Apply discounted UPS rate

[bob]

I have setup the shipping to access UPS shipping costs. I need to assign a discount to the returned
shipping cost returned by UPS. I.E. Charge 85% of the UPS shipping cost. The reason is that the
returned cost seems to be the full published rates and we have fairly deep discounts with UPS. We
want to pass some of this savings to the customer, but not the total discount. How do I apply a
percentage to the returned UPS cost?

Thanks!

[Jim]

There is currently not an option with UPS shipping to use the merchant's discounted rate or to give a discount on the shipping rate returned from UPS. We do send the merchant account info to UPS when rates are requested but with the API that we are currently implemented with they are not returning the discounted rate. I understand that they have a new API so perhaps when we get ShopSite upgraded to that new API there will be an option to request the merchant discounted rates on orders.

Note that there is an option in ShopSite 11 for FedEx shipping to use the merchant's discounted rate. So if you have a FedEx account you could try using that.

[bob]

Thank you for the response. Management is pushing to have this implemented.
I see that an option to copy and modify the shopping cart exists, but I have not
explored that facet yet. Can you tell me if it would be possible to edit the shopping
cart and apply the discount there?

Thanks,
-Bob

[Jim]

The only thing you can really change about the shopping cart is the look and arrangement of the layout by using custom templates. The calculations are all done in compiled C code so there is no way to manipulate those.

[bob]

Not good news.

I am new to Shop Site. Would Shop Site quote a customization such this?
If so, who would I contact. I think it a fairly simple modifciation. A percentage discount applied
on all values returned from UPS.

If not, can a third party cart be implemented that might have this function? Any suggestions
on one that might do what I am needing or any suggestions for that matter. This is a very
important issue that I cannot ignore.

Thanks again for your quick replies and assistance.
-Bob

[Jim]

Modifications to the code often affect much more than just the one feature that needs a tweak, so they aren't always as easy as one would think.

I'm not a programmer but you might be able to use Javascript to modify the values returned by UPS so the cart uses the modified values instead of the ones returned. Since UPS is called each time a product is added to the cart and/or the quantity of a product is changed, the code would need to be able to execute multiple times. There is a field on the Commerce Setup > Order System > Shopping cart screen called "Javascript added at start of
built-in CheckIt function:" where you might be able to add javascript to modify the values returned from UPS. Another option would be to make a custom template and In the template you could include the normal ShopSite javascript instead of the tag for it and then perhaps modify the javascript related to the shipping options. (note that if you did that and ShopSite changes its javascript it might break your functionality.)

To request a quote for customization you could send a message on this form
http://www.shopsite.com/help/contact/sales.html
Specify what you need and the time frame in which you need it.