How to combine shipping?

[jmcnell]

Once again a noob question but I came from OpenCart to here. I read the user manual and couldn't find much.

When people select certain products I want them to be able to combine shipping. I sell Gourmet Foods and More. This problem is mainly for the jerky as the other products have to ship flat rate.

I had a customer add 5$ of jerky (4 packs) which fits in a small flat rate shipping package. Except with this item since it is usually bought and sent first class I d not have that available. I guess I should enable it. However, the shipping cost was $20.00

Should I just make everything flat rate? I am using USPS.

[Basara]

Hello.
Can you please clarify what do you want to combine?

[llegrand]

some observations for your consideration:

Although USPS has different sizes of flat rate boxes available,  it is treacherous to enable those for customer shipping.  Customers have no idea what size box their order will fit into,  and will usually select the lowest cost of the offerings (no surprise there).  We suggest that you can offer First class and Priority Mail.   The USPS will only show the selections that are available to your customers based on the weight of the total order.  First class packages as defined by USPS rules must be under 15.99 ounces for the rate to come up as a selection.

I am unsure which Flat rate you are offering -  the system flat rate or some of the USPS flat rates.  With more details,  we can probably get closer to getting you a good solution.

[jmcnell]

Ok so I add 1/4 lb of Beef Jerky to my cart and select priority shipping. If I go back and add another 1/4lb. The shipping doubles to 15$ when I can fit both in 1 small flat rate box.  Essentially saving the shopper money because who wants to pay that much for shipping.

I need to be able to make it so adding up to 1 LB you can select small flat rate box.  Any more and you may need medium...

You see what I am saying... I can link you to the site so you can get an idea when you try to checkout multiple items.

TL:DR

Adding 4 items to cart adds 4 items and 4 shipping charges. When it should be 4 items and 1 shipping charge.


I've looked through the manual couldn't find anything on this.

I recently ordered a shipping scale. I need a new scale anyways. useful for weighing the jerky I sell as well as shipping.

Shipping has always been an issue with these carts for me. 

I did offer flat rate shipping but it was costing $5.15....small flat rate box is 2$ more and just makes things easier.

I only offer small box flat rate shipping for my jerky. It is overkill for 1/4lb of jerky but even that comes out to 5.15 to ship.

ughhh...

[llegrand]

Adding 4 items to cart adds 4 items and 4 shipping charges. When it should be 4 items and 1 shipping charge.

What settings do you have on the product page in regards to the shipping -  from you above comment it seems you might have the ship individual setting turned on.    Please check for that.

USPS,  api rate look up does combine the weight of all the products and return one rate (may have multiple shipping choices, but all will be for one wt)  unless you have the ship individual option selection on and item.   If individual option is selected  then it will indeed use a separate rate for those items.

[jmcnell]

I added the weight based extension and this seems to have fixed the issue now. I now have 4 products in the cart and just one charge for shipping. Once I receive my scale I might want to get an extension that is pretty accurate. I thought I had ship individually as well but I did not.

[jamesbrownn]

Combining shipping for different parcels is the most challenging thing in shipping. It affects shippers also. There are companies that deal with Transportation and Logistics Solutions and provide apps that calculate shipping costs even from multiple shipments.