Shipping Maintenance
| This is an overview of the shipping options available to you for calculating shipping rates for your orders. Shipping is fairly simple to set up, as long as you understand what tools are available, and how to use these tools to their fullest extent. We therefore suggest that you take the time to read the notes on this page to get a better idea of how shipping rates are implemented. First of all, you need to familiarize yourself with the concept of Store, Online and Custom shipping rate calculations. |
|
Overview - Store Rates refer to the
standard shipping rate calculation mechanism that comes
with the software. The rates themselves are defined by you,
and entered into the database using the supplied
functions. Store rates are, by their very nature, not meant
to be precise representations of actual rates. For example,
if you create Store Rates for 'UPS Ground', the rates you
enter will invariably differ from the actual rates charged
by UPS. This is because UPS factors in many variables that
are not necessarily available or known to you at the time
of calculation. Zones - The first determination you need to make is how you want to group countries and/or states together as shipping zones. Each zone is treated as a single shipping destination for the purpose of calculating a shipping rate. For example, you can group all the countries in Europe together as a single zone, in which case the same shipping rate will be calculated for all the countries in Europe. Or you may want to group all the western US states into a single zone. Grouping geographical areas greatly simplifies the entry of shipping rates into your database. Be aware though that, the more countries or states you group into a single zone, the greater the difference between your rates and the actual shipping rates charged by the shipping company will be. Shipping Method - This is used to group together a set of shipping rates (eg. 'UPS Ground', 'FedEx 2 Day Air', etc.). Each shipping method can apply to one or more shipping zone(s), which in turn can each have their own unique set of shipping rates. Therefore, you can have a unique set of shipping rates for each method/zone combination. As an example, this allows you to only display 'UPS Ground' shipping rates for US based orders, and 'FedEx International' for non-US destinations. Shipping Rates - Once you have determined which shipping methods you are going to use, and which zones they apply to, you can start entering the detail rates for each method/zone combination. Each shipping rate that you enter must have a weight or price range. This refers to the total weight and price of the order. So if you want to add $10.00 to orders that weigh between 1 and 5 pounds, you will create a shipping rate similar to this : Rate Type = 'Weight'; From = '1.00'; To = '5.00'; Add Amount = '10' You can also choose to enter a percentage, instead of a fixed amount. Naturally, the greater the weight or price range, the less accurate the calculated rate will be. For example UPS charges a certain amount for each pound of weight. To closely resemble this, you will have to enter a shipping rate record for each pound : Rate Type = 'Weight'; From = '0.00'; To = '1.00'; Add Amount = '1' Rate Type = 'Weight'; From = '1.01'; To = '2.00'; Add Amount = '2' ... This will of course require a large number of shipping rate records to be entered. Instead, it may be better to average the rates out over multiple pounds : Rate Type = 'Weight'; From = '0.00'; To = '5.00'; Add Amount = '3' Rate Type = 'Weight'; From = '5.01'; To = '9.00'; Add Amount = '7' ... This may mean that you will be short a few cents on some orders, and over on others, but you would have greatly eased the process of entering your shipping rates. Unit of Weight - The measurement that you use to enter weight can be anything - Pounds, Kilograms, Ounces, Grams, etc. What is important is that you USE THE SAME MEASUREMENT FOR ALL WEIGHT RELATED ENTRIES THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE STORE. So if you have entered the weight of your products as Pounds, you must enter the weight ranges for your shipping rates in Pounds. |
|
Overview - Online Rates are realtime shipping rates
obtained directly from a shipping company by accessing
their servers over the internet. The rates returned by
these routines can be used to supplement your Store Rates,
or they can be used exclusively for
calculating shipping rates for your store. Each Online
Rate routine has its own set of requirements and limitations,
so be sure to check the additional help for the online
routine you want to use. |
|
Overview - If you want to develop your own shipping
rate routines, or enhance the supplied Store Rates routine,
then Custom Rates are the way to do it. To develop your
own Custom Rate routines you will need to have some ASP
programming knowledge. User Exit File - To overcome the problem of upgrading the software without overwriting your Custom Rate routines, we have provided a special file called a User Exit into which all Custom Rate routines must be placed. This file is located at UserMods/_INCship_.asp and can be edited with any good text based editor, such as Notepad. Any future upgrades to the main software folders will therefore leave your changes intact. |