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POLL: product specific shipping modules

Started by deneb, February 16, 2006, 07:05:36 AM

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Should VirtueMart be able to assign Shipping Modules to the products?

Please! I need this desperately.
15 (65.2%)
This feature would be nice but not crucial
5 (21.7%)
Maybe? Not sure.
1 (4.3%)
No, I am happy with the way it is.
1 (4.3%)
No, All my products are downloadable
0 (0%)
Heck No! Too much work.
1 (4.3%)

Total Members Voted: 23

deneb

Have come accross any situations where you needed to assign a shiiping module to a specific product?

Please discuss here, and if possible provide some ideas on how to implement this.

UncleBuck

I have a situation at the moment where the store owner charges for his products using the actual cost of postage, but he has two products that are supplied (and posted) from a supplier in another state.

The supplier charges the store owner a flat postage fee for each one of these products no matter where it gets posted to.

Just can't be done in VM at the moment!
(If I am wrong about that, please let me know how it is done).

deneb

If a product always has extra flat fee for shipping...

Maybe bump price up by the fee amount? Hmmm, then the fee may be taxed (might be ok?).

How about a negative discount? hhmmm, no then it looks funny to the customer: "You save: -$2.00"

How about a single attribute to add fee? "Fee,Extra Handling Fee[+2.00]"



N6REJ

Timely as always Ben!
I could REALLY use this.  I have one company that charges me much like UPS but based on my cost or to simplfy my calculations 10% of the published retail. If I don't use the simplfied method then the cost is a different percental of the cost with a different value for each zipcode.  I could send you a sheet that details this.  We don't sell for MSRP so Its a bit difficult.  AND there is a Fee of $10 if my order is below $30  Also a discount if my order is above $500.

Then I have my leather products and they are all sent out via UPS but I don't have weights or package measurements.  I have an average and so have been using that.

Then I have my personal collectibles, that are sent out via USPS and they are sent based on average weight ( they don't change much ) per zipcode.

So YES!  Being able to specify which shipping method to use would be enourmously helpful.  This is where I think the vendor system should probably kickin.  This seems like a logical mechanism for this.
Troy
http://www.treeturner.com
Beauty by Design

ChileQueen

We're shipping from the Netherlands, all postal charges are based the weight of the item being shipped, the destination country and, where applicable, whether the item goes air-freight, by sea or overland. With this being our main means of shipping, we've chosen to go with the Std Shipping Module.
The problem we have, is that we have fragile items that should be padded & boxed and items which are physically small enough to go into a padded envelope in quantity. These can end up in the same weight bracket so the customer has a choice of postage using a padded envelope or a box. Due to the difference in the cost, guess which they'll pickĀ  ;)
What we need is a "shipping categories" type solution. These could then be assigned singly or in multiples to the product (or even product category) allowing you to specify which method of shipping would be appropriate for that item.
I know it's not specifying product shipping by module, but as it's a very similar problem, I thought I'd put it in for comment.

N6REJ

ben, how close are you to releasing this?
I thought if we could have a shipping module based on "manufacturer" where each manufacturer could have its own shipping method that that would be the MOST useful.

Troy
Troy
http://www.treeturner.com
Beauty by Design

deneb

I am not releasing anything. This topic is just to see what people think.

The quantiy and content of the responses does not warrent my dev time.

Pixyfrog

#7
Hi...

Very timely topic ideed. I am facing a case similar from Uncle Buck where SOME product might be shipped from a wharehouse in another country which would, of course, affect the shipment method and price.

Building on the tricks proposed by Ben (negative discount, grossing up the price, single attribute) I was thinking of another dirty one which would have no visible impact for the user interface. It seems to be working on my dev server... but I haven't tried and tested it thoroughly. If you see any undesirable side-effect of this trick please let me know!

Assumption for this example below: you are not selling items wighting more than one ton!

Step 1 : (mentally) group your product in different "shiping method category"
Step 2 : Assign each group a number X
Step 3 : In the weight of your product enter : X*1000 + actual weight of the product
Example:
all product sent from wharehouse 1 will have a weight ranging from 1000 to 1999 kg
while all the goods sent from wharehouse 2 will have a weight ranging from 2000 to 2999 kg
Step 4 : Create shipers as required and create apropriate shipping rules using Weight to send the right product to the right shiping method and cost.

Example:
1000 kg to 1010 kg -> assign shipment cost for 0 to 10 kg from wharehouse A.
1010 kg to 1020 kg -> assign shipment cost for 10 to 20 kg from wharehouse A.
2000 kg to 2010 kg -> assign shipment cost for 0 to 10 kg from wharehouse B.
2010 kg to 2020 kg -> assign shipment cost for 10 to 20 kg from wharehouse B.

Looking up these weight, Virtue Mart will show the customer the right shipping method and cost for the right type of product.

This assume a standard shipping module. This would NOT work "as is" if you use a shiping module that look-up dynamically for cost based on weight at the shipper's API/website. You will have to slim town the weight by the appropriate number of tons before passing the weight parameter to a 3rd party interface for evaluation.

Again take this as an idea... I have no idea if this would work with no side-effect in a production site.

jimtomas

This would be very helpful to a hack I am currently working on with the UPS shipping module. I'd like to limit the shipping choices to our perishable products to a 2 day or less delivery time. The functionality you propose would be highly benefical.