Shipping Costs by PostCode

[thedoc01]

I have a client who sells doors on line, and as such the costs are dependant upon the distance from his shop and is determined by postcode.
Anyone know of a way to implement such a procedure? As the customer puts in his postcode, the delivery cost is automatically calculated? Mole End were not able to help.

Thanks

[Duncan Rounding]

This is not possible out of the box - but many people would like to use it: http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=38625
You could contact teclan about it and see if they can help.

[thedoc01]

Thanks drounding.
Surprised this has not been tackled by actinic before.

[chris ashdown]

Most delivery companies base their price on Volumetric weight rather than distance, which would probably put his doors into only a few catagories Heavy, Medium and Light etc if they are all basically the same size

[Paul Bulpit]

As you see my name referenced in the thread link above, many of us would have liked this capability.

However, you come to learn that customers who are some distance from your physical address, ordering online when you could be anywhere, don't necessarily like to be penalised for extra delivery costs because of their location.

The answer is to follow the likes of the big names, and have a blanket charge as Actinic intends. Make a little bit of profit on the 80% of goods shipped to the main geographic areas and absorb the extra cost of the 20% that cost you a bit more to send out.

So in our case, we don't bother with the extra costs associated with sending goods to the north of Scotland; the exceptions are Northern Ireland and offshore islands (where crossing water is involved, and understandably so) and the Channel Islands (where couriers tend to be pricey and Royal Mail only offers First Class Post to a maximum of 20kg). These are dealt with by the customer selecting their location from the drop-down.

If they don't do it right our T&C allows us to edit the order accordingly.


___________
Paul
Supplying Florists' Nationwide

[thedoc01]

Fair points Paul - thanks.

[Darren B]

we do charge varying rates depending on the customer location, carriers charge us more when we use them and it costs us more to send an item on our own transport further aswell. Unfortunately there is no easy way around it in actinic except let the customer choose there ocation from the drop down.

In reality the people that live in the highlands of scotland understand that it cost more to ship an item to them than it would to the person 5 miles down the road. Yes someone will always moan and they do on the odd occasion but then we dont see delivering a conservatory roof for around £30 as that exspensive when you have just spent £1200.

[leehack]

Looking at shipping costs in isolation is generally a mistake IMO, look at shipping as a whole, sure you will lose on a few but will gain on many. Tally up what youve paid for shipping for a year against what you took in shipping costs and adjust according to that, simple shipping is so simple and powerful online if you can possibly do it.

Understand your predicament though Darren, light but large things can be a difficult one to do.

[Darren B]

Understand your predicament though Darren, light but large things can be a difficult one to do.

In reality we have little problems compared to the volume and value of sales, there are many people that feel delivery shgould be free aswell but we also do not belive in charging people who collect it more by secretly adding to the list price. If you can collect it then it should cost you less.

You have to look at your own business model and product range then decide how to ship and how to charge if you need to.

Being able to control shipping charges by the first couple of letters of a postcode would be great but i cant see an easy way to achieve this with the current shipping variations avaliable.

[Sean Williams]

I'm with Paul on this one - we have finally come to realise it's better to have a blanket UK charge rather than 'penalise' those in the Highlands, Islands and Channel Isles.
We tend to make 10% or so on shipping in general, so it isn't a hardship to lose a few bob on the out of the way deliveries.
We have a B2B customer in the Highlands who has just informed us that their couriers don't charge them extra when collecting for delivery to the rest of the UK - they have a blanket UK charge; and that's with UPS and Interlink.
Are the rest of us south of the border being taken for a ride then?

[Darren B]

We have a B2B customer in the Highlands who has just informed us that their courier don't charge them extra when collecting for delivery to the rest of the UK - they have a blanket UK charge; and that's with UPS and Interlink.
Are the rest of us south of the border being taken for a ride then?

it would seem we are, two of our carriers (not couriers) charge extra for out lying areas as do a few couriers i have used for my other business