What about shipping? Mod needed

[xcergy]

A customer emailed me that my shipping is too high! I hate that as my shipping is reasonable and 'cheap' for single items.

What about shipping? Is there a way to combine shipping by item weight? I use unit shipping @ $1.80 per unit, so it's easy to price 1,2,3 ... 10 pound items and have a shipping quote that's reasonable.

My theory on shipping is to break even at the end of the year. Last year I spent $14K on shipping. It cost $12K. My model is based on volume. Ship 1/day you lose $ Ship 5/day, you break even. Ship 8/day or more, and you shipping will pay for it's self. Another theory is to flat rate shipping cost to break even with zone 7 pricing. This method also will reach break even projections, and still offer customers value for their shipping dollar.

With the std. Zen Cart, when customers order multiple units, the shipping cost is constant, and often they can be charged 3X normal shipping cost ... + lost sale or worse ... site abandonment.

What I am looking for is a mode that has a item (not packaged) weight attribute var in the [edit products page]details page. The cart would then total up item weight var, add a tare wt (the box and packing), and then generate a new shipping charge base on the unit shipping.

I wish I knew php programing to do this. Best I can do is copy / paste and follow html rules

Now on my cart, I do have #items and min purchase settings for free shipping, but there are many customers who buy products that get unfair shipping charges.

Help?
Comments?
TIA

Keith
aka xcergy
http://www.thedumbdog.com
http://www.xcergy.com
both sites bleed ZEN!

[schoolboy]

What I am looking for is a mode that has a item (not packaged) weight attribute var in the [edit products page]details page. The cart would then total up item weight var, add a tare wt (the box and packing), and then generate a new shipping charge base on the unit shipping.

This is possible with a standard install. You can configure the table and zone rates modules to calculate shipping badsed on the total WEIGHT of the customer's order (cart).

You need to give each product a weight value (Done in the add/edit product screen).

You set TARE values in admin >>> configuration >>> shipping/packaging .

[xcergy]

This is possible with a standard install. You can configure the table and zone rates modules to calculate shipping badsed on the total WEIGHT of the customer's order (cart).

You need to give each product a weight value (Done in the add/edit product screen).

You set TARE values in admin >>> configuration >>> shipping/packaging .

I'm using $x per unit shipping now as a weight value, so that a one ounce item is 1 unit * $1.80 and a one pound item is 3 units * $1.80 - $5.40 , etc.

Tare weight can be a 0.3 oz. envelope or a 1.5lb. box. It's hard to determine an average tare wt. for each order.

[schoolboy]

My approach is a little different.

I set up shipping based on the parameters set by my shipper's rates and tarriffs.

I would imagine that you are using an independent company to do your shipping? (Or are you getting into a truck at night and doing the deliveries yourself?)

Most commercial shippers will base their tarriffs on a combination of the following three parameters:

1. Weight
2. Volume (or sometimes volumetric weight)
3. Shipping destination.

Zencart shipping modules are generally easily configurable from the basis of these three relatively standard parameters.

[xcergy]

My approach is a little different.

I set up shipping based on the parameters set by my shipper's rates and tarriffs.

I would imagine that you are using an independent company to do your shipping? (Or are you getting into a truck at night and doing the deliveries yourself?)

Most commercial shippers will base their tarriffs on a combination of the following three parameters:

1. Weight
2. Volume (or sometimes volumetric weight)
3. Shipping destination.

Zencart shipping modules are generally easily configurable from the basis of these three relatively standard parameters.

95% of my shipping is USPS. This new method will take a while to setup. Thanks for your help.

[schoolboy]

Have you considered the built-in USPS module?