Shipping products, help.

[mumeishi]

I have about 100 products listed, none of their weight is in, they are small beauty products from dermalogica. I don't know much about shipping to be honest, am I supposed to do it by individual product weight? What's the deal with the price option?

When somebody orders a product, I order from the manufacturer(I have no stock on hand), the product arrives in 2 days than I ship it out with standard shipping.

What I need to know is, how much to charge for shipping, how does the cost change if people order more than 1 item, and what carriers should I offer? I'm located in USA, FL.

Is there any modules I can download that will automate this all?

[justdogwalking.com]

The logical option would be to use Prestashop's default shipping by value option. Take a look in the PS wiki area it has instructions.
Re shipping process you are using has 2 shipping costs the one to you and the one from you. Can your supplier tell you their shipping costs? so you get a scale of 1,2,3 etc products with delivery cost to you of a,b,c etc. You could use the same shipping cost again for your delivery to customer. are use using mail or courier?
Do not try and be too perfect when you start. Be prepared to take a modest hit if you get it wrong I would imagine it will ony be a few cents. you can then correct as you go along.

[mumeishi]

Shipping by value, I'm not sure how that works.. I checked the wiki but it seems to only have one article about shipping from 2008! agh.

I think I can get a price from them, but would I need to get all 100 items shipping price before hand and than enter the information in the back office somewhere? I'm pretty much confused at the moment.

[mumeishi]

Well I'm selling beauty products, mostly small items, but I set it to price range and have 3 items in the cart, it added a $7.49 tax for the 1st item and than didn't update for the others. Should it be higher? I basically edited the "My carrier" To UPS, 3-7 day standard option.

Also it's the only option I have atm. I really appreciate any support, thanks.

[justdogwalking.com]

Hi
I think you are trying to make it too complicated.
I was able to set up my shipping by weight using the wiki and the principle is the same for value.
I would not have thought you need shipping costs for all items from your supplier , Though I would expect your supplier to have enough experience to be able to help you. you could start with say value bands say 0-$10 delivery $1,50; $10-$20 delivery $3.50 and so on. as long as you just cover your costs you should be ok. I am uk based so do not know US mail rates.
Will your supplier do drop shipping? then you only have one shipping cost not 2 whcih makes your products expensive.

[mumeishi]

They do but they take too much of a cut, so it's more beneficial to do it this way.

The price range works with the default, I was just concerned now that it isn't adding shipping totals up, it's just a flat fee that I can't seem to change.

[justdogwalking.com]

Hi
If you the shiiping cost is not changing with higher values - it suggests you have not set up the "table" properly.
There should be a screen where you put the value ranges in then "I think" you go to another screen and put the shipping cost in for each value range. have a look to see if you can find this arrangement. I did not find it very inituitive, its a peculiar logic PS have used.

[mumeishi]

I didn't set it up, I just edited the "My carrier" default one. What do I have to set? I think I might be ok, the items don't generally weigh more than a few ounces.

[justdogwalking.com]

Hi I suggest you go back to the wiki sheet so you get all the steps. the 2008 sheet is still ok as far as I know - I am running 1.3.2 not 1.4

Also if you search the forums you should find a link to a handbook for 1.4 that one of the members has written. maybe someone could give you the link.

[mumeishi]

I also have 1.3, I checked the information available.

My email is broken though, it's riddled with errors and a localhost problem, can't seem to find a fix, I might have to just go back to using oscommerce if it doesn't work properly...

I was just wondering if tax should increase per items but they aren't supposed to. Thanks fpr your help.

[justdogwalking.com]

Hi

Sorry can't help with local host problems - I am trying to be a merchant - I am not a developer

Re tax - I would expect tax to change with value its usually a %age of selling price ( I am uk based) so as order value goes up with more items the tax would rise in proportion.

Why not buy the book " beginners guide to PS 1.3" it is just right for beginners the cost should not be aproblem if you are setting up a comercial operation.

[mumeishi]

Thank you very much for all your input. It's to bad I can't seem to get any other replies! This email thing is the only thing setting me back from opening shop at the moment!

I think it's an easy fix really, I'm just not sure why this is happening. SMTP and PHP just do not work, they send e-mail riddled errors, and I think the {shop url} comes up just like that, with out actually adding my shop. Bleh! I'd really hate to switch ecommerce software this late in the game, lol.