Shipping

Links to Real Time Shipping Calculator software

I haven't tried the next two shipping calculators so can offer no opinion one way or another. They are here for you to evaluate for your own use. If you incorporate them into your store, please let your method/application be known on the forum.

http://www.aspshipcalc.com/

The Active Server Pages Shipping Calculator is a powerful real-time shipping calculator that can return rates from any combination of UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx Express at the same time.

http://www.dreamcost.com/?page=shop/sol_software_shipping

This program is written in PHP and allows you to get real time shipping quotes from up to 9 major shippers. The program gets the quote based on weight, carrier, and the starting and destination ZIP codes. The program will then print the results out in a variety of methods. They can be formatted in a drop-down menu, or any other way you wish! This software works for international shipping, as well as US only shipments.

Options 1 and 2 will not be covered here as they are pretty much self explanatory on Mals site in Admin>Cart Set-up>shipping.

There are many ways to set up these shipping options due to the versatility Mal has built into the cart. It is beyond the scope of this site to attempt to list them all so I will try to give a basic example for each of the options. If additional assistance is needed visit the forum and ask your question. Remember, the only "stupid" question is the "unasked" question.

Option 3:Calculated from weight or other value
As items are added to the shopping cart you can assign a weight, or some other value such as volume or value, to the item on which shipping can be calculated using a fixed cost for each unit assigned.
Shipping cost per unit:

One of the most common options is to have shipping based on the value of the order, for example 10% of the total. To do this put 0.1 in the box above, then check the box below and you won't have to include a units field in your links.
Automatically set units to equal the price (shipping by value)

For this example I've added a shipping cost per unit of 1¢ in the box. This value makes it very easy to set the units for each product we want or need to associate with a shipping charge. For example: a $1.00 shipping charge would be entered as units=100, a $3.95 charge would equate to units=395 (395 cents or $3.95). When any product with a units value is sent to the cart, they are automatically totaled within the cart to equal the shipping cost for the order. If a quantity is changed in the cart, it will be updated to reflect the new shipping charge, provided of course that the recalculate button was clicked on. Remember: DO NOT use the $ symbol.

If shipping by value, leave the cost per unit box empty and tic the "set units to equal the price" and the cart will automatically add a shipping charge of 10% of the total value of the order.

As shown below, the order of the name and value pairs doesn't matter., however be aware that a lot of servers look at VALUE and value as two different items. It is nice to keep the name/value pairs consistent throughout your pages & forms, and preferably in lowercase to ensure compatibility between servers. Also makes it easier to troubleshoot if there's a problem. Number your units to correspond to your product number if using addmulti to send multiple products with one submit button to the cart. If sending one product per form the numbering isn't necessary.