Multiple shipping option question

[bughaus]

Hi!

We're an auto parts store and have a shipping question that I couldn't find an answer to. We are planning on setting up our shipping costs as flat-rate via FedEx by order cost, however on very small items under a certain price point we want to offer USPS Priority Mail but the caveat is they have to be able to fit in a small flat-rate box. While we can determine the items that would qualify for this, we have to be able to say that if they order 20 of these small bolts but one large metal brake line, even though the order total stays under the small-part price point, it doesn't qualify due to the larger item on the order. So basically any order under $25 will qualify for the USPS shipping unless a larger, but still cheap, item is included which would then force them up to the next shipping cost tier. Is this a bit too crazy to make work?

Thanks!
Eric

[ShopSite Lauren]

I believe that with both FedEx and USPS, if you have one of those enabled, and you have specified customers can select from the shipping method that supports flat rate boxes, then you can associate certain products with those boxes. Let me see if I can describe this well enough. I am going to use FedEx as an example, because I don't have a USPS account setup in my store, but I do have a FedEx account.

1 - I turn on FedEx (USPS in your case), and I make sure I have the priority optioned enabled. Also, for shipping, I would suggest going to Preferences > Store Text > Shipping, and naming your flat rate shipping option something like "FedEx Shipping"

2 - Go to Products > highlight a product that is small enough to fit in a flat rate box > Edit Product Info. There is a section called "Shipping And Download Information", within this section there should be a pull down menu called "FedEx (or USPS) Shipping Container" where you can select the flat rate/priority shipping boxes. Select the same shipping box for all products that will fit into that small box. Also make sure they all have correct weights assigned.

3 - if an order has only the products that have the small box specified, AND they are within the weight limit, the lower shipping rate should be displayed to the customer. If a product is in the order that does not have that box specified, the lower shipping rate will not be displayed.

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Another option would be to use the weight field in ShopSite, not as the product weight, but as a way to differentiate between the two shipping options. For example, all products that can fit into the flat rate box, enter a "0" for their weight. Then all products that don't fit in those boxes enter "1" for their weight.

Then go to Commerce Setup > Shipping, and setup shipping by weight. All products 0.00-0.99 will be your lower flat rate price. All products 1.00 up to 10000.00 will be charged the higher shipping rate.

[bughaus]

Hi Lauren,

Thank you for the help! I'm running into some snags however. I grabbed two items off of our site, one I put as no weight and one as 3 pounds. We have USPS as being a maximum weight of 1 pound. Here's the problems we're seeing so I must be doing something wrong:
1) Shopsite seems to disregard weights when shipping is set-up by order cost. I have the maximum weight for a post office box to be 1 pound but once I add the 3 pound box to the site, it still offers the flat-rate USPS shipping as it's only looking at the order total.
2) On the shipping rates I specify USPS as 6.95 for orders from 0-$25.00, but I can't turn off USPS shipping on orders for $25.01-$50.00 where we want to only offer FedEx for $9.95. If I leave the USPS shipping at 0.00 on the various higher order totals the cart then offers free shipping via USPS - if takes leaving the box blank as 0.00 and it won't take NA or anything non-numeric. Shopsite seems to be all or nothing on shipping options as USPS can't be turned on and off by order total, or at least we can't figure out how to. Is there a way to not offer USPS across the board?
3) The shipping by weight would prob work but with 4000 items on our site, it would simply be too complicated to set it up. Auto parts are a nightmare in that way...

Thank you for all your help!
Eric

[bughaus]

Hold the phone! Just found that our host Lexiconn offers a shipping module add-on that should be able to adjust the shipping choices for us how we need. Hopefully this will work! Thank you again for our help!