DownRightNatural:
Thank you for the reply with the step by step instructions. I will be honest, that scares the whatever out of me. I am not a computer/web/etc guy, and working on the database, well, I know what will happen - I will crash it and my site will burn.
I am going to have to try to find someone that can do this for me.
Thank you again.
Kirby
https://www.downrightnatural.com
This is not difficult to do. As Kobra says, you need to set up zones. A default install of zencart will usually put all the USA states in for you, but for non-USA destinations, usually the country alone is OK - and again, these are already in a default install of ZC.
The way to tackle shipping configurations is to firstly work out (on a piece of paper) what and where you intend to ship (or post). So determine the WEIGHT of all your products. It is very important to include the weight of each product.
Now the USA (for some dumb reason) still works in POUNDS and OUNCES - even the postal service there does so... When you guys go to metric, you will find this very easy, because right now you have to DECIMALISE the fractions of a POUND when you configure the product's weight.
If a pack of seeds weighs an OUNCE, then the value you would enter in the PRODUCT'S EDIT SCREEN would be 0.0625.
0.0625 is a SIXTEENTH of 1.00 - where 1.00 is a POUND in weight,
When you have given all your products a WEIGHT value, take a look at the SHIPPING RATES of the shipper (or postal service) you are using.
Shippers and Postal Services base their rates on:
- Package size and weight (often called volumetric weight)
- Destination address
- Speed at which you want it delivered
I use a module called ZONE-TABLES which is a mash up of the ZONE RATES and TABLE RATES shipping modules. This is a good module to use for international shipping as you can set several TABLE rates by their ZONES.
Again... you shipper will have divided up the world's countries into certain zones. I don't know what it is for USPS, but here in the UK, we have THREE world zones, and Royal Mail lists the countries that apply to each of these zones.
So I know what countries are in Royal Mail Zone One, and also in Royal Mail Zone Two, and then in Royal Mail Zone Three. For each of these zones, Royal Mail has a table of rates, so (for example) I can work out looking at the table for Australia (zone 3), what their price breakdowns are for packages of different weights.
You CANNOT configure international shipping unless you know what your shipper (or postal service ) charges - so this is fundamental to setting up proper shipping in your ZC store.
I think there is a USPS module you can install. Go check the add-ons - but if you are using a different service - like FedEx - then you must FIRST get their rate card.
Then, you can install ZONETABLES shipping module, and, using the data off the rate card, you can configure different shipping tables, for different zones.
