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Ronnie
VP-CART New User
Australia
52 Posts |
 Posted - March 11 2006 : 01:36:47
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Hi
I have a cart with a customised fedex shipping method and a simple shipping method which charges the customer a fixed amount if the order is less than a certain amount. Does anyone know of a way of combining these 2, presumably more fedex customisation?
Thanks |
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dandlyin
VP-CART New User
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - March 26 2006 : 08:32:45
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Your question highlights what I think is a major flaw in the design of this system. Every shipper's cost estimation method has separate scripts. This requires the customer to fill out the order form, choose a shipper, look at the freight costs by that shipper's methods, then return and select another shipper, etc.
The most common question I receive from customers is 'what will it cost to ship this to me?'. Many don't consider the option of starting an order and looking at the freight costs by multiple methods before they decide whether to proceed with the order. In this system, he/she must enter substantial personal information before freight costs are revealed.
Better-designed systems provide a link from every product to a routine that takes minimal information from the customer and displays freight costs by multiple methods. It's usually named 'Estimate shipping cost' or similar. VPASP should provide this as well.
I have spent a lot of time modifying the USPS and FedEx realtime add-on scripts, headed toward the goal of merging them to produce 1 list of costs for all methods available for a particular product or group of products. It will probably require quite a few more hours to complete it. Unfortunately, the solution to your problem will require similar effort on your part.
Thanks for asking this important question.
Dan Dotson |
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devshb
Senior Member
United Kingdom
1904 Posts |
Posted - March 26 2006 : 09:09:29
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it's a tricky problem, because you need to know the customer's full address, and the entire contents of the cart before you can calculate the shipping cost, so logically the "choose-shipping-type" (fedex, ups etc) poplist is in the right place (ie on the enter-address page).
I guess a better solution would be to create an extra page and heavily customise the shipping addons so that you can show the prices of all the shipping types after they've entered their address; so that'd mean combining all your shipping addons into a single package/page.
if you're only using a single shipper (eg fedex) then there's no problem, but if using more than one possible type then you'd get that kind of problem that you describe. I can't think of any way around it other than customising the addons; I can't think of a generic way that you'd be able to combine all the various shipping addons into a single set of integrated off-the-shelf packages unless you re-wrote all the shipping addons to use an agreed standard new format/logic.
Simon Barnaby
Developer
[email protected]
www.BigYellowZone.com
Web Design, Online Marketing and VPASP addons |
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dandlyin
VP-CART New User
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - March 26 2006 : 17:43:20
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I purchase a fair number of items on the Web and appreciate systems that provide freight estimates 'up front'. Forcing a customer to enter all personal data, then choose the shipper before the estimate is given is not logical- or considerate of the customer.
Two things make this a tricky problem:
1. Real time interfaces with shipper systems are detail-intensive and unique to each shipper
2. VP-ASP scripts for freight costs have been poorly designed
Yes, a single 'estimate freight cost' routine is required and should have been from the start. Furthermore, insurance must be an integral part of the estimation process. Customized add-ons would, of course, be required to interface with the general routine.
What address data are required for an estimate depends on the shipper and the locations of the merchant and customer but the full address is NEVER required, in my experience. Within the US, a zip code is all one needs for USPS and only a little more data are needed for FedEx or UPS.
An estimate can be done for just 1 product at a time, with the understanding that multiple products will change the final cost. If a customer gets a $10 estimate for 1 product, then a $10 estimate for a second product, he will never be disappointed to find that the final estimate for an order consisting of those 2 products will be less than $20 when he completes the order.
Because I don't see evidence that others plan to do so any time soon, I plan to complete the job for my limited needs.
Dan Dotson |
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jefe275
Starting Member
USA
3 Posts |
Posted - July 15 2007 : 12:12:56
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I also am very dissappointed in the inability for a customer to get a shipping estimate before "substantial personal information is entered". Many website visitors are tire kickers. They shop around and get an estimate of what a product will cost, Including Shipping. One of the main reasons for shopping cart abandonment is requiring too much personal information from a potential customer too early in the shopping cart experience. Several other comprably priced shopping cart software packages allow for a customer to get Shipping Estimates from multiple shippers with mutiple shipping options long before checkout. And this feature is standard.
John |
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Scooter
VP-CART New User
USA
102 Posts |
Posted - July 15 2007 : 16:02:24
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There is one for VPASP. Have a look at www.hkprog.com. Works great.
Thanx
S. |
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jefe275
Starting Member
USA
3 Posts |
Posted - July 18 2007 : 09:26:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Scooter
There is one for VPASP. Have a look at www.hkprog.com. Works great.
Thanx
S.
This website is temporarily offline.
Please contact the Webmaster.
John |
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seeker1
VP-CART New User
Australia
114 Posts |
Posted - July 18 2007 : 16:35:57
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The site is online. The period in the link is causing the message you are seeing.
www.hkprog.com
Thanks |
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OctaneGuy
Starting Member
30 Posts |
Posted - July 26 2007 : 19:01:51
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Sounds like something I could use. However what does this mean?
"The Shipping Cost calculator does not support customized shipping calculations. This includes both real time, database lookup or modifications to shopshippingcalc.asp. If you need to support a customized shipping calculation please contact us for a quote."
What is a customized "real time" shipping calculation?
I'm using realtime FedEx and realtime USPS for my shipping methods. Are those customized? |
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support
Administrator
4679 Posts |
Posted - July 26 2007 : 20:18:52
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Hi there,
Neither of these are customised routines. A customised routine would be for a small carrier that you have a shipping system built for as an example.
So the 2 above methods would be fine i believe with the shipping module from HKProg.
Thanks
Cam
VP-ASP Support |
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