Confused which shipping option is best

[carinlavery]

Hi, thank you for your help with this, I'm really confused.

I create original artwork, prints, christmas cards and greetings tags.  These come in different sizes, quantities, weights and packaging.  Eg 10 Christmas cards can be packaged in a hardbacked envelope, with a small print - and combined is under 500g, but 40 Christmas cards need to be in a box - and is over 3kg and a large painting/print needs to be in a tube on its own - under 1kg.  I'm really lost as to which option to use to set up my shipping: Flat rate, by item total, cost total, weight etc as there are so many variables.

Could you please help?

Thank you very much.

Carin

[Arie]

Heya @carinlavery,

Thanks for getting in touch with this question! 

Shipping can be complex when you have multiple items requiring different shipping options. 

I just want to flag that you can also assign items to specific shipping rates, so your bulkier items requiring more expensive shipping options, for example, would have them applied automatically. 

Ultimately, you'll have to weigh up what you think is most important to you, and your customers. I know for instance that I often add more items to my cart if a store requires me to reach a certain amount to take advantage of a free/flat rate shipping rate. 

Hopefully, some other sellers with similar items can share how they've set up their shipping options, and what has been successful for their business! Keep in mind you can also always adjust your shipping rates if you find that the option you've gone with doesn't suit you anymore. 

[carinlavery]

Thank you so much for replying Aire and for your thoughts. I didn't realise you can asign specific items to shipping rates, eg Christmas cards could have their own shipping rates (up to 1kg, up to 2kg etc) and then the paintings and prints can be completely different shipping rates. Where do I set up the rate per item please? I can't see it.

Thank you 

Carin 

[carinlavery]

Actually, are you saying that, in the back end, I can set up a rate called Christmas cards, cand then rules under there for 1-15, 16-30 etc with different shipping costs and the system will know that the buyer is buying Christmas cards rather than artwork?

[carinlavery]

Oh dear, I'm still lost.  If I list different items, each with different shipping costs, in the checkout it lists ALL shipping options and only allows the customer to choose one.  It doesn't allocate a shipping rate per (different) item and total the shipping amount.  

[Arie]

Sorry to hear you're still puzzling over shipping rates, @carinlavery! 

Yes, only one shipping rate can be added per item - so if the Christmas cards are added with their special shipping rate. When items don't fall into any of the rates you've created, you fallback rate is applied. Can you send through a screenshot of how you've set up your rates so far? 

[carinlavery]

Thank you very much for replying Arie.  I ended up calling Weebly customer support team (I'm a business member) and they were able to help me.  I've had to set up the rates based on Order Total for each.  It's not brilliant, but it's consistent.  Please see screenshot here https://www.screencast.com/t/C4M0pquYh  I've done the same for Australia, UK, USA and Rest of the World.  The only other way I think would be to insert weights for every derivation of each product, which would be very time consuming!  So I think I'll need to leave it like this now, thank you very much Arie.   

PS: (Is there another way of attaching a screenshot other than using a program to create a url?  My partner helped me with that one, I'm used to an attachment icon).  

[Arie]

Glad to hear you were able to resolve this @carinlavery 🙂

When writing in on a computer, you should be able to use this function: 

to attach photos:

[carinlavery]

Thank you Arie, that camera icon seems to take you to a form where you need to put in a url link rather than a jpg, but thank you anyway. 😊