Multiple shipping rate option setup scenario

[sports guy]

I am building a store for a gun shop which has very specific legal rules and has to be shipped to an authorized dealer in the persons location. For the sale of a gun (one product) we want to charge a flat shipping rate of $35.00. But for multiple guns on the same order we would like the price to be a bit cheaper (maybe $10 per extra gun), since we can combine.

Next, we want all the other more normal products (ammo and accessories) to take regular USPS and UPS. I know how to set these modules up. Is it possible to get this scenario where one product (guns) charges a flat rate (and a bit cheaper for multiple flat rate charges) and the other products like ammo and accessories offer regular shipping?

Not to make matters worse but products and ammo cannot be shipped with the gun. So the $35 flat rate charge will take care of the shipping to the authorized dealer in their location. Collection of shipping details to dealer will be collected manually after checkout so I have this part figured out. The USPS and UPS will offer traditional shipping and fees to their house for the standard products and the address they enter during checkout.

Basically this is regular shipping and checkout for most products, we just want to charge a flat rate for the primary guns category (and subcategories) and a slightly less rate if we combine multiples of this product. Since the gun gets shipped to a dealers location which is not yet determined at time of checkout, the flat rate is how many gun dealers charge for shipping. Possible? Ideas?

[lat9]

Is it possible to limit a customer's purchase? That is, when they've got a gun in the cart ... that's it, no ammo or other products.

Ditto if there are non-gun products in the cart, a gun cannot be added?

[sports guy]

Is it possible to limit a customer's purchase? That is, when they've got a gun in the cart ... that's it, no ammo or other products.

Ditto if there are non-gun products in the cart, a gun cannot be added?

We don't mind if they add a gun, ammo and accessories all to the same cart. In fact its easier for them. If they have to do multiple checkouts for guns versus standard products its likely going to cause a loss of business.

When they enter shipping address, it will be their home or business. Then after checkout, we will contact them about where to ship the gun. So there is after checkout contact that requires them to pick the authorized dealer near them, the gun only gets shipped to that location where they must pick it up and pass checks. That is why were were thinking a flat rate for gun shipping, and traditional options for ammo and accessories. Again, it doesn't matter to us if they can add all to one cart, it won't be shipped that way. This prevents them from having to go through multiple checkouts to get multiple items. Why not add it all to one cart, then we charge regular shipping options for ammo and accessory products, and flat rate for gun. We still need to contact them to see where to ship the gun after checkout. The $35 flat rate shipping per gun will take care of that separate charge for all USA shipping from our area. We are only offering guns for sale in the lower 48.

[lat9]

OK, that makes sense ... don't want to lose customers!

What if the "gun" products were marked as "free shipping" and the $35.00 flat-rate shipping for guns was included in each gun-product's price?

You might need to "fuss with" the free-shipping icon that will be displayed.

[sports guy]

What if the "gun" products were marked as "free shipping" and the $35.00 flat-rate shipping for guns was included in each gun-product's price?

I hadn't considered your suggestion but it is an option I could use if need be although not ideal. The biggest problem I see with including the flat rate into the gun purchase price is multiple gun purchases. That is if someone purchased 3 guns, it adds $105.00 instead of say $55 ($35.00 first gun, $10.00 for each add on). Plus the gun store is located in Ohio. The $35 purchase price covers shipping to Washington, NY, Florida or the furthest reaches of US. If someone close, like from say... Kentucky purchases 3 guns the dealer does not have a problem with charging $55 to ship 3 guns the next state over, but now the price of $105.00 which has no scale for multiple purchases is very high in this scenario. His competitors have an advantage. The include flat rate in gun price will work, but I want to see if there is a better scenario with multiple flat rate price add-ons first.

Is it not possible to check each product as: Standard shipping options or flat rate (you put amount)? And then in the flat rate area, add an amount for each additional flat rate item added to cart (+ $10.00)? It seems so simple on a product by product basis?

[sports guy]

Another major issue is if someone wants to pick the gun up locally we don't want the price to include the $35 shipping charge. Never mind multiple gun purchases.

[lat9]

I don't recall seeing a shipping plugin that enables multiple shipping methods within a single order.

That said, you might be able to create an order-total module that has knowledge of the ship-to states and can apply a varying charge depending on the number of guns in the order. I'm thinking something along the lines of the ot_low_order_fee.php as a starting point, since that order-total is conditional based on the overall amount of the order.

[sports guy]

Lat9 thank you for your help in brainstorming. Perhaps I am overthinking this issue. As you stated why can't the gun price have a flat fee? A gun is a fairly expensive item it wouldn't take much to conceal the shipping price.

Now I am thinking that we can just offer one USPS and UPS rate on all products added to the order, even though there will likely will be two shipments for out of state orders if someone orders a gun and ammo or accessories. Its likely if someone from Kentucky orders ammo shipped to their home, they will also have the gun shipped to a dealer in their area as well. The cart will automatically collect shipping prices (although likely off base) for the location and weight of the items in the cart. So if its a smaller handgun versus a rifle the weight will add or subtract cost. If its local, then no additional shipping. We can then add a smaller flat rate to each gun for shipping to offset the size of the gun and get closer to our actual shipping costs. After all a rifle is going to be a big box, so its going to cost more to ship, we don't want USPS thinking this is a small flat rate box. So maybe on handguns we just allow the cart to charge traditional shipping and we add a flat rate of say: $15 per gun into the price. And on rifles we allow the cart to add the weight and then add maybe $20 flat rate into the price. We win some and lose some. If someone comes in to pick up the product we make a little bit of money.

It would be so much easier with a flat rate on guns and traditional shipping on others, but I think this will work and simplify the process. Whether or not we can tweak this over time so my client don't lose his shirts on undercharged shipping orders remains to be seem. I have a hard enough time getting Zen Cart shipping modules to charge actual prices on regular products when it comes to shipping, this is going to be a real challenge to get the USPS and UPS modules to properly charge for 2 separate shipments with a wide variation of weight, signature confirmation and insurance. Its in my past experience you can see my concern here. :)