Shipping advice

[Tama^chan]

Hi everyone - sorry, lengthy post!

I am busy setting up the shipping tables in Actinic 8.5 and need a bit of advice.

Australia Post has a complex way of calculating shipping within Australia that is based on a combination of postal codes, weights, and volumes, and then to top it off there are fixed price satchel options as well...
Posting to overseas from Australia is much more straightforward and only based on country and weight with no volume restrictions.

With our old website we used to only advise customers of shipping costs after they had placed their order, via a separate email. This way we ensured that customers were getting the cheapest shipping possible, but using this method we run the risk of losing some business as it gives customers a bit of time to think about their order (rather than capitalising on the impulse buy by checking out the shopping cart with the total and paying immediately).

The international posting will work a treat with Actinic as the tables are simple to create. On the other hand, postage within Australia is a bit of a nightmare and does not really lend itself to simple weight/volume/state based calculations - I have created approximate tables, but it will probably end up with some customers being overcharged and some undercharged.

MY questions:
a) Is there a way of setting shipping up so that International customers will be given a shipping total, and Australian customers will be given some sort of "shipping to be advised" message? (we would then enter shipping costs into their order manually). Or are the options all or nothing?

b) Should I just stick with the tables I have created, and live with the possible overcharging/undercharging and hope it all evens out?
(I am a litle scared about possible overcharging as a lot of our customers are in the uni student age bracket, and hence tight with their money and may be scared off by postage prices that seem high - any advice from businesses with experience with similar situations is appreciated!)

Thanks!

[leehack]

Trish

a) If you do this, you are going against what you want to do in fulfilling the complete order online, however it can be done, you could enter a £0.00 cost for all Oz shipping with a clear message that shipping will be advised. I don't think this is a good idea personally, let people know the full cost as they go to pay or risk losing business or people changing their minds after they find out the costs.

b) Shipping will often balance itself out and the main point to remember here is that if you have an order and you get stung, you can adjust it for next time. I don't think you get perfect global shipping instantly, it's a case of fine tuning after you have some real orders. Having said that you should be able to get quite close. Why not take the time to explain how you want it to work and show us how you have it set up (screenshots would be good). We may be able to pass on some advice.

However long it takes to set shipping up, i think it is worth the time as it is a one off job and will then work forever in theory.