How do I setup a new ZC install for dropshipping w/ multiple vendors?

I've done some searching on here but there's no consolidated guides anywhere that walks a ZC newbie through this process so I figured I'd just post.

I bought an ecommerce site that I want to transfer over to Zen Cart as the current platform is homebrew and not very good. So that means I'll be setting up ZC from scratch.

However for this business, there are 5 suppliers that drop ship for me (all US based) and so I need ZC to:

• Automatically process orders and create/send the appropriate forms to the suppliers to ship the orders out and email the customer as well
• Calculate shipping based on the location a given product is shipping from (since there will be multiple ship from locations)
• Handle shipping logistics and rates for orders that will ship from two different locations (preferably with the option to average the shipping cost or total them)
• Handle multiple shipping methods (Fedex, UPS, USPS) based on what the customer selects

I don't know if this exists in the stock ZC, if a single module does all this, or if I need multiple modules, but I'm hoping something like this is available for the latest version of ZC. If anybody here currently dropships with multiple vendors, please please please PM me as I have some questions for you.

Thanks in advance for your help--sorry if this question pops up a lot but I haven't found much helpful info that is current (only from like 2007-2008 or so).

For this you will need a good bit of custom coding to automate it

Automatically process orders... Don't think there is anything like that.

Shipping can be done with one of the many shipping Free add-on's, however I think you best to only use on shipper for it. I am not sure if you can use a range of different shippers on here from stock form.

As for the average out shipping cost, that again i don't think can be done from stock.

i think you are going to have to put in some work, as I don't think you will be able to have the shop run automatically as it apears you want to. If you are still interested in getting the coding custom done, then the 'Commercial help wanted' section will be best for you.