Setting Up Shipping Using Distributors

ScribeTime · #1 () 03-02-2008, 03:01 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to setup shipping on our newest site. Our products will be shipped directly from the distributor. I want the cart to be able to calculate the shipping costs per item based on weight. Some distributors use Fedex, others use UPS. My understanding is that both have very similar or the same shipping costs.

If anyone knows how to setup shipping using distributors, could you please answer a few questions?

1. Do I need to have an account with either shipper in order for the cart to calculate shipping? We will have the cart show a generic shipper (i.e. Standard Ground)

2. What is the best way to set this up? Do I need to use the offline shipping method?

3. What is the procedure for setting this up in the cart?

I would really appreciate any help or input for how to do this.

Thank you!

ScribeTime · #2 () 03-02-2008, 12:32 PM

Well, I've figured out how to add shipping methods using distributors. However, my problem now is that some of my distributors use UPS and others use Fedex.

Is there a way for the cart to use the calculator for either Fedex or UPS but not display which one it used? For example, I configured the shipping method for UPS Ground for the sake of showing a quote on my site. But it shows up as "UPS Ground" on the calculate shipping page. This makes perfect sense in any other case, but I want it to show a generic label such as "Standard Ground Shipping" in case my distributor uses Fedex or DHL.
Anyone know how to accomplish this or maybe even a better solution?

Perhaps there's a tag that can be changed or something else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

ScribeTime · #3 () 03-02-2008, 12:45 PM

Okay...I figured it out...I should have checked the template a little closer before posting.

But, in case this question comes up again, here's the tag to remove to only show a generic shipping label and not the actual shipper name:
In the view_cart.html template, find the block beginning with (shown below) and remove the [OPTION-SHIPPER].


<option>[OPTION-SHIPPER]*[OPTION-DESCRIPTION]*[OPTION-PRICE]</option>


If anyone has a better method or any tips for setting up shipping using drop-shipping or distributors or any tips or mistakes to avoid with calculating shipping, I would be very interesting in hearing them. We've only used flat-rate shipping with our other site, so this is completely new territory for us.