Postage: Combining weight with flat postage price bands

[era]

Hi,



Hi, I have been using PayPal buttons in my retail website but I understand these will cease to supported by eJ and so I must migrate to the eJ cart. Can you help me in setting up the postage? I've read the documentation but I just can’t get what I need from it. I have experimented with the postage cart settings though and this is where I've got to:



I am trying to set a system of rules for posting items from the UK (often more than one in a sending, so varying the weight) using the UK’s system of flat rate postage charges per weight band – they don’t charge by the gram as such. So, this involves combining BANDS of flat rate postage charge with a cart-TOTALISED weight for all the items in the sending. For example, I want to do this for items shipped WITHIN the UK:



Weight: 0g – 250g = £1.82

Weight: 251g- 500g = £2.13

Weight: 501g-750g = £2.66 etc. (it reality there are six bands).



I’ve set the weight of a test product in setting up the item at 200g.



I then go to the Edit Cart Shipping Setting page.

On the first page I select ‘Product will be shipped from the UK’.

Beneath I select ‘Shipping Destinations’ and set that to UK.

I leave the weight on grams and everything else on zero (I might add weight of packing later).



On the next page I set ‘Create New Shipping Rule’ to ‘Flat’; select UK in the ‘Countries’ drop-down; set ‘Currency’ to Pounds Sterling; set Minimum Weight’ to 0g and ‘Maximum Weight’ to 250g (for the first weight band) and Submit to create the rule.

I then do this for each of the next two weight bands.



When I test it this seems to work fine with postage ticking up every time I add an item which crosses a weight threshold.



What I now want to do is add to this a similar set of weight bands for a GROUP of European countries (which all share the same price bands) and then a third group of countries covering the rest of the world. I hope I can set countries as groups in this way as it would be tedious to have to set each one individually. This is where I run into a wall. Can this be done or can you suggest a compromise solution? Thanks....



ERA

[E-junkie_Monster]

Hi ERA,



This can be done, but unfortunately we do not have a way to support "groups" of countries. We do have a way to cover "the rest of the world" though, so you don't need to make a rule for every single country on the list.



The first thing to do would be to change what you have entered in your Shipping Destinations menu. This actually just lists which countries you will ship to at all, it doesn't connect any costs to any certain countries. You will want to either select each individual country you will ship to (by holding down CTRL or CMMD when clicking on each entry) OR you can just clear all selections which defaults to allowing all countries on the list.



Next you will be working in the shipping rules screen. Unfortunately you will need to create an individual set of rules for each band in each European country that has that special price range.



Once that is done you only need to create one more set of rules which covers the rest of the world. Use the "All Countries" setting for these. That will actually be interpreted as "All -Other- Countries" apart from the ones which you have already created rules for.



I would also recommend setting the Max Weight limit on the most expensive rate that you will charge to 0, which removes the upper limit on that band. That way it won't be possible to place an order so heavy that it won't be shippable.

[era]

Hi,



Many thanks, I have now got the eJ cart up and running with your help!



A couple of things would be very helpful in the future, if your boffins can arrange them. One would be an ability to set up a GROUP postings rule on the second 'Cart Shippings Settings' screen. Also it would help if it were possible to select and amend a particular rule instead of having to delete and re-enter it.



One last question:

If I alter the values for cost or weight of packaging on the first 'Shippings' screen does it alter those values for all the existing shipping rules or is it necessary to delete them all and start again? Thanks...



Regards,

ERA

[E-junkie_Guru]

Thanks for the suggestions; we've already got those on the wishlist for consideration as new features to be added at some point in the future. In case you haven't seen it yet, this help page explains all our shipping settings in detail:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.shipping.htm



The two screens for Shipping settings work somewhat independently. Settings on the first screen are "global" and aren't considered part of any shipping rules you define on the second screen, but they do apply to every shippable order in addition to whatever charges your rule(s) may calculate for the buyer's order. Clicking Next from that first screen saves those settings and proceeds to the second screen which is only for viewing/adding shipping rules; if you don't wish to create a new rule there, just click Back to Admin (rather than Submit to save a new rule). We realize this is a bit confusing and are improving matters in that regard for the new Seller Admin we've been building.