misc Anyone have experience using WooCommerce?

Hey all, 
 
I am knee-deep in prepping for website launch, but I am stuck on a shipping function with WooCommerce, and my web designer/developer does not include assistance with this. 
 
Anyone out there have any experience in setting up flat rate shipping?
 
Thanks!
David
Hellraising Hot Sauce
 
I have been running Woocommerce (version 2.3.5) for a while with success. Like anything WP based, there's a bit of trial and error involved.
 
Mine is setup only for seeds as of now, which is free for the US and a small fee for international. From the Dashboard -> Woocommerce tab --> Settings tab --> Shipping tab (near top middle) --> Shipping Methods (near bottom). The first radial circle enables "Flat Rate" and there's a "Settings" box just to the right. You should be able to find what you want there.
 
Hope that helps.
 
-Todd
 
Yeah, I'm finding (through many, many google searches) that I may need to add a plug-in to enable cart functionality. Right now I can set up flat rate shipping, but it doesn't change based on how many bottles of hot sauce someone places in the cart -- it only give one flat rate, no matter how many items are in the cart.
 
This type of stuff isn't really in my wheelhouse as a hot sauce producer. 
 
PexPeppers said:
woocommerce is all i use. i used to use opencart. its rather simple and theres tons of plugins.
You switch platforms more than a baby has diaper changes ;) 
--------------
 
 
Sadly I am in the same boat with my dev site, not happy with the cart I am currently using on it and back to drawing board. :( 
 
Hellraising Hot Sauce said:
Yeah, I'm finding (through many, many google searches) that I may need to add a plug-in to enable cart functionality. Right now I can set up flat rate shipping, but it doesn't change based on how many bottles of hot sauce someone places in the cart -- it only give one flat rate, no matter how many items are in the cart.
 
This type of stuff isn't really in my wheelhouse as a hot sauce producer. 
 
I'm totally going to solve this problem ... after the TD weekend is past, though ...
 
grantmichaels said:
 
I'm totally going to solve this problem ... after the TD weekend is past, though ...
I'll just give you access to my devsite and you can write a ecommerce cart from scratch. :) 
 
 
Oh, I deleted a FTP account and files associated with it today and it deleted my whole devsite. :) 
 
I feel compelled to offer a more helpful piece of information now, because that's not helpful to someone trying to launch a site now ...
 
if you are trying to administer a server without really have the requisite knowledge, a good term to add to your Google searches is "boilerplate" ...
 
Boilerplate is probably your new best friend.
JoynersHotPeppers said:
I'll just give you access to my devsite and you can write a ecommerce cart from scratch. :)
 
 
Oh, I deleted a FTP account and files associated with it today and it deleted my whole devsite. :)
 
Good thing it's in VC ... RIGHT?!?!?! ...
 
Hellraising Hot Sauce said:
Yeah, I'm finding (through many, many google searches) that I may need to add a plug-in to enable cart functionality. Right now I can set up flat rate shipping, but it doesn't change based on how many bottles of hot sauce someone places in the cart -- it only give one flat rate, no matter how many items are in the cart.
 
This type of stuff isn't really in my wheelhouse as a hot sauce producer. 
 you may have to buy the USPS plugin from woo, its kinda pricy though and you have to sign up for the API at USPS.com ... takes a while. however in the flat rate shipping you can set more prices down below in the Add-on rates. the format is like so without quotes "5+ Sauces | +7 |" for 5+ sauces at 7 dollars added cost and so on.
 
Anyways, I really do plan to open-source a little webstore rig built on a static page that's easily hosted a zillion ways ...
 
It'll be very helpful in letting people who don't need much from their store, to not have to spend much time fussing with their store ...
 
PexPeppers said:
 you may have to buy the USPS plugin from woo, its kinda pricy though and you have to sign up for the API at USPS.com ... takes a while. however in the flat rate shipping you can set more prices down below in the Add-on rates. the format is like so without quotes "5+ Sauces | +7 |" for 5+ sauces at 7 dollars added cost and so on.
I looked at that, but it seems like you should be able to do a simple tiered system without that extra cost and functionality  -- as in, 1-3 bottles costs $XX flat rate, 4-7 bottles costs $XX flat rate, 8-12 bottles costs $XX flat rate, and so on.
 
The cart doesn't adjust beyond the initial flat rate I set up, even if I put 100 bottles in there! 
 
I have not used WooCommerce but what I am using probably works in a similar way.  I have a USPS module that cost about $15 and it has several shipping options.  I use the weight option.  So a bottle of hot sauce weighs 0.75 pounds.  If there are three bottles (2.25 pounds) I can bubble wrap them and fit them in a small free USPS box. This fits inside a free USPS padded envelope.  Flat rate $5.70 anywhere in the country.
 
Then I counted how many fit into USPS Regional A (8) and B (12) boxes, which hold more than the flat rate boxes and ship for less.  I then broke the country down into regions and calculated the cost to ship to a zip code in each region.  A regional A cost is estimated if the total order weight is between 2.26 - 6 pounds (8 x 0.75).  A regional B cost is estimated if the total order weight is between 6.01 - 9 pounds (12 x 0.75).  9.01-18 pounds is double and 18.01-27 pounds is triple the regional B cost.  It's cheaper to ship 2 or 3 regional B boxes than to put them all into my own box or a regional C box.  So I really only need three boxes and a padded envelope.  I have read that most companies ship based on weight-based options, rather than size or numbers.
 
If you wanted to go flat rate then it will cost the customer a little more but just figure out how many bottles fit into each (or how much weight) and add it to your plugin.  WooCommerece is very popular so there should be a lot of support forums to assist. 
 
I hope I didn't mire you down in too many details.  It took me a while to figure out my shipping but once I did it runs pretty smooth.
 
PepperDaddy said:
I have not used WooCommerce but what I am using probably works in a similar way.  I have a USPS module that cost about $15 and it has several shipping options.  I use the weight option.  So a bottle of hot sauce weighs 0.75 pounds.  If there are three bottles (2.25 pounds) I can bubble wrap them and fit them in a small free USPS box. This fits inside a free USPS padded envelope.  Flat rate $5.70 anywhere in the country.
 
Then I counted how many fit into USPS Regional A (8) and B (12) boxes, which hold more than the flat rate boxes and ship for less.  I then broke the country down into regions and calculated the cost to ship to a zip code in each region.  A regional A cost is estimated if the total order weight is between 2.26 - 6 pounds (8 x 0.75).  A regional B cost is estimated if the total order weight is between 6.01 - 9 pounds (12 x 0.75).  9.01-18 pounds is double and 18.01-27 pounds is triple the regional B cost.  It's cheaper to ship 2 or 3 regional B boxes than to put them all into my own box or a regional C box.  So I really only need three boxes and a padded envelope.  I have read that most companies ship based on weight-based options, rather than size or numbers.
 
If you wanted to go flat rate then it will cost the customer a little more but just figure out how many bottles fit into each (or how much weight) and add it to your plugin.  WooCommerece is very popular so there should be a lot of support forums to assist. 
 
I hope I didn't mire you down in too many details.  It took me a while to figure out my shipping but once I did it runs pretty smooth.
Thanks Ken -- your suggestion was very similar to what SadisticPeppers outlined for me with WooCommerce. Tried it out today and it worked like a charm!
 
Thanks to all who provided advice here. Just goes to show that this forum is invaluable for everyone in the biz.
 
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