Restricting Products To Particular Shipping Methods

[Darren B]

CASE STUDY.

Due to limitations in the shipping function, although full of features, it has one major draw back. You can not restrict a product to certain shipping methods.

Example :-

Product A is small and weighs 0.2kg so can be sent via royalmail or carrier
Product B is long and weighs 0.2kg so can not be sent via royalmail because it is to long but can via carrier.

So the problem is the customer selects product B and the cheapest delivery option comes up 1st royalmail, the customer selects this charge, unfortunately it can only be sent via carrier, which costs more. This is were the limitations of the software are noticed. Idealy we would restrict product B to shipping via carrier only but we cant.

If this was possible, what would happen if the customer orders product A & B, well becasue Product A can be sent by both methods and B only Carrier then the customer only gets the option to send via carrier. But as explained this is not possible.

So how do we make the shipping work this way.

One idea i have been thinking about is to fudge the weights of the products along with customising the shipping tables.

To do this we need to create 2 shipping classes, i have 10 zones to cover the world but if we do this correctly it will work the same way, all though the size restrictions (by fudging the weights) will apply to all zones

So what am i thinking.

Well all small items that can be sent via royalmail use there real weights which varies from 0.05kg to 1kg, now items that can not go by royalmail have there weight fudged, basically i make all these 10kg, this then means they will never be given the roymail shipping option. but allows the small items to still be sent this way.

There are restrictions doing it this way the main option being you only have one carrier delivery charge because if someone orders 2 of the large items and that comes up at 20kg, even though they dont weigh that it may give a false delivery charge if you create more than one table weight option

Now before i tackle this i shall open this to the forum for your suggestions. I intend to spend aslong as it takes to resolve this problem or come up with the best solution. I am happy to try various options as i am current building a new site and have no dead lines so have the perfect enviroment to try things. Plenty of products are already loaded and the zones are all created.

D

[BPJ553]

This is how I do it as we sell really odd shaped/weighted stuff that just doesn’t work using the regular shipping method of entering the items weight. So instead I set up shipping bands and each product uses a shipping band rather than its actual weight.

In the ‘Shipping & Handling’ section I used the following figures.

Default weight 0.0001
ROW 1 = .09 Cost, £1.69
ROW 2 = 9.99 Cost, £3.39
ROW 3 = 999.00 Cost, £5.94
ROW 4 = 9999.00 Cost, £9.35
ROW 5 = 99999.00 Cost, £17.01

And then for each product I use the following figures in the items weight.

CLASS 1 = 0.0001 (£1.69 GROUP)
CLASS 2 = 0.10 (£3.39 GROUP)
CLASS 3 = 10.00 (£5.94 GROUP)
CLASS 4 = 1000.00 (£9.35 GROUP)
CLASS 5 = 10000.00 (£17.01 GROUP)

A customer can order multiple items of the same thing and the shipping charge remains the same for that product type. If they order another item that has a higher shipping cost it knocks it up to the next level. This is also usefull for selling small expensive items that might weight a tiny amount but must go by courier anyway.

I have been using this method for about a year and it works really well for my product type. The only problem is when a customer orders a lot of stuff of one product type that occasionally we loose out on shipping. But because they ordered a lot of stuff we can accommodate that anyway.

Not perfect, but works for me.

[Darren B]

Ok Ben slightly different spin to what i have been looking at

But ok i like the way you have it, so far i have managed to get a working model on my experiment, i need to do some more adjustments to the bands and weights but it seems to be working, the next challange i face is introducing RM Special Delivery should follow the same lines as 1st class but higher charges.

The annoying thing i have is the cookies, as it remembers the last delivery option so when making changes you have to remember to go to the check out and change the choice or you dont always see the updated shipping IYKWIM

right once i get a fully working model i shall publish it here

D

[Darren B]

OK

i have released the site with the new shipping charges / configuration

so the way i have found to restrict products to certain delivery methods is as follows.

I have 2 shipping methods set up Royalmail and standard delivery

all items that can be sent via royalmail have been set with the real weight and i have defined the bands as follows

Royal Mail
0.18 = £2.00
0.25 = £2.95
0.50 = £3.95
0.75 = £4.95
1.50 = £5.95
3.00 = £8.95

Standard Delivery
5.0 = £4.95
11.0 = £5.95
20.0 = £8.95
30.0 = £9.95
40.0 = £10.95

So items small enough for royalmail will fit into both delivery methods, items that are to large have had the weights adjusted to fit into the standard delivery option. So the royalmail option never appears in checkout.

Now this seems to work but will need adjusting and the bands may need opening up and charges adjusted to make it work a little more accuratley.

I have discovered a problem with my shipping though, if i order 4 items in the 5kg catagory it charges me £8.95 then if i add another to make 5 items which would be 25kg it is chrging me £17.90 instead of the £9.95.

I have deleted these shipping tables for the 30 and 40kg bands, compacted database and then recreated them but it still does it, does anyone have any ideas as to why or what i might have missed.

Now as this seems to be working apart from the minor gliche, i now have to recreate all my international charges for the other 9 zones oh joy looking all that up again

So guys any comments feed back or questions much appreciated and welcomed
D

[leehack]

You might have 'ship separately' or 'optimum weight' being used, can you make sure nothing extra is selected by mistake. Looks like it is taking the top band from the Royal Mail settings.

[Darren B]

Oh see wood and trees and all that

i set optimal weight ages ago, as it was the max carrier weight on the old system i was using so if someone brought loads of heavey stuff then it got split into more boxes

this was set to 20kg, so it ignores the 30kg and 40kg charges and doubles the 20kg charge.

but sorted now, seems to be working ok, as i said earlier it will need tweaking and i am sure i will come across items i have wrongly classified but will take the hit and change them to suit.

Thanks Lee

D

[leehack]

Oh see wood and trees and all that

Careful of the big bad wolf lol.

[BrianCurtis]

Does this have to be in V9 or is there an easier way now to do it? i have some products which are solvent-based and have to go by courier and are always £25 for the shipment even if it's a 4oz bottle or a 1ltr can. So i have a similar problem and was going to ask exactly this anyway.

Thanks

Brian

[leehack]

For V8 or V9.

You can either setup category based shipping for these products or have specific weight bands to cater for just these products by inputting a weight that differentiates them from the masses.

[BrianCurtis]

Hmm . . so what happens if the customer chooses several products (of these many solvents) from different sections? Not sure how to make the £25 fee just added once across several products because if not, won't each item be £25 and then the whole amount become hooge?

Thanks

PS: I've always hated shipping!

Beej

[leehack]

Part of the setup is coming up with a matrix that will cater for both single and multiple purchases. A typical example would be if all your products were set as 1Kg apart from the dodgy ones which were 100Kg. We'd take a guess and say that noone will ever buy more than 99 products at one time, so 100Kg and above is your safe place in which to play.

If each of these dodgy products is set to be 100kg and there is a tier in the shipping that caters for weights that are between 100kg and 10000kg, you then have a setup which caters for 99 normal products to be bought and 99 solvents to be bought, You could have a matrix like so for example:

0kg - £0.00
99Kg - £3.95
10000Kg - £25.00

[Darren B]

It seems there is other wasy to do this, i am not convinced but i am willing to be shown how

I will now hand the floor over to Mr Hack

[Rich Brady]

You need to use the volumetric weight calculation stipulated by your courier. Parcelfocre's equation (L x W x D) in centimeters then divide total by 6000.

Now in Business Settings | Shipping and Handing

Basis = Maximum Weight

Enter your shipping tables for RM and carrier.

Then in the Product Details populate:

Weight in Kg = Actual Weight
Volumetric Weight in Kg = Volumetric Weight

That should get the desired outcome Darren

[leehack]

I don't do requests Darren, particularly not on dance floors, i have 2 severely left feet.

[Darren B]

I don't do requests Darren, particularly not on dance floors, i have 2 severely left feet.

if i have two right feet will that help

Thanks Rich i can see i will need to pick your brains some more if this is the answer, im scheptical but always happy to be proven wrong