opencart shipping option over designed, why not simple?

Hi,

I am new to opencart, I am using ebay for quite long time.

I found opencart shipping options are too complex, and I don't see any point why we need so many delivery company exensions (royal mail, usps, fedex etc...).

basic and simple option is needed for store owner:
for example, like ebay:
you can just personally add a delivery option, for example:
UK, first class delivery is £2.99
UK, second class delivery is £0.00
EU, seller standard air mail delivery is £6.99

so, this is much simple for store owners to manage and edit, without understanding all different shipping options, free shipping, flat shipping, royal mail modules, etc.

Maybe I am new, and not understand it, but simple and easy to use is the most important.

ebay uses it, amazon uses it. I want to use it as well.

It's fine for ebay when you are adding one product, but what about a store where you have 15,000 products do you want to have to set shipping for each and every one of them? It's complicated because shipping is one of the most complicated things in running an online store, and your shipping needs may be simple, but not everyones are.

thank you for your reply.

I have about 500 items. my point isn't about to add shipping service for every individual items.

let me make it clear, only few delivery options are enough for most of online stores.

I am regular amazon buyer, they only have about 3 delivery options to choose from. Free, first class, and guaranteed.

another example, holland and barrentt, they only have 1 delivery option, £1.99 for UK, £6.99 for rest of world.

I believe amaon, holland and barrentt have more than 15,000 products.

ok so is the entire cart shipping 1.99 or 1.99 per item what if the item is really big or really small. shipping is very complicated. sure amazon only has about 6 or 7 different types of shipping to choose from, but those prices are calculated based on something, probably weight, because I assure you they are not going to charge the same shipping for a lawn mower as they do for a dvd. No matter what you say shipping is not easy never has been never will be, and opencart tries to have modules so that each store owner can choose how they want to handle it.

I understand there are big size items which will cost more on delivery, they may need a customized delivery module.

from my experience, it would be much better and easier to have another option, store owners can set up few delivery options themselves rather than using those delivery modules.

just like ebay or amazon delivery options (for example):
1. free, with royal mail 2nd class.
2. £1.99 with royal mail 1st class.
3. £6.99 with royal mail special delivery next day guranteed.

by the way, amazon offers free delivery on all items (include big item like TV) if you are not in hurry.
holland and barrentt offers £1.99 per order, if over £25, delivery is free. so I don't really see your point with item weight, if like you said, more weight more delivery cost, why holland and barrent offers FREE delivery when order is over £25; the delivery charge should be more than £1.99, not FREE.

for real business world, store owners they are thinking about how to grow the business, not about to increase postage.

Just for the record: shipping is never 'free' (if you can find me a shipper who charges nothing then I'm very interested in contacting this shipper).

'Free' shipping is a magnificant con job that many people don't seem to be able to see through.

The customer is paying for the shipping, regardless as to if it is called 'free'.

What matters is total price and delivery times.

...

It'd be useful is some one could actually look at Bug No. 55 as, until that's fixed, Opencart is not useable for any one wanting to use Royal Mail.

I ship worldwide from China and Hong Kong, using 5 postal services and 2 courier companies. The couriers each have 9 zones, unfortunately not the same countries in their zones, and all shipping is weight based. I sell on neither ebay or amazon.

This cart is for me, too. While you may not like so many options, I would like even more.

I understand it is hard for some to understand there is life and commerce beyond ebay, but so far that is still true.

Sorry you have such a hard time making choices, maybe you'd rather give me a hand making zone shipping cost tables like this, which is one of about a dozen needed -

0.5:20.06,1.0:24.87,1.5:33.68,2.0:38.50,2.5:45.47;3.0:50.53,3.5:55.58,4.0:60.63,4.5:65.68,5.0:70.26,5.5:74.83,6.0:79.40,6.5:83.97,7.0:88.54,7.5:93.11,8.0:97.68,8.5:102.26,9.0:106.83,9.5:111.40,10.0:115.49,10.5:119.58,11.0:123.67,11.5:127.76,12.0:131.85,12.5:135.94,13.0:140.03,13.5:144.12,14.0:148.21,14.5:152.30,15.0:156.39,15.5:160.48,16.0:164.57,16.5:168.66,17.0:172.75,17.5:176.84,18.0:180.93,18.5:185.02,19.0:189.11,19.5:193.20,20.0:197.83,20.5:202.46,21.0:207.09,21.5:211.72,22.0:216.35,22.5:220.98,23.0:225.61,23.5:230.24,24.0:234.87,24.5:239.50,25.0:244.13,25.5:248.76,26.0:253.39,26.5:258.02,27.0:262.65,27.5:267.28,28.0:271.91,28.5:276.54,29.0:281.17,29.5:285.80,30.0:287.06

Thank you all for the replies.

the key point wasn't the Free shipping, I guess the direction was changed during discussion.

My point is, maybe an extra simple shipping option is needed, like ebay or amazon delivery options, when you checkout, just few options available, e.g. free, first class, special delivery, airmail.

As Himije pointed out, there is bug 55 on royal mail shipping option.

royal mail is important to those store owners who selling small items, and main target markets is UK.

yes royal mail is the odd duck out. It's the only named shipping method that doesn't use an api to get the prices from the shipping company. The prices are hard coded in the module. I really have no idea why it was ever coded this way. Seems like if it's not going to use an api the user should be able to change the prices from the admin, but that's not the way it was coded.

Xsecrets wrote:yes royal mail is the odd duck out. It's the only named shipping method that doesn't use an api to get the prices from the shipping company. The prices are hard coded in the module. I really have no idea why it was ever coded this way. Seems like if it's not going to use an api the user should be able to change the prices from the admin, but that's not the way it was coded.

It's royalmail's fault. They don't support an API. I was going to change it to allow prices from admin, but really it is no different than the existing weight-based shipping. There is no real royal mail shipping. It is just a weight-based shipping clone with hardcoded rates. It's time UK got to 1st world status with a proper mail system.

Second that!

Maybe even get to where their registered mail bar code scanners can read all of the alphabet, not just codes starting with A.

They claim to belong to an international group that will honor each others' delivery confirmations, but their scanners will not read most bar codes, although they all have the same format, 2 letters, 9 numbers and 2 letters. In the UK if the first letter is not an A, forget it.

Even Malaysia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates can handle the job, but RM can't.

Thank you very much for all your help and comments.

I have managed to set up few things:
1. use free shipping as Free delivery option, changed name to: Free delivery by Royal mail 1st class.
2. use flat shipping as royal mail special delivery, changed name to: Royal Mail special delivery next day.

feel good.

but, still struggle to find/set up international delivery, such normal air mail delivery.

the weight option is very confusing for me. because I am offer FREE delivery within UK, therefore, I need an option to set up air mail but also exclude UK area.

Xsecrets wrote:yes royal mail is the odd duck out. It's the only named shipping method that doesn't use an api to get the prices from the shipping company. The prices are hard coded in the module. I really have no idea why it was ever coded this way. Seems like if it's not going to use an api the user should be able to change the prices from the admin, but that's not the way it was coded.

Not only Royal mail, but also Dutch TNT has fixed prices and no api.
On the 1st of the new year prices and regions to send the order has changed.
So i came with this solution for the Dutch users of opencart. The pages are are in Dutch but you can follow along.

It will be available later this week. Free at no cost.
G.