Suggestions on how to set up Shipping

Hello,

I am asking for some suggestions, input or advice about setting up shipping charges for my new store.

I sell a general category of widgets but the types of widgets vary in size, shape, color and weight. However they generally are about 3-5lbs a piece. I have determined that within the continental US (not counting Alaska, Hawaii etc) I can ship these widgets to my customers for an average of $XX. for the first widget and then charge $XX.XX for each additional widget. These items will be sent directly to the customers from the manufacturer and am basically just passing my shipping costs directly on to my buyers. Who live within the continental US.

Things get a bit more confusing though for buyers in Alaska, Hawaii, APO/FPO, Virgin Islands etc. and International. The only shipper that the manufacturer uses is VERY expensive to ship to those areas. So, since I am within 1 day shipping from the manufacturer I will have the widgets for buyers in those areas sent to me and then I will reship the items to my buyers through a more economical shipping method. (This is still cheaper than the only method my manufacturer uses).

But where I run into problems is that I have to set up a module and zone for each "area" since different areas all have varying prices for shipping there. For example I can send several widgets to Canada for $XX.XX, the same shipment going to Hawaii would be $AA.AA, same shipment to Mexico is $CC.CC, to France is $DD.DD etc.

So here is what I am thinking about trying to set up and I would like peoples opinions, ideas, suggestions or experiences in how this would work and which modules to use.

1. Set up Zones for the Continental US and each of the Different Country/Area groups that would share the same shipping fees.

2. Find some way (is there a mod or a way to duplicate an existing module in Zen Cart now) that would allow a Flat rate per item plus a flat rate per additional item using the Zones that I set up in #1.

Any advice, hints, suggestions, comments etc on where to read up on this or someone who uses a similar system would be greatly appreciated.

I have found that the best way to charge for proper shipping is to use weights in your products. I add just a little extra to the product weight to account for (humidity-magazines; label;envelope weight).

For the MODULE>SHIPPING MODULE I use Zone Rates. I have three zones: 1: US 2: CANADA & MEXICO 3:everywhere else

Since I am using USPS to ship my products out I have created a table showing WT: ZONE RATE 1 price Zone Rate 2 price Zone Rate 3 price. I have also figured in what kind of packaging I would need to fulfill the products I sell. Example: USPS Flat Rate Box costs $9.80 a USPS Large Flat Rate box costs $12.30. You need to figure out at what point would you need to use either box.

Example:
lbs Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3
.5 $2 $3 $5
1 $5 $6 $8
5 $10 $16 $20

After I have created my postage grid I configure the Shipping Module
Example of Zone 1 (weight : postage)
.26:2.00,.52:2.25,.78:2.90,1.82:4.80,3.99:10.00,4.99:13.00,10:15,15:26.00,20:28.00,25:40.00,30:42.00,40:52.00,50:65.00,60:80.00,65:93.00,100:150.00