this catergory only the weights are used. 2) To determine whether any given order will fit into an envelope or prepaid satchel. This means that if the bulk of your items are 'parcel sized' you'll only need to add dimensions to the items that are are small enough to fit into the envelope/satchel.

considering it is getting close to fully populated, this could be a very long....long...boring process. I would rather watch concrete cure.

See comments above. It may not be as long and boring a process as you might imagine. It is mainly a matter of ensuring the weights are correct (there is no way to avoid this), and then setting the 'default' parcel size to be suitable for the majority of your items, and only add the dimensions to the 'exceptions'.

There is a module available called 'quick updates' that will allow you to quickly and easily add/modify the weights of your products.

I kind of have a hack fix, but really isn't quite appropriate in all cases, so what i'll do is refund money if i have to. I'm just using the table rate process and charging by order toal......not the most efficient and effective way - but it'll do for now.

There is a problem with your idea of refunding the money, in that if people perceive that your postage is too high they won't be placing any orders with you in the first place so you'll not be put in a position to offer refunds. If you don't want to lose sales you would be far better by not listing postage costs at all rather than quoting inflated costs 'with a refund'.

Cheers
Rod

[LindysGoodies]

Thanks for all your help Rod....i have much to ponder now...lol.

I'll let you know how i go.