Postal costs set up query's.

[ConfusedClaire]

Hi,

I have been using paypal for years on my current website selling vouchers for my spa business. I have always charged a set 50p postage cost for this. I am now expanding what I sell on a new updated website to include a range of five cosmetic type products. Each of the five product weigh about the same and costs around £3 postage to post within the uk. My problems are as follows:
 
1. The current paypal set up will automatically charge £3 per product bought. If someone buys one product the cost is £3 but if they buy two the cost to the customer will then be £6. This is more than i need or want to charge. The cost for two products would be more like £4.50. Is there a way to set different costs when more than one item purchased?
 
2. I would like to offer free postage when a customer spends over £45. I can't do this without changing to the "cost and price range" option paypal offers where I could set any price ranges over £45 to have a nil postage cost. The problem with this would be then i would have to set the same postage price for purchases under £45. (Vouchers and products costs around the same) So my cosmetic product postage cost of £3 would then become the same postage cost for a voucher sale under £45. We would most certainly lose all our vouchers sales if this was the case.  
 
3. Finally the widely discussed problem of the postage costs worldwide. If someone from outside of the UK purchases something from our site with the current UK paypal set up the postage costs will be the same regardless of where in the world they are. This would obviously lose the business money and we really do want to attract sales from overseas so I was hoping isomeone out there might have a suggestion on how to deal with this.
 
I have read threads on the worldwide postal costs but still am not sure what the best option is for me. How would a third party shopping cart work and how much would it cost??. I have looked at big cartel but am not sure if it solves the issues mentioned above. My ideal would be to stay with paypal and get some code workarounds for the above. 

Any help, code or suggestions on any of these problems would be most gratefully accepted. Thanks for taking the time to read this. 

[dee1565]

Apologies if this question has been answered somewhere else but i couldnt find it when searching.

I use mals cart for the purchasing from my website, once the buyer has added to cart the postage rates are fine.  But when the buyer goes to actually pay in paypal, the postage rates change and it does not use my mals cart calculations.

Can I turn off/disable paypals postage calculations?

thank you very much in advance for any help you can give,

Dee.

[dee1565]

ok i have sorted this problem now, i cant find a way to delete the post.  if admin wants to then please do.  thanks

[ZMEddie]

How did you fix it? I have the same problem

[PayPal_paula]

Hi ZMEddie, 

Welcome to the PayPal community forum. 

You can customise the postage costs you charge buyers who make purchases on your website.
Here's how to calculate postage costs for purchases made on your website: Also Snowshoe's recent response may help. 

1. Go to www.paypal.co.uk and log in to your account.
2. Click 'Profile' near the top of the page.
3. Click 'My selling preferences'.
4. Click 'Update' beside 'Postage calculations'.
5. Customise your postage costs and then click 'Save'.

The HTML code in your shopping cart buttons under the 'Postage' section overrides the postage methods in your profile. To offer free or discounted postage, for example, select 'Use specific amount', and enter 0.00 as the amount.

Thanks for posting 

Paula 

[snowshoe]

If you like to do your coding, then take a look at the use of the "shipping" override variables.  You can use these variables and include some custom scripting to get the results you need.

Below are few tips:

You can override the shipping charges on a button by including the following variables:  "shipping" and/or, "shipping2".   Note, the shipping variables are related to the item it is associated with, not the entire shopping cart.   The "shipping" variable is the cost of shipping the first item.   The "shipping2" variable is the cost you would charge for additional numbers of the same item.   Let's say you charge $1.00 to ship the first item, but you might give a price break for the anything beyond the first item.   So, for purchasing more of the item you would charge $.50 per item (2 through x). 

 For example: 

 For non-hosted item button code, you can override the Profile Shipping Table calculations by adding the following lines to your extisting button code: 

 <input type="hidden" name="shipping" value="1.00"> 
 <input type="hidden" name="shipping2" value=".50"> 


 If using the Online Button Creator: 

 For "hosted" or "encrypted" item button code you need to modify button code using the "Advanced Variables" in Step 3.   Note the text box near the bottom of the page.  There you can insert extra variables.   For example, to insert the "shipping" and "shipping2" override variables just enter: 

 shipping=1.00 
 shipping2=.50 

 There's no HTML extras, just the name of the variable, an equal sign and the value. 


 How to check to see if you have the shipping override enabled. 

 Note, you have to have at least one shipping method setup for the shipping override variables to be recognized.   If you don't have at least one shipping method setup, you must set one up first.   Additionally, when using the override variables, you will not see the Estimate Shipping and Tax box on the PayPal Checkout Screen. 

 * Log in to your PayPal Account. 
 * Select Profile. 
 * Select My Selling Tools. 
 * Under Shipping my Item, you will see Shipping preferences and Shipping Calculations. 
 * Click on Update next to Shipping Calculations. 
 * On the next page, look for "Override Shipping Methods Per Transaction".   It should be "ON". 
 * If not, you need to Edit your settings. 
 * Look for "Use the shipping fee in the transaction instead of my calculator's settings:" 
 * Select "Yes". 
 * Save changes. 


 Notes concerning the use of the "handling_cart" variable and the "handling" variable.   The "handling_cart" variable is used with Add to Cart Item Buttons and unlike "shipping" and "shipping2" it's value applies to the entire shopping cart.   The value will only be applied one time.   You can include the "handling_cart" variable with multiple item buttons but, it will only be applied by the first button thats selected.   All other selections will be ignored for that shopping session.   Should you use different values for this variable, depending on which one is applied first, the Shipping amount displayed may be different than expected. 

 The "handling" variable is used with Buy Now Item Buttons.   With either variable, "handling_cart" or "handling", the value will be included with the Shipping amount on the PayPal Screens and not displayed as a separate line item. 

If this is a bit much, then yes, a 3rd party shopping cart should work.  Many 3rd party carts have very flexiable shipping features.  You can find a list carts here:

https://www.paypal-marketing.com/paypal/html/hosted/emarketing/partner/directory/

[ConfusedClaire]

Thank you very much for that. I will give the overriding shipping charges a go.

Do you happen to know if there is any way i can have a different second product bought at the shipping2 cost. For example I sell a day cream and a night cream. They weight the same. If someone were to buy the day cream the postal would be for example £3. If they were to then add a night cream with the seperate add to cart button for that product  can i have it set up to be the shipping2 charge which would be around £1.50? 

Also do you know of a third party shopping cart which allows me to set up the worldwide shipping charge problem without moving away from paypal. I am comfortable using paypal for the most part and would like to stay with them. I have been reading up a bit about a company called Magento. Looks like it's owned by ebay. I'm not clear what going with them involves. 

I really appreciate your help. Many thanks.

Claire

[snowshoe]

The question concerning the different items, yes, you could do what you have in mind however, it would require a bit of custom scripting as you would need a mini-cart type setup.  Basically this would work similar to a 3rd party cart where as all the necessary logic is done your web page or site first, then the results of that logic are passed on to PayPal.