Shipping Headaches

[jim25]

Can anyone shed some light please, I only have 2 forms of shipping a price under 1.5kg with Royal Mail and a price over 1.5kg with Fed Ex.

The site will be selling sweets

At the moment the products are listed with two options, 200g bag or a full jar price where the weight varies.

What is the best way to set the shipping charges, also the over 1.5kg fed ex delivery needs to have the option of paying extra for next day delivery.

Do I need to set the weight of each product in the details panel? Even though they are listed in weight/price format?

Hope this makes sense

[leehack]

Thread moved to the shipping forum.

[jim25]

Sorry about that.

My shipping needs are a bit different to what I first thought,

I need to set 2 different price lists,

Under 1.5kg sliding scale prices with RM
Over 1.5kg sliding scale prices with Fed Ex

Is this possible?

[leehack]

Yes that's possible, sounds like a simple and standard setup. Your first question is do I need to relay to the customer which shipping service they are selecting or can i just have a delivery information page for anyone that wants to know.

If, as with most customers, they don't care if you use a pigeon as long as it gets there on time, i see no reason to split the services, have your weights against your products and have the tiers of charging in the shipping settings. When a purchase is made they will get charged the appropriate amount and you select the appropriate shipping service.

Yours sounds as simple as it can get in fact, customer doesn't even need to make a choice, just charge them according to weight and use the appropriate service. The inbuilt help is very good within actinic in this area, if you struggle to understand the matrix, it is very logical though, remember the values are 'up to' values in the matrix.

[jim25]

Hi Lee

Thanks for getting back to me, how can I give customers the option to choose the next day delivery for an additional charge. Also I have no weights set in the details section of the products. I used the product options to display the choice of 200g or a full jar price.

Screenshot provided,

If I need to set the weight in the details panel, do I set it for 200g or full jar price? I can't see how this would work or have I done something wrong?

[leehack]

You have to set a weight against each product in order to use by weight shipping. Choose what is the most common weight, set that as the default weight in actinic and every product where you do not set a weight will use that weight. For every product that is not that default weight, you HAVE to set a weight on the product. It's immaterial what weight you have put in the name of the choices, that could just as easily say 'bananas', it's a text field, not a weight field.

To provide a choice on shipping options, is essentially a case of copying your original matrix, changing the price and renaming the class, so you have two classes. Read the help on creating classes to understand those.

You have a matrix within each class then, each class is a delivery option and thus has its associated charges included and auto calculated.

[jim25]

Do you mean a shipping class for the 2 sets of shipping prices.

Also I am still confused as to applying the weights, if for example, I set 200g for the weight on "coffee crunch" seen in the screenshot. Then a customer selects the full jar radio button how will that calculate the correct weight.

Also the prices have been set using the product options is this wrong as well.

[leehack]

You will need to set up the options as real products, define them as permutations and set the weight against those real products. Search the forum or the inbuilt help on 'hidden products' to understand that requirement.

With shipping you have zones (the areas/regions you ship too), inside zones you have a class or classes, classes are the delivery options, so two delivery options = two classes required. Each class has its own charging matrix, thus independent of the other classes but still within the same zone.

[jim25]

I have used permutations for all the products

Can you take a look and see if its right.

[leehack]

Ok so you are halfway there, you now need to create the hidden products and in the 'product' column of your screenshot, assign those products. Thus, when someone buys a choice they are in fact buying a real product (that is how stock control is also done) and because it's a real product it has a real weight and charges the correct shipping.

[jim25]

At least I got something right..

How exactly do you create the hidden options?

I can set the weight to 200g on the original product and assign the 200g option to that product in the product tab, but what about the 3.4kg option, I guess this is where the hidden option comes in but im stumped.

Also do I need to check the shipping box in the permutations

[leehack]

Product options wizard is your best bet, thats the quickest, details in the inbuilt help.

[jim25]

I can't find anything about a product options wizard, or hidden products. In the help guide with my v10 software

However I think I'm on the right track, I have copied and pasted a product, changed the weight to the full jar weight. I have checked hide on web site which I assume makes it a hidden product.

Then in the permatation product on the original product have assigned the full jar to the hidden duplicate with the different weight

Is that correct?

[leehack]

If i type in product options into the search facility in actinic and look at the options it gives me about 6th down is the exact one you need with lovely pictures and everything. Maybe you're on an older version that doesn't have it, i suspect you're not looking hard enough though. If you still don't see it, perhaps try a reinstall the help might get updated, it could be corrupt i guess.

If you also type into the search 'permutations' that should give you all you need.

You seem to not be making the relationship between whether i write you out a full step by step guide for an hour or indeed if you use the help in the product, either way you are going to have to accept that you will need to get stuck in and more importantly, read. The help has pictures and will explain far better and i do not have an hour to spare typing.

[jim25]

Hi Lee

Thanks for all your help, I have tracked down the right help files, but they seem to be more about setting different prices for different products using the product options.

I can't find any material that explains creating hidden products with different weight settings.

I understand you don't have all day to help me, but I don't want to make thousands of hidden products only to find out I have done it wrong.

I think I have done what you said, I just want to make sure it is right, I have attched a screen shot showing the hidden product and the permutation panel linking to the seperate weight options