Shipping calculation - best approach and advice on database driven shipping rates please.
The shipping we're configuring is calculated by weight. When the contents of the cart reaches a particular weight we want the corresponding Shipping Charge to be applied:
UK
up to 6kg - £7.00
6kg-12kg - £10.00
etc
Europe
up to 6kg - £10.00
6kg-12kg - £15.00
etc
USA & Rest of World
up to 6kg - £15.00
6kg-12kg - £20.00
etc
Each product has a weight value (a field in the product database) which we've bound to the pre-set Weight column in the Add to Cart behaviour. We can also see the total weight, for the entire cart contents, using the pre-set TotalWeight column so we can perform a calculation, although I'm not sure how, in order to establish the total shipping charge.
Here's where I'm confused....
The customer has to select a country from the country drop down menu however this is automatically installed by the eCart Checkout Wizard and doesn't, as far as I can see, correspond with any shipping charges unless, perhaps, if you use one of the pre-installed carriers (UPS etc).
If a customer selects, for example, France then how do I make sure that the correct shipping charge is applied?
I'm aware that I probably need to create a Shipping Rates table, but I'm completely confused about what fields this should have:
ShippingRegionID - (unique row ID)
ShippingRegionTitle - (Europe, USA, Rest of World etc)
ShippingRegionRate6kg - (price)
ShippingRegionRate12kg - (price)
ShippingRegionRate18kg - (price)
ShippingRegionRate24kg+ - (price)
I then need to create a country table which lists all of the countries that we ship to that also includes the ShippingRegionID and then do an INNER JOIN to link the country to the correct region and rate?
Checking eCart, I can create Shipping Rules but I don't see any tie in with "Country" in the triggers section.
My brain feels like mush with it all so I'd appreciate guidance on the best approach to this because I feel like I'm over-complicating things.
Thank you.
NJ