Need your opinion

[AllTheAbove]

I hope this is the correct forum to post this in.

 

Here is the background. We have suppliers from several different locations and instead of highly inflating our product prices to cover the cost of shipping, we were trying to figure out a fair way to keep our prices competitive yet not make it look like were were severely overcharging shipping to make a buck.

 

Here are my options.

 

1. Use the Multi-Vendor/Multi-Shipping contrib - This contrib lets you set up vendors according to shipping method. In our case, it would be set up according to vendor, period. What I have been told is that at check-out, the consumer is charged shipping for each different vendor they purchased an item from. So if the customer buys 10 items from 3 vendors, they will have 3 shipping charges. This would give us the greatest ability to keep prices low as we won't be eating any shipping prices.

 

2. Use Per item shipping where it is essentially charging a shipping amount per item. This same module would also allow for a reduced rate for additional items of the same type. So buy 3 Widgets and get charged $2.50 for the first Widget, $1 for the second Widget and nothing for the 3rd Widget. Since we will have less control over shipping here, we would have to raise prices a bit to cover that expense.

 

3. Charge a flat rate for shipping, but add a handling per item charge if more than one item is purchased. We were thinking $6 for the flat part and $1 for each additional product. This would allow us a little more freedom on the prices and therefore charge closer to number 1 above yet not have the same lower price.

 

4. Inflate prices to cover shipping and give the consumer the normal checkout options of UPS or USPS so that the cart will charge by weight and some of the cost will be covered.

 

As a consumer, would you rather see lower products prices like in #1 or #3 or higher product price as in #2 or #4 but lower shipping? I know a lot of people abandom their shopping carts when they see the shipping costs. We will definately have it explained (whichever method we go with) under our Shipping Policies.

 

Please, if you read this post, give an opinion. You have one, use it! If you have a different idea than what I have above, please share it. It may be just the idea we are looking for.

 

Thank you for your opinions, they are REALLY appreciated.

Lori

[AllTheAbove]

Wow... nobody around here with an opinion..

[Guest]

Wow... nobody around here with an opinion..

 

Check the "next steps/marketing" forum has related information to your question.

[FalseDawn]

1 and 2 are ridiculous ideas.

 

3 and 4 are more reasonable

 

 

As a customer, absolutely nothing p*sses me off more than having to create an account and go through a load of steps just to find out that shipping is like $10 on a $20 item.

 

Totally flat rate shipping and adjust prices so you don't lose money is the best (IMO)

[Jimbowsk]

"As a customer, absolutely nothing p*sses me off more than having to create an account and go through a load of steps just to find out that shipping is like $10 on a $20 item.

"

i agree!

[♥Monika in Germany]

"As a customer, absolutely nothing p*sses me off more than having to create an account and go through a load of steps just to find out that shipping is like $10 on a $20 item.

"

i agree!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

ditto! I show the shipping table (table rate) in the shopping cart, if it's not a flat fee!