general help with setting up shipping options

Are there some tutorials available not showing up in search on setting up shipping? I'm just starting out trying to configure shipping and the only tutorial I found was #69.

I'll tell you what I need to do. My client sells pet food. On smaller packages such as 1 pound, 2 pound, he includes shipping in the cost of the product so basically the shipping is free. Bulk packages, such as 20 pound, 30 pound, he charges by the appropriate weight. He ships by UPS.

I'm planning to set up the product so buyers will have a dropdown to choose the package size. Is this going to work or will I need to set up two separate products - one product option for the free shipping packages and one for the products that will be charged for shipping?

You should be able to specify the weight per attribute (not specifying a weight for the product), then use the Per Unit (weight) option in the shipping modules.

I did as you suggested adding 30 lbs (as an example) to the attribute and using the Per Unit option. Now the shopping cart shows $33.00 for shipping. I understand the $3.00 is the extra tare added. So it appears it's charging $1 per pound. We're shipping UPS so how do I factor in UPS rates and zones, etc?

If you want to ship UPS, you'll need to enable the UPS shipping module (and disable the Per Unit module).

I've enable just the UPS module. Does the module already have all UPS rates and zones configured for every address in the US? This seems to easy...shouldn't I have to configure something to get the correct rates?

It's that easy. The module takes the weight of the items in the cart, the shipping zip code and gets the rate from UPS. The module allows you to set some of the settings about the rate it returns, such are residential or commercial, etc.

Great! Client has questions about how the tare works now. I've read the tutorial but still don't really understand it myself. Could someone give a more detailed explanation?

Another separate question, my client has a few items that he wants to charge a flat shipping rate. Is this going to work in combination with the UPS module? How can I do this?

The tare weight is added to the product weights and done in two parts, 10:1. The first number is a percentage, the second is lbs. So for 10:1, Zen adds 10% and 1lb to the product weights to calculate the shipping. This allows you to compensate for packing materials, for example.

As for charging flat rate on some items, the same shipping rules apply to all items in the cart so you can't do flat rate on some and UPS for others. My suggestion is to add the shipping to the product cost and leave the weight as zero.

Regarding the tare, how does Zen determine what is a small to medium package and what is a large package in the Shipping/Packaging configuration? Is there a weight break?

Good question, but I don't know the answer to that one.

Small/Medium is an order under the Maximum Weight and Large is an order over the Maximum Weight ...

Thanks for chiming in Linda.

I'm confused though. If zen won't ship over a certain weight, why even have any settings for those weights?

It will ship orders over the Maximum Weight ... it just breaks the Order weight into boxes within the Maximum Weight size ...

But wouldn't it then revert back to the Small/Medium configuration?

If you test it out, as the total weight of the cart approaches 50lbs the Tare Rate is added in, when the weight exceeds the Maximum Weight, the weight is divided into packages ... if the Total weight is at the Maximum it will use the Tare for the Large Package otherwise it uses the Tare for the Small/Medium ...

The number of packages or boxes will not exceed the Maximum Weight so that the shipping can be calculated with the shipping ...

To see specifics on this, start at 47lbs and work through to 52lbs to see how the weight is broken down and the Tare is added ...

If you do not want to use the Tare, then set to 0:0 but the Maximum will still control the break on the weight size of the boxes ...

Hi,
I would like to piggy back on this one - this is my first shopping cart and my client has over 9000 products which at this point have no weights recorded. We would like to set up an option of small medium and large (based on an option we set not on weight) and then assign an $ value.
Have absolutely no idea how to do that!
Thanks for any and all help
Vix