I'm having an issue with shipping prices.

I have some larger items that ship out. For example. one items box is 36" x 36" x 1" and only weight 2-3 lbs.

Now if someone orders 5 of those items. It can ship in a box 36" x 36" x 5" and would weight about 10-14 lbs.

I have checked just putting the info in UPSworld Ship and example above i'm getting about $24 for one item and about $36 for 5 items.

But online the 5 items shipping is being listed at $110, where the 1 item is correct at about $24.

How can i configure this to allow the items to be combined in one larger box and not 5 individual boxes.

Most of my items are going to be larger thin boxes as above.

Thanks

The product i'm testing is NOT set to ship seperate

I moved the box dimensions all around and made no change. 36" x 36" x 1" at 2lbs, i have 5 in cart and i'm getting $118 ups shipping ground

Even checking 1 item shipping cost is $24. 2 items it jumps to $47

So appears to be calculating individual boxes.

Are there any other settings i'm overlooking?

I tried the "Don't use package dimensions, only weight". It was about right for 2 items. it was about $7.00 low for 1 item and it was about $25.00 high for 5 items. Again these are the same items that can ship in the same 36"x36" box, but varies on the depth. 1" depth for each item in box.

I may just have to put a note that shipping charges will be added later before order is charged. Then i can actually put correct charges from UPS Worldship so i don't loose money or charge way to much.

Wonder if Andy's Shipping (not sure who i selling it now) thing would work for me.

Edited by user Monday, February 18, 2013 6:19:13 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The reality is that it is very difficult to perfectly replicate your actual shipping costs. The 'problem', as you've gathered, is the packaging algorithm. It's pretty much impossible to know exactly how a merchant will pack a box so there will be some variance. Our algorithm works well for typical product sizes, but dimensions at the extreme (i.e. very long in one dimension and very short in another) are problematic.

Something that you may want to consider is using one of the manually-specified tiered rates (e.g. By Item Count, By Weight, or Per Item), especially if your products are similarly sized. For greater accuracy you could create separate methods for each UPS zone and then assign the appropriate states to each zone method.

Presumably what you're trying to achieve is a shipping rate strategy that doesn't cost you money in the aggregate. Of course, some merchants lose money on shipping as part of their marketing strategy. We've conducted tests with our clients where going with a lower, flat-round shipping rate shows an increase in conversion as you continue to lower the rate. The trick is to find the sweet spot.



We actually acquired this awesome add-on from Andy. You just might see it pop up in a future version of BV Commerce...

Edited by user Monday, February 18, 2013 9:43:33 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I'm not sure that i understand your question. Are you saying that if an order contains certain kinds of products, you would rather display the 'to be determined' message rather than show a rate?

This is doable but will require a bit of coding to achieve. You could probably modify the code of the control that displays the shipping methods in the cart (/BVModules/Controls/Shipping.ascx.vb).

We have a similar situation. We are looking into going in to more of a tiered shipping calculation as that is what most of our competitors currently do, rather than calculate a rate from UPS.