Which is the best shipping type for us?

Hi all,

We run a store selling sports clothing items (generally sports bras and running shorts) from stock but also large bulky pieces of sports equipment that we get dropshipped.

We want to be able to keep the prices cheap on the clothing (royal mail special delivery) but specify specific shipping rates on the dropship items to be sent direct from our suppliers. What is the best shipping type to be able to do both?
Many thanks!

None of my extensions can combine shipping methods into a single cost, at least at this point. I'm working on something that can do what you describe, but I'm not sure when it will be ready. For now, you'd need to do one of these options:

(1) Use Individual Shipping and display appropriate shipping choices for groups of manufacturers (which means you'd need to group the bulkier items under a single manufacturer, and the other items under a single manufacturer). This would allow a separate shipping choice for each group of items, but the customer would see the individual groups.

(2) Use a fee/discount extension like Product-Based Fee/Discount to add a line item that adds an additional fee for those bulky items. Again, the customer would be able to see the fee.

I do have a Hidden Shipping Adjustments extension that can adjust the cost of shipping methods without the customer knowing, but it doesn't support complex criteria at this point. I plan on adding it in the future, but I'm not sure when that will happen.

If you really need the customer to not see the additional fee, you'll likely need to have a custom modification written for you. If you need to find a developer, I recommend you post a request in the OpenCart "Commercial Support" forum (forum.opencart.com/viewforum.php?f=88), which is checked by a number of OpenCart developers. You can also try checking out the OpenCart "Partners" area (www.opencart.com/index.php?route=partner/partner).

Thanks Jonathon, not sure if they are the right solution (my husband has been looking through your suggestions).

We have a set rate of shipping from our suppliers so is there any way of adding this cost in per product which will over ride the royal mail pricing for that particular product?

I believe we're continuing this discussion through e-mail, so I'll just reply there. Let me know if that's not the case.

Hi Jonathon, you have been speaking to him over email, just thought I'd ask on here as well to see if there are any other ways of going about this we may have missed.