I'm in the market for a shipping estimator module to replace the tired one that comes with 1.5.6.4. Here is what I want:
1) Most of my customers are USA based so I want to optimize it to them. This means no need to input the STATE. The default for country will be USA. So this means the customer only puts in the Destination Zip Code (it should be labeled as such)!
2) Once the destination zip code is entered, it is remembered for the entire session and used in the billing and destination address. The customer can choose to edit the billing zip code, but if they alter the destination zip code, the shipping estimate will be adjusted.
3) The customer can choose the service type such as standard, 2 day, next day or pickup (pickup of course should zero out shipping). This information is also retained for the session and can be changed in the cart or during checkout.
The extension that seems to almost do this is by Clear Thinking: http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route ... on_id=1961
In testing out the demo, I found the extension did not fully remember the service settings and reset each time I changed the quantity of the product. Also, the configuration of the module in the cart mode seemed disconnected from the options applied in admin. It did however work when on the product page (which is a neat feature, but only estimates the shipping for that product which is not all that useful for me).
Does anyone have any suggested modules that I should look into? Maybe the developer of "Shipping Estimate Module" can make some modifications to make this app perfect. Please let me know ASAP. My new site is going live late tonight.
Regarding my Shipping Estimate Module:
1. The service settings not being remembered is a bug in OpenCart, not my extension. I have some edits I can suggest if you want to try and fix this.
2. The shipping estimator on the cart page is set to display all fields, so that people don't change the settings and confuse others. On any other page, it will appear with the fields you set in the admin panel.
3. The product page estimates can be enabled/disabled. If you want estimates for the whole cart, even when on the product page, disable the "Product Page Estimates" setting.
4. You should note that if your shipping methods require a state code, then you'll need your customers to choose their state. There is no reverse state lookup by zip code in the extension.
Feel free to contact me at www.getclearthinking.com/contact if you have further questions.
1. The service settings not being remembered is a bug in OpenCart, not my extension. I have some edits I can suggest if you want to try and fix this.
2. The shipping estimator on the cart page is set to display all fields, so that people don't change the settings and confuse others. On any other page, it will appear with the fields you set in the admin panel.
3. The product page estimates can be enabled/disabled. If you want estimates for the whole cart, even when on the product page, disable the "Product Page Estimates" setting.
4. You should note that if your shipping methods require a state code, then you'll need your customers to choose their state. There is no reverse state lookup by zip code in the extension.
Feel free to contact me at www.getclearthinking.com/contact if you have further questions.
I have it working, thanks to Jonathan of clearthinking. This guy knows his php. If you want to test the functionality, you can visit http://www.bagtoss.co and check it out. If someone else wants this, ask Jonathan. He was kind enough to help me implement this via modification of his extension (adding a google api that looks up the zip and returns city and state). We also set the destination address to be the default payment address so when you go to checkout, the shipping selection stays where it was set. The main objective of less input and faster checkouts was achieved.
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Motivation: For us, 99% of our customers are in the USA and 95% of them buy stuff with the intent of shipping it to their house. We would be stupid not to cater to this. The default Opencart of 1.5.6.4 is below average when it comes to this. I'm not saying we have it solved, but it is quicker and more intuitive. If you are the customer and you add something to the cart, you want to see how much it costs to ship. Why do you need to enter anything more than a 5 digit number to figure this out? The default opencart setting needs the customer to select a radio button to get to shipping estimate, then select the country, then the state and hey why not enter your post code while you are at it but we won't use it for anything and we won't remember it either. Our next step is to use Jonathan's other extension for zip code based shipping rates. Why would all of California be the same rate? It's a big state. Geo zones are simple but they don't handle different rates within the state.
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Motivation: For us, 99% of our customers are in the USA and 95% of them buy stuff with the intent of shipping it to their house. We would be stupid not to cater to this. The default Opencart of 1.5.6.4 is below average when it comes to this. I'm not saying we have it solved, but it is quicker and more intuitive. If you are the customer and you add something to the cart, you want to see how much it costs to ship. Why do you need to enter anything more than a 5 digit number to figure this out? The default opencart setting needs the customer to select a radio button to get to shipping estimate, then select the country, then the state and hey why not enter your post code while you are at it but we won't use it for anything and we won't remember it either. Our next step is to use Jonathan's other extension for zip code based shipping rates. Why would all of California be the same rate? It's a big state. Geo zones are simple but they don't handle different rates within the state.
Vorticy, Inc.
Opencart 1.5.6.4, MySQL 5.1.73-5, PHP 5.3.3-46, Plesk v12.0.18, OS CentOS 6
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