Hello,

I have a book store and ship world wide. I can't seem to find a way for the user to pick from two different shipping options (U.S. and International). Am I missing something obvious? For now I created a separate category for international products with the higher shipping amount. The problem I am having is people don't read the prominent notes about the international section and keep order for U.S shipping. I need help.

Thanks,

Troy

Hiya Troy,

If you've created the different shipping options they should be showing up in the drop down box and function however you set them up. If you haven't then it's just a matter of adding the number of shipping options you want and setting them up how you want them with pricing and such. Once that's done, unfortunately for now the customer "is" responsible for choosing the correct shipping option.

The only way around that for now (should be addressed in the Pro version soon) is to put a line of text on your checkout page that is clearly marked so they know to do that. Word it so that if they don't that it will most likely cause delays in their orders and the need for payment adjustments etc. which is usually a good way to be sure they will since most people don't want to have to keep waiting for things.

Pro version should hopefully elude this problem for us with mandatory selection settings so hang in there, that should be handled in either the release or a future update of the Pro version.

I just had a sale to the UK. My flat rate for this item was $2.50 packed in a bubble pack. So...no way $2.50 will cover my true shipping cost from AZ, US to the UK. I'll post it and eat the extra cost, however, it'll be first class not priority. So am I to understand that I should add to shipping shop settings a shipping option of say an additional $10.00 for Priority Mail International? Another option for first class international, likely $4.00 additional? Then hope the international buyer includes the shipping option.
Thank you

Hi Sally, yes thats the sort of thing I do. I also add on the shopping cart page that if postage is substantially more they will get an extra bill or substantially less and they will get a refund.

You can make it so there is a flat rate and then extras to add and you can also make it so that they must choose one of the extras before they can check out. So with a little creativity you can cover a few bases

And with the Pro version it will be nicer because it will force people to make a selection and one won't be automatically chosen like it is now.

Another thing you can do Sally is to include a sentence or 2 to explain that choosing the right option will speed up processing so that it is not delayed or needing to be rebilled to accommodate the correct ones. That way it does put that responsibility on the customer, and with Pro it will be much more obvious that they need to make a choice for it too.

Thank tassietiger and Jo Ann, I added this to the shipping settings. tassietiger, your cat taping its claws is great, about how I feel about the great wait for Pro. I'm having decent luck selling out of my cart, buyers must have patience to find what they want from about 750 items concerning no search or sub-categories. More to come with Pro... BTW, two of my last three sales were international. The other international sale was for three items so the total shipping charge almost covered the real cost. So there at least not having a combined shipping discount was good.

That is exactly the reason why I pushed so hard for for enhanced shipping capabilities within the pro version, including weight based shipping to give a more accurate method of calculating the true shipping costs.

The current method of undercharging or overcharging a customer just doesn't work, but the pro will make that scenario a thing of the past.

From a personal perspective if I placed an order with a business and they then approached me for extra money for the shipping, I would simply cancel the original order as it just comes across as unprofessional.

It would be more professional not to have to go that way but I have had businesses do that to me and its not a problem as long as they are up front about it before I order. Some add shipping after you order and thats fine as long as I'm expecting it.

But a better method would definitely be most welcome

The weight based shipping in the pro version is a real peach, highly user definable and very accurate.

Chasing customers for extra shipping money will soon be a thing of the past for you.

Excellent! I can't wait.... insert more paw tapping