Alternate shipping provider

Hi,

Is it possible to use e-cart to change the shipping provider, ie. to choose one not currently offered in powerstore? If yes, can you provide the steps needed to do this?

Also, if you didn't want to offer a paypal option, how would you disable this in powerstore?

Thanks

Hi everyone,

In my original post I was asking whether it was possible to use e-cart to change the shipping provider. Instead of using one of the shipping providers that provide real time quotes, I wanted to set up some shipping rules to handle the shipping costs.

As I’m setting up a store for a clothing business I need to work out how to create these shipping rules in ecart and have them work with powerstore. The following are the 3 rules:

Rule 1
Within the state where the store operates, there are 2 zones where each of these zones have a separate shipping cost. So they planned to charge a fixed rate depending on which zone the order was delivered to. This fixed rate would be for orders under 25kg, so since we wouldn’t know in advance how many items would be purchased, would an average clothing item in each clothing category need to be weighed and then this weight multiplied by the quantity purchased in the order to get a total weight. Then if it comes to less than 25kg, the standard rate would apply and for every 5kg above 25kg an extra certain dollar amount would need to be added.

Rule 2
Then there’s another rule that would need to apply for interstate orders. The interstate areas are divided into zones with each zone being a different price. There’s a starting price for the first 5kg weight order and then an additional separate price for each 5kg after that, so like the first rule, would I need to have a garment weight in a database and then multiply this weight by the qty purchased? If the quantity is 5kg or below the standard rate would apply, and if it was above 5kg then I’d need to add the extra price which would be multiplied by each 5kg above the initial 5kg.

Rule 3
The third rule would be for international orders where there would be a list of countries with each country having a fixed shipping rate.

Would someone be able to comment on this and tell me how I'd go about setting it up? Would I need to create extra tables in the database and how would it work with Powerstore?

Really appreciate any advice.

I think the best approach for trying to get these shipping rules in place would be to start with this first one and work out a little more about the specifics. You assessment about totaling the weight for all of the items is correct, this can be setup as a trigger for the shipping rule. I'm curious about the other requirements for this first rule, like defining which region the order is being delivered to since this will affect the charge.

The other thing about this charge is making it more for an incremented amount of weight like 5kg. This part will be a bit trickier to implement as it will not be supported within the eCart interfaces and must be customized directly in the eCart code. Please post back with some more details about this first charge rule and I can review to give you any pointers or advice on implementing it.

Also if you have not done so already you should take a look at the eCart support page and examine the documentation that has to do with discounts and charge rules, here is a link:

ecart/

Thanks for the reply,

With regard to the first shipping rule:

  Your assessment about totaling the weight for all of the items is correct, this can be setup as a trigger for the shipping rule.  

I haven't done this before so may need some guidance. In the shipping tab of the eCart Object, would I create a merchandising rule, eg.

The trigger condition would be: Subtotal for any column, then
If the subtotal of column TotalWeight is <= a value of 25

Then choose calculation: flat rate and enter a dollar amount.

I'm not sure if the above is correct because as I mentioned, the first rule encompasses two zones with each zone having a separate rate. For example, Zone 1 would represent a list of suburbs and would therefore have a specific rate, and Zone 2 would represent another list of suburbs with a second specific rate. I'm assuming that I'd need to create a separate database table with a column for zone type, and then another column for the suburb. Once this was set up would I need to revise the above merchandising rule so that two extra conditions were applied, ie. it would need to compare the chosen suburb to the suburb in the zones table, then if it was in zone 1 then a certain dollar amount would apply, and if in zone 2 the other rate would apply.

Is it possible to create these conditions in the shipping tab dialogue?

Also, I noticed in the Shipping Provider section of the eCart Checkout Wizard, if you don't choose one of the shipping providers there are options to put in a base rate, and a per item rate. Do I need to do this as part of the steps to get this working?

  The other thing about this charge is making it more for an incremented amount of weight like 5kg. This part will be a bit trickier to implement as it will not be supported within the eCart interfaces and must be customized directly in the eCart code.  

I'm not sure how to get this part working. I didn't plan to weigh each and every clothing item, but instead I thought that the best way to go would be to weigh an average size item from each clothing category, eg. weigh an average shirt, an average jacket, an average pair of shoes etc. then I'd enter these weight measurements when I create each of the products in Powerstore. So once an order has been placed, I'm guessing that the code would have to:

1) multiply the total quantity of each product by its weight
2) add up the total weight of the entire order
3) once the total weight is calculated then if it's below 25kg and in zone 1, then price A is applied, and if it's below 25kg and in zone 2 then price B would apply.

Can you comment/advise further?

I think you are on the right track here. You will definitely need to have weights specified for the items in order for this to work. You summary of the charge rules based on the region is correct. To do it this way you must have some method to determine which zone it will be shipped to. In your pages you should have some code that will make this determination and store the result in a session variable. You can then alter the charge rule to include another trigger checking the value of this session variable. This is how you will get the two shipping zones part worked out.

Once you have this part in place creating the rules for less than 25kg would be pretty much just like you have said, it will have a flat rate charge.

Once you get these worked out though you will then need to craft the shipping charge rules that would be used if the item is more than 25kg. When you get to this part you will need to do some editing after the fact to get it working properly.

When you actually setup the rules you will do so almost exactly like you have mentioned in your example only you will have an addition trigger for the shipping zone.

Thanks for the info,

  Once you get these worked out though you will then need to craft the shipping charge rules that would be used if the item is more than 25kg.  

Would this involve more custom coding on the page?

  When you get to this part you will need to do some editing after the fact to get it working properly.  

I'm not sure what you mean here - can you explain further how I'd get this part working?


Can you tell me which pages I need to revise and add this code to within Powerstore. Do I need to delete any of the current code that has to do with shipping providers?

For this part of the charge rule the problem is that the interfaces do not support the specific type of charge that you would like to apply. Since the interface is too limited for this type of editing you will need to setup the rule as best as you can, then after the fact you will need to go into your WA_eCart folder and the WA_Store_Cart_PHP.php file. In here you will need to identify the code for you charge rule that you crafted for more than 25kg and edit the code to work with your criteria for this charge.

The idea for this customization will be that you need to take the total weight, then subtract 25 from it. You will then need to divide this result by 5, this will give you the number of dollars to charge for any weight over 25. You will have to determine how to round the values to fit your needs after dividing by five.

For example if you had items in the cart totaling 31kg then this charge rule would need to first subtract 25, this would leave you with 6. You would then divide by 5, this would give you 1. So you would add 1 to the base rate to account for the extra 6kg. This is the part that you may want to round, if it is greater than five do you round it up to the next multiple of five, or do you round down.