Re: Different shipping methods for different categories

[kaddie]

I'm thinking I may need to purchase a shipping module for what I need?!

What I need to accomplish is, I have 10,000 + products and 25 categories. I warehouse a lot of what I sell. However, some I have drop shipped. I sell lightweight items and heavyweight items.

Apparel Category: Always $6.00 shipping cost no matter if they order 1 piece or a 100 pieces, the shipping cost is still $6.00 shipping. Just for this category.

Equipment Category: Heavy equipment gets drop shipped. I need to have this category state (when customer adds an item in there cart for this category) a representative will contact you by email with the shipping cost and final total for your approval. It must not show the word "Total". It needs to state "Pending".

So, if they ordered apparel and heavy equipment, since they ordered heavy equipment with the apparel, checkout needs to show "Pending".

I also do not want the shipping options showing. I do not want checkout to show UPS, USPS and etc. I would like to have full control over how it gets shipped.

Does any of this make any since?!?!

The shipping setup is what's holding me back from opening the store for about 8 months now. I don't know how to setup the shipping. Sooooo, I just give up.

[Ajeh]

You would need to have some customization done to your shipping modules in order to enable and disable them based on the cart content ...

Then, create a new shipping module for the purpose of just the Heavy Category to allow the checkout to complete and state that they will be called with the quote ...

It would also be a good idea to mark these Products in some manner so that the customer knows this in advanced so that there isn't any confusion on the checkout ...

Then on the UPS and USPS shipping modules ... customize them for the Apparel Category to add in a charge for that ...

[hornsales]

I'm thinking I may need to purchase a shipping module for what I need?!

What I need to accomplish is, I have 10,000 + products and 25 categories. I warehouse a lot of what I sell. However, some I have drop shipped. I sell lightweight items and heavyweight items.

Apparel Category: Always $6.00 shipping cost no matter if they order 1 piece or a 100 pieces, the shipping cost is still $6.00 shipping. Just for this category.

Equipment Category: Heavy equipment gets drop shipped. I need to have this category state (when customer adds an item in there cart for this category) a representative will contact you by email with the shipping cost and final total for your approval. It must not show the word "Total". It needs to state "Pending".

So, if they ordered apparel and heavy equipment, since they ordered heavy equipment with the apparel, checkout needs to show "Pending".

I also do not want the shipping options showing. I do not want checkout to show UPS, USPS and etc. I would like to have full control over how it gets shipped.

Does any of this make any since?!?!

The shipping setup is what's holding me back from opening the store for about 8 months now. I don't know how to setup the shipping. Sooooo, I just give up.

Well to save yourself a lot of hassle
Why not open your store up with just apparel and use the flat rate shipping module to set the shipping for you.

In terms of the heavy equipment
Well you have some options
You could set up a 2nd website and have that website and the apparel one link back and forth to each other but use separate shopping carts so if they wanted apparel and heavy equipment it would be two orders.

But if you are always going to have a customer call you or you call them for the order of heavy equipment. if you have the ability to process cc over the phone, why do you need a shopping cart program. Use zencart for the apparel and set up a standard html based website for the heavy equipment that shows the price of the item and says to order contact us at 800-###-####
Then in your apparel store make sure you advertise the link to your heavy equipment store and vise versa.

Or you can setup a 2nd zen cart for heavy equipment if you are no good at html. Just don't install any shipping or payment modules. And be sure to state clearly that the customer needs to contact you to place the order

[kaddie]

If I chose your way, then wouldn't the MultiStore mod be the way to go or no?

I really don't want to put pressure on my customers to having to order 2 or 3 times to get what they want to purchase.

[Ajeh]

For the Heavy Products ...

You could use the feature Call for Price to be Call for Purchase and Shipping ...

Call for Price items can have everything about pricing etc. that a regular Product can have except that they cannot be added to the cart ...

If you don't use Call for Price already, this is a possible solution for the Heavy Products ...

Or, you could use a Product Type for this such as Document Product or Document General and make those customized to not be added to the cart ...

This also allows you to customize the _info page for these Products to be different than regular Products to make them stand out in some other manner or have a different look etc.

An advantage of the Call for Price or Product Type controlling stopping the Purchase of the Products in the cart is:

1 you can talk to the customer and perhaps into the sale

2 you are not limited so much to 1 Category as they can be anywere

[kaddie]

I don't want them to call in their order for heavy equipment. I want them to submit an order, I get the order with all their information, I get the shipping cost, then call or email them with the shipping cost and final total for their approval.

Thanks for your help Linda. Help in trying to resolve my issue is appreciated.

[Ajeh]

Then building customized shipping modules will really be the only solution for this ...

1 shipping module for Apparel Only is in the Cart

1 shipping module for 1 or more Heavy Products is in the Cart

Customization of UPS for when Apparel is in the Cart

Customization of USPS for when Apparel is in the Cart

Additional customization of UPS for when 1 or more Heavy Product(s) are in the Cart

Additional customization of USPS for when 1 or more Heavy Product(s) are in the Cart

[kaddie]

R-o-a-r-r-r-r-r-r-!! It seems like all of it is just a bad headache. Perhaps, I can try the CEON Dev Advanced Shipper Mod. Maybe it can do all I need. Do you think (your personal opinion) this mod would take care of my shipping issue?

Here is the mod

MsKitti

[hornsales]

R-o-a-r-r-r-r-r-r-!! It seems like all of it is just a bad headache. Perhaps, I can try the CEON Dev Advanced Shipper Mod. Maybe it can do all I need. Do you think (your personal opinion) this mod would take care of my shipping issue?

Here is the mod

MsKitti

Maybe an explanation of why you can't just use a ups or fedex shipping module for the heavy equipment would be helpful


Every product I sell is dropped shipped. and I just use UPS and set the zip code to Illinois because its in teh middle of the country and many of my suppliers are near this zip code. Sometimes I make a couple dollars on shipping sometimes I lose a couple dollars on shipping. But my margins are high enough to not worry about two or three dollars in shipping. Now I understand that you are talking about heavy equipment that if you are off by 1% it could be 20 to 30 dollars or more but if your margins can handle it then your good to go.

Also you can install the drop ship origin module. It requires the fedex module. But even if your suppliers ship UPS instead the cost calculated by the fedex module will be very very close.

Then you would not need to call or email your customer or anything.

then you set up 2 product categories 1 for apparel 1 for heavy equipment. Then the only coding required is to tell the flat rat module to only activate for items items that are product type apparel and to tell the fedex module to activate only for the heavy equipment product type

You can then set the origin zip code for each item in the heavy equipment product type so you are charging accurate shipping for each item. And the customers can go to your site add items to the cart and pay all at once making your life easier

The only other coding that may need done and Ajeh can verify this because I do not know how zen cart creates the total shipping is you will need something that when a customer buys something in apparel and something in heavy equipment that adds the total of each of the separate shipping totals together

What you want to do can be done in so may ways, but with out a clear understanding of why calculating shipping for the heavy equipment is so difficult finding the simplest solution is tough.

[kaddie]

The heavy equipment gets shipped through UPS or motor freight like R&L, Vitran, and I could go on with motor freight shippers. The heavy equipment gets drop shipped from the manufacturer and it depends on what shipping company they use. I however, well, and the shipper never knows which shipping company they will use to drop ship because it depends on the customers state and/or the lowest ship rate. I have one manufacturer that uses 6 different motor freight companies.

I could just set a shipping cost for the heavy equipment. However, it may cost more for one customer, but less for another. I don't want to cheat my customers or my company loose money because I didn't charge enough. Nevermind, this would not work well either.

Perhaps, I will just keep it as it is, not use shipping. The way I'm handling it now, is when a customer submits their order and the shipping cost is $15.01 or more, I email them back with a shipping cost and final total for their approval or cancellation. If their shipping cost is $15.00 or lower, I add the shipping cost and automatically ship their order (no approval needed). It is a headache because their are too many steps and most customer want to place their order, checkout, get a final total (including shipping) and we ship it!!

Their are too many steps and way to much paperwork. I have at least 5 printout pages per order. Some orders are up to 10 pages. I keep everything everything because you never know what a customer may say or do. At least I have my printouts.

Anyways!! I get frustrated and stressed out, can't breathe when it comes to this shipping issue I have.