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Shipping methods
The Ecommerce Plus templates currently support the following shipping
methods:
Information on how to use them is set out below. We also outline
the options available.
No
shipping
As the name suggests, this is the option to choose if there are
no shipping costs involved.
Flat
rate shipping
If you select flat rate shipping you can enter 2 shipping
costs in the product admin section. One is for the cost to ship
one of
an item, and the second is the cost to ship the second and subsequent
instance of an item.
If the cost for the first item is $5.00 and
the cost for the second and subsequent is zero then total shipping
cost will be $5.00 however many of a product is shipped. Second
and subsequent is for one particular product only. If you sell
one product x and one product y then both will be charged the first
shipping cost.
If you want it so that store wide to ship one of any product
is $XX and to ship any second and subsequent product is $YY then
you would
have to use weight based shipping.
Weight
based shipping
Shipping is calculated by product weight according to the shipping
zone to easily facilitate national and international shipping.
If weight based shipping is selected, then the country zone can
be set in the countries
admin panel, and new zones can be edited by following the Edit
Postal Zones link in the main admin panel.
The system works such that you can set a series of weight limits
and shipping costs for packages up to those weight limits. The
weight can be in pounds, kg, ounces, whatever. You give it meaning
by what you enter as the product
weight in the products admin page.
For instance, if you have entered a weight of 2.4 in the products
page, and that to you means 2.4 kilos, then if your weight limit
is up to 3 then that is up to 3 kilos also. With the price, that
will be whatever the currency you use is. If it is 4.5 and you
use dollars, then it is $4.50.
To help calculate the decimals of pounds / ounces
just put the figure in the pounds column into the weight field
of your product admin page - just
the
numbers,
not
the "lbs"
1 oz = 0.0625 lbs
2 oz = 0.125 lbs
3 oz = 0.1875 lbs
4 oz = 0.25 lbs
5 oz = 0.3125 lbs
6 oz = 0.375 lbs
7 oz = 0.4375 lbs
8 oz = 0.5 lbs
9 oz = 0.5625 lbs
10 oz = 0.625 lbs
11 oz = 0.6875 lbs
12 oz = 0.75 lbs
13 oz = 0.8125 lbs
14 oz = 0.875 lbs
15 oz = 0.9375 lbs
16 oz = 1.0 lbs
17 oz = 1.0625 lbs
etc. etc.
If this table is placed into excel it's fast to
calculate the exact decimal for larger weights. We have a sample
spreadsheet available
for download here.
If your highest weight is 50 and the price for that is $5.00,
and you set "For every 5 above the highest weight add an extra
0.5" then at a weight of 55, the price would be $5.50, at
a weight of 60 the price would be $6.00 and so on.
NOTE
Products that have a weight of zero are not considered for shipping. If
weight is not important set all weights to zero and set a really
high "max
weight" limit.
Weight based shipping methods can be disabled at a given
weight.
On the postal zones admin page, just enter an "x" at
the point where a given shipping method ceases to be available. (minimum
Version 4.9.0 required).
Weight based shipping can be set as a percentage. To do this just
add a percentage sign after the value. eg 10% instead of 10 for
the cost. (minimum
Version 5.1.0 required).
Price based shipping
The idea here is the similar to the weight based
shipping in that you would need to define the price per postal
zone:
In Main Settings choose "Price based shipping"
Then click on "Postal Zones"
Name one or more zones (for example USA, Canada, International
- just zone 1, 2, 3 etc.)
Click on "Edit Rules"
As an example fill in Max Price with $20.00 in the
first column and $5.00 in the second column - that would mean that
the shipping cost of items up to a price of $20 would be $5, continue
like that until you have all the prices and zones you require.
NOTE
Price based shipping methods can be disabled at a given price.
On the postal zones admin page, just enter an "x" at the point where
a given shipping method ceases to be available. (minimum Version 4.9.0 required).
Price based shipping can be set as a percentage. To do this
just add a percentage sign after the value. eg 10% instead of 10
for
the cost. (minimum Version 5.1.0 required).
Canada
Post
You will first need to obtain a Retailer ID from
Canada Post. You can then enter that in your main admin page to
get started
along with the Post Code from where you will be shipping. After receiving
the Retailer ID, Canada Post will need to put you into production
mode, until then you can set this switch for the ASP or PHP version
to have it in test mode. From there you can also opt to use product
dimensions. These additions are made to your vsadmin/includes.asp
/ .php page. Dimensions must be given in centimeters and weights
in kilograms / grams. If you are using dimensions then you will need
to log into your Canada Post admin and set the container size, be
careful here as if you have a large setting and are only shipping
a relatively small item then the charge will be made for the large
container size.
Free
shipping
This option is used in conjunction with discounts
and coupons. It enables you to set free shipping only for orders
within a particular country which match the criteria you stipulate
in the discount set up eg. free shipping for all orders over
$100.
To set the countries to which free shipping applies, go to your countries
admin
page and
you will
see
a column "FSA" which
stands for "Free Shipping Applies". Only those countries
checked will be eligible for free standard shipping. You will also
need to check the FSA box for the shipping methods it should apply
to. Remember that a rule will have to be set up first in your discount
admin page
for
this to work and that it will apply store-wide. This is not available
for flat rate shipping.
Pack
products
For USPS, UPS, Price and Weight Based shipping
there is a choice of packing products together or separately,
this can be found on the
main admin page.
Postal
zones
This option is only shown if you have chosen Weight Based or Price
Based shipping. The first screen is a "named" list of the
zones you wish to support. The names are for your own purposes only
really,
and
can be anything like "Zone 1", "Europe", "Eastern
Europe" or whatever has meaning for you. Once you have added
some zone names and clicked submit, go back to this page and you
will see that there is a link "Edit Zone Rules" next to
the zone names. The first column is a list of weight limits. The
second column is a list of costs. The actual scale of the weight
limits is irrelevant really and can have any meaning you wish, such
as ounces, kilograms, pounds etc.
If you want ALL zones to have
multiple shipping methods click on the link on the postal zones
page:
Please click here to set all zones to use multi shipping methods,
like "Standard" and "Express" shipping.
If you only want certain zones to have multiple shipping methods
then click on "Edit Zones" for that postal zone and click
on the link:
This zone is set to only use one shipping method. To use multi
shipping methods for this zone, like "Standard" and "Express" shipping,
please click here.
There are regional
updaters here, which will allow you to replace
the US States with UK Counties, Canadian Provinces etc.
Note: From version 4.3.0 up to 5 shipping methods for weight /
price based shipping are now available. (Previously 2 were available.)
You
can also
set the shipping method name on the admin zones page per shipping
zone.
Shipping
countries
The store software displays a list of worldwide countries in the checkout phase,
and their attributes can be edited here. Firstly you can choose if you wish to
ship to the country at all. Be careful when deciding this as it is tempting to
support every country to increase sales, but unfortunately some also attract
more fraudulent orders than others. Country tax can be set on this page also.
The figure is expressed as a percentage, so for instance if a country incurs
16% tax, then just enter 16 in the box provided.
The position can be used to set the order the countries are displayed in the
checkout drop down. "Home Country" will put that country on the top
of
the
list. "On Top" will place the country behind the Home Country.
This
means
for example that you can have the "United States" above the "United
Kingdom",
and then the rest in the usual alphabetical order.
Home Country + is used with the US / Canada regional plug-in. If you have chosen "Weight
based
shipping" you
are
also
given
the
option to set the shipping zone that applies to that country. We have ordered
the countries
roughly into the United States, the Americas, Europe and the rest of the world,
but do examine these carefully for the countries you decide to ship to.
NOTE
From version 4.9.0 if on the countries admin page there
are no non "Home Countries" then the "Out Of State" text
entry is not included on the checkout form.
View Tutorial
States
The store software displays a list of the US states in the checkout phase, and
on this page you are given the option of supporting that state, and if shipping
to that state incurs any State Taxes.
NOTE
From version 4.9.0 if on the states admin
page no states are selected the "states" dropdown
is not included on the checkout form.
Shipping
estimator
This feature was introduced in version 4.9.0 and allows
your customers to be presented with an estimate of their shipping
costs from the cart and before going through checkout. They need
to select the country and / or state where they are purchasing from
and they will be presented with the cheapest shipping method available
depending on the information you have set up for shipping choices
in the admin.
This is an optional feature and can be switched on through includes.asp
/ includes.php
ASP Version -> Add this line
to includes.asp to switch on the feature...
estimateshipping=TRUE
If you are using weight based shipping that is split
into state zones then you will need to define the State where
you will be shipping from
defaultshipstate="California" PHP Version -> Add this line
to includes.php to switch on the feature...
$estimateshipping=TRUE;
If you are using weight based shipping that is split
into state zones then you will need to define the State where
you will
be shipping from
$defaultshipstate="California";
Customer
shipping carrier selector
Another feature added in version 4.9.0. This allows customers
to choose between shipping carriers on checkout and select the price
and method that best suits them. On the final checkout page they
will be presented with a drop down list of carriers that you have
defined
and they can check the cost of each available price option and make
their selection.
This is an optional feature and can be switched on through includes.asp
/ includes.php
ASP Version -> Add one or more of these lines to includes.asp
depending on which carriers you wish to offer to your customers.
alternateratesups="UPS Rates"
alternateratesusps="USPS Rates"
alternateratesweightbased="Weight Based"
alternateratescanadapost="Canada Post"
... only include those that you have chosen to offer. The text in "Quotes" such
as "Weight Based" can
be changed if you want to use a different language or different description.
PHP Version -> Add one or more of these lines
to includes.php depending on which carriers you wish to offer to
your customers.
$alternateratesups="UPS Rates";
$alternateratesusps="USPS Rates";
$alternateratesweightbased="Weight Based";
$alternateratescanadapost="Canada Post";"
... only include those that you have chosen to offer. The text in "Quotes" such
as "Weight Based" can
be changed if you want to use a different language or different description.
Shipping FAQ
 Can I show
shipping costs before checkout?
Can I use
multiple shipping methods?
I don't
need to charge a per item shipping...someone can order 1 product
or 20 products and I charge the same amount - I want them to have
the option of choosing either standard or express and not be charged
per item.
I
want to charge $5 for the first item entered into the cart, and
then $1 for each additional item. What method should I use?
How
do I set up shipping based on a percentage of the final sales price?
How
do I add tax to shipping?
Can I show
shipping costs before checkout?
Yes you can by employing the shipping estimator.
Can
I use multiple shipping methods?
It's not possible to mix 'n' match domestic shipping methods
but you can give
your
customers
a choice of carrier on checkout. From version 5.0 it
is
also possible to use a different shipping method for domestic and international
orders by selecting from the drop down menu in the main admin settings.
I
don't need to charge a per item shipping...someone can order 1
product
or 20 products and I charge the same amount - I want them to have
the option of choosing either standard or express and not be charged
per item.
Using weight based shipping, set every product a very low weight,
(say 0.1). Then set up your postal zones with only one rule per zone,
which has a very high max weight, (say 9999) and the cost as your
shipping cost.
On the admin main page make sure "pack products together" is
set.
I
want to charge $5 for the first item entered into the cart, and
then $1 for each additional item. What method should I use?
Use weight based shipping and set every weight to 1 to make things easy. Then
in the postal zones section, set the rules so that a weight of 1 is $5, a weight
of 2 is $6 and for each 1 above the highest weight add an extra $1.
How
do I set up shipping based on a percentage of the final sales price?
In the admin main page set up the shipping type to price based shipping. Then
for the postal zones admin page click on edit rules, and then just set something
like...
for every 1 above the highest weight add an extra 0.2 which would charge shipping
at 20%.
for every 1 above the highest weight add and extra 0.35
..which would add shipping at 35%.
The first example for instance would round to the nearest 20 cents
of course, but you could say
for every 0.5 above the highest weight add an extra 0.1
How
do I add tax to shipping?
Open the file vsadmin/includes.asp or php and change taxShipping=0 to taxShipping=1.
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