Jump to content

Movie store - best shipping option for US?


vidmarc

Recommended Posts

I'm building a site for a friend who is based in the US, and I'm a little confused about the best options for shipping out orders.

The store will ship DVDs and Blu-rays mainly to the US, but also worldwide. I guess USPS would be best? Does this work on "By Weight", or is there a better way to set this up.

Edited by vidmarc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After the store owner gets permission to make Rate Requests, the USPS will offer all available shipping methods, from which the store owner chooses which will be allowed. The resulting list will be offered to the customer.

The best option is to let the customer decide: International snail-mail, DVD Flat Rate Box, or some other shipper such as UPS Two-Day Air, UPS Ground.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The USPS plugin is asking for:

Packaging Weight
Handling Cost
Tax Type

The first two options will vary on how many discs have been ordered.

How do I find out about US tax rates?

Is this the best plugin to use, or is there another that will do the job?

Also, how do I get permission to make USPS rate requests?

Sorry about all the stupid questions :)

 

Edited by vidmarc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a place on the USPS web site. What you actually need is an account for the "USPS Webtools".

Go here: https://www.usps.com/business/web-tools-apis/welcome.htm

Step 1 is a sign up. Once you sign up, USPS will email to you your USPS Webtools Username. This username is something USPS creates for you. You do not create it yourself.

Step 2 is that once you make a few tests requesting rates, you then email them back asking to put this username onto their "production server". This is explained in the email they send you.

CubeCart will keep a tally on the shipping weight. Handling cost should be a unit cost - the same to actually package the order regardless of how many items. The store owner will decide who and how much to locally tax. The "Tax Type" is not an actual amount.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again.

Does the USPS plugin still work properly? It seems it hasn't been updated in a while and there are current issues.

store currently has this setting:

Quote

$4 US, $7 Canada, $13 ROTW, plus a charge of $1 per additional item ($1.25 for ROTW orders). 

Can this be done in Cubecart?

 

He says:

Quote

Honestly, this doesn't really fit the model I have worked out for how I do shipping. Again, USPS costs are different from stamps.com's negotiated rates. So I'm not sure if this is actually useful to me.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What module has those rates set?

All-in-One-Shipping can set those fixed rates.

USPS does have "customer counter" rates, as well as "commercial negotiated" rates. Unless and until the store owner enters into an agreement with USPS for "commercial negotiated" rates, requests made to the automated online Rate Request (aka, WebTools API) will be the same as those charged customers who walk up to the "customer counter" at the Post Office brick-n-mortar facility.

Stamps.com may offer the same rates as "commercial negotiated" because their negotiated rates may be even cheaper (that is, they still make a profit for the services they provide). If Stamps.com has an API, a plugin could be written for that.

Edited by bsmither
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm finding the All in One a bit confusing.

If I want to set:

USA

Canada

Rest of World

How do I do this? I can only go up to 5 items it seems. And do I need to add zones?

Edited by vidmarc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the General tab, check the box for Total quantity-based rates. Save the changes.

On the Add New Shipping Zone tab, enter USA as the description and check One or Countries. Save.

Now, on the USA tab, click Add New Shipping Rates. Fill out the form. Click the link to add another group of blank rate rows. Repeat as necessary. Save.

Add another shipping zone, Canada.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the General tab, click the Show Advanced Settings link. This opens more options. (It will look messed up - this needs some better styling.) Check the box next to Per Item Component. Save.

Back to the USA tab, you can see that each row now has an initial shipping rate plus an offset per item.

For example:

Method Name: Small Order (can be named whatever you want)
Shipping Price: 2.00 + 1.00 per item
Total Quantity of Items: 1-5

Method Name: Medium Order (can be named whatever you want)
Shipping Price: 1.75 + 1.00 per item
Total Quantity of Items: 6-15

Method Name: Large Order (can be named whatever you want)
Shipping Price: 1.25 + 1.00 per item
Total Quantity of Items: 16-500

These rows then calculate a derived cost of:

Small: 3.00 to 7.00
Medium: 7.75 to 16.75
Large: 17.25 to 501.25

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the General tab, Advanced Settings, make sure the correct checkbox is checked. There should be four checkboxes, and Per Item is the second checkbox. Be sure to Save.

If you mean the Shipping Price column now shows something like "2.99 + 0.00 per item", and you find you wish to edit that phrase, click directly on the 0.00 of the phrase. The 0.00 turns into a text entry field with 0.00 as the entered value. Change the value and click Save.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This image shows a control panel that does NOT have the text entry field "Name to show as shipping method". Therefore, I think your version may not be the latest.

In admin Manage Extensions, verify that the version shown is 1.0.10 or later.

Upgrading the actual plugin does not mean you have to start over.

Also, in Advanced Settings, enable the Flat Rate Component.

I also suggest enabling the Total quantity-based rates.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't get an exact $6 to ship 3 discs. Is there a way to fix this?

USA, 1 disc      4.00 + 0.00 per item    1 - 1
USA, 2 discs    4.00 + 0.50 per item    2 - 2    
USA, 3 discs    4.00 + 0.66 per item    3 - 3
USA, 4 discs    4.00 + 0.75 per item    4 - 4    
USA, 5 discs    4.00 + 0.80 per item    5 - 5
   
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One rate row:

Method Name: Shipping (can be named whatever you want)
Shipping Price: 3.00 + 1.00 per item
Total Quantity of Items: 1-12 (really doesn't matter, but needed*)

One disk in the order calculates to:
3.00 + (1*1.00) = 4.00

Three disks calculates to:
3.00 + (3*1.00) = 6.00

* Total Quantity of Items for a distinct row allows for different fixed base costs for distinct ranges of quantities. For example, any order that has 1 to 12 discs would have a fixed base cost of 3.00 for the cost for that size of the box, 13 to 24 disks would have a fixed base cost of 4.00 for the cost for that size of the box, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry. Here is what was describing. Enter only what is shown for each of the text entry boxes:

Method Name/Description column (has one text entry box):
Standard

Shipping Price column (has two text entry boxes):
3.00
1.00

Total Quantity of Items column (has two text entry boxes):
1
12

 

Edited by bsmither
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...