Yet another postage question!

[david.e.kay]

I have gone through previous postings but cannot find something that specifically answers my problem.
I have my postage settings set to "By Weight" - I sell old comics, all of which have different weights, so I am happy with this idea for now (apart from having to weigh every comic, of course, that will get old very quickly!)
My problem is this - the packaging I'm using weighs 166g - a padded mailing and two pieces of card. However, when shopping, the cart doesn't take this weight into account, so for example my first price band is $2 postage for anything weighing below 250g, but in the shopping cart that is coming up as 250g of comics alone, the packing materials are not being included. I have set the default package weight to 0.166, which I thought would solve this, but it hasn't.
Could someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

David Kay

http://www.backissuesheaven.com

[jont]

Hi David,

the actual weights you assign against the products are irrelevent (if you are not using a carriers shipping table) - so long as you set the shipping bands accordignly it does not matter. If you want to keep the weights accurate then add in the weight of the packaging to the weight of the product. If people buy multiple items this will be on the strong side but you can tweak your shipping bands to take this into account... and allow you to add in product weights without having to accurately weigh each and every one.

The default shipping weight is a null value if you do not assign a specific weight against each product. It may be worth setting this to your most popular comic size (plus the packaging) so you do not have to assign a weight against each item of that type.

HTH

[david.e.kay]

But if I were to set the default weight to the weight of 1 comic plus packaging, then didn't weigh each comic, and then a customer ordered say 5 comics, wouldn't they end up being charged for 5 padded bags and ten sheets of cardboard? I could refund the extra afterwards, but wouldn't the high postage costs be likely to put off the buyer right at the checkout phase?
Do you think I would be better to charge by item and then just average out the weight?

[jont]

That is the catch in adding in the weight to each item - it multiplies through ... you can mitigate this by clever setting of the shipping bands to take account of multiple purchases but will take some setting up to get to work.

You can average out the weight/cost so it operates on a "swings and roundabouts" position - wine some lose some. Its not ideal and you can lose customer and/or money.

Shipping by weight usually offers the most flexibility - it is getting the bands to work as you want them is the tricky part initially and then setting the product weights to trip the different bands. My product weights hardly bare any resemblance to the actual weight for certain items where I need it to trip a certain price point.

[david.e.kay]

I'm racking my brains as to how I could "tweak the bands" - are there any docs or kb articles anywhere on this?
Is it more a question of tweaking the product weights themselves to land in a price band?

[jont]

No real articles as such - it is a case of setting the products weights to such an amount that depending on how many are ordered they trip the next shipping band.

The bands can be anything you like - it is the products that make the bands work not the other way around.

Decide on a default weight - say 0.5kg and then calculate how many you can send according to your shipping costs and set the band accordingly eg if 10 comics move into a new price with your carrier then set the band at 9 x 0.5kg so the 10th will trip it over into a new banding etc.

You can then set the weight of heavier comics accordingly - say at 1.0kg so users can buy less before the band kicks in. Once you have the base range owrking you can manipulate specific product weights to work with the shipping accordingly - a common trick is to set a weight at say 10000kg if you want to allow free shipping as the bands can go up and down again depending on the value assigned .... you can even set say 4 or 5 sub bands if that is more suitable.

Eg: all the usual stuff works at 0kg - 10kg ($2.00 to $5.00) ... and set a higher band of weights working at say 500kg - 600kg (these again can be set at say $2.00 to $10.00) and a third sub band of say 2000kg - 4000kg (these again can be set at say $4.00 to $12.00)

Just because the weights increase the cost does not have to follow suit!

Hope that make sense

[Luddite]

This doesn't answer your question, but you could save yourself and your customers a whole load of hassle by just having one fixed shipping rate - sure, you'll lose money on some orders, but you'll gain on others. Might be worth trialling for a while?

Nick

[george]

For years I've been using Actinic and trying to find a `fair` postage charge method. We have heavy but low value books, weightless badges where an order can increase in value very quickly but still stay very light, but maybe need RM Special Delivery.

I get a fair bit of feedback from customers who won't order something small from their club site because the postage is £4.95.

Could do better.

[david.e.kay]

Actually it does - I see what you mean, it does give more flexibilty than just charging per comic - if I have something heavy, I can put that specific weight in, otherwise I just use the default weight. I just need to sit back and think carefully about how I'm going to play it.

THanks for your time - do you work for Actinic, or just like helping out on here?

[jont]

THanks for your time - do you work for Actinic, or just like helping out on here?

I should work for Actinic for the amount of time I spend on here

[fleetwood]

WOT! There is someone else selling comics on here!!!!

[david.e.kay]

Don't worry, I'm based in Australia so we shouldn't be locking horns too often!

[orcahouse]

You're lucky you don't live in the UK. Come August we've got to adjust postage costs to reflect the new size/weight combination charges that are being introduced. For anyone not up to speed here is the latest info: www.royalmail.com/pricinginproportion


Tom