Feedback request

I am working on things for my site. How do you, as a customer, feel about having the site not charge shipping for any items, and then be billed for exact charges? The site currently gets a quote but I am having a hard time getting it to be accurate. One order will be way too low, the next is way too high. What other features would you like to see in my website?

Free shipping is a nice feature as long as the price of product is competitive with other on-line sellers.

timbucktoo said:

Free shipping is a nice feature as long as the price of product is competitive with other on-line sellers.

Click to expand...

I think OP meant charge for product and then charge accurate shipping charges on a second charge, not free shipping.

You would need to offer purchaser a way to cancel order if shipping charges made it not acceptable as a purchase. Because of such a variety of size related items in rocketry I would feel it would be necessary to pack and then charge and then get approval from customer. You could easily have a 10 ounce tube cost more than 1 pound item because of dimensional charges imposed by shippers.

accpool said:

You would need to offer purchaser a way to cancel order if shipping charges made it not acceptable as a purchase. Because of such a variety of size related items in rocketry I would feel it would be necessary to pack and then charge and then get approval from customer. You could easily have a 10 ounce tube cost more than 1 pound item because of dimensional charges imposed by shippers.

Click to expand...

Yeah, good point. I would want to know up front, so that I can make a wise go/no go decision. I appreciate where the OP is coming from, though.

timbucktoo said:

Free shipping is a nice feature as long as the price of product is competitive with other on-line sellers.

Click to expand...

I am not meaning free shipping. The margins in this business don't support that, not to mention hazmat shipments....


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

accpool said:

You would need to offer purchaser a way to cancel order if shipping charges made it not acceptable as a purchase. Because of such a variety of size related items in rocketry I would feel it would be necessary to pack and then charge and then get approval from customer. You could easily have a 10 ounce tube cost more than 1 pound item because of dimensional charges imposed by shippers.

Click to expand...

I could do that. I would have to change the payment processing though.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

I have an algorithm I use that is pretty accurate. To make it work your site needs to have each products L, W, H, and weight attribute. And, of course, you need to modify the code to make it work. Email or PM me if you are interested.

raohara said:

I have an algorithm I use that is pretty accurate. To make it work your site needs to have each products L, W, H, and weight attribute. And, of course, you need to modify the code to make it work. Email or PM me if you are interested.

Click to expand...

Who are you?


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

accpool said:

You would need to offer purchaser a way to cancel order if shipping charges made it not acceptable as a purchase.

Click to expand...

Fully agree. There have been many times I've declined buying items, especially if they are non-essential, if the shipping cost was too high

les said:

Fully agree. There have been many times I've declined buying items, especially if they are non-essential, if the shipping cost was too high

Click to expand...

I'll work on another integration for accurate shipping prices then to keep this on the site. Right now the user has to select the method and people never read and get it right.

Do it the SEMROC way. They did it right.

Major Tom said:

Do it the SEMROC way. They did it right.

Click to expand...

How about examples of what they "did right".


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

I just experienced the "post-shipping-payment" method and I had no issues with it. I will say that I was surprised when I got an email from him asking for the payment for shipping costs. It is a little inconvenient making two payments, but not hateful.

pondman said:

I just experienced the "post-shipping-payment" method and I had no issues with it. I will say that I was surprised when I got an email from him asking for the payment for shipping costs. It is a little inconvenient making two payments, but not hateful.

Click to expand...

For me, some items I can absorb shipping and make a profit. Some items don't have enough margin or cost to cover shipping, even if shipping is a dollar or two. For instance, switches are not something with a big margin and cannot cover a shipping charge for an envelope. They are a convenience item for my customers.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

If you are going down the road this way why are you asking for part payment ahead of time? What you are describing is getting a quote for each shipment. If you are not shipping until final payment anyway why not just wait until you have the quote confirmed. Either way you will loose out on rush shipments but I am never in that much of a hurry, don't know about others.


Sent from my iPad using Rocketry Forum

Hal8472 said:

If you are going down the road this way why are you asking for part payment ahead of time? What you are describing is getting a quote for each shipment. If you are not shipping until final payment anyway why not just wait until you have the quote confirmed. Either way you will loose out on rush shipments but I am never in that much of a hurry, don't know about others.


Sent from my iPad using Rocketry Forum

Click to expand...

I ship before full payment is received generally. If the product is paid for, I can wait the few days for shipping money while it is traveling to the customer. This allows the customer to pay for exact cost.

So, to clarify, you would ship on payment then send an invoice for actual shipping costs which you would collect after.

While it's nice to try to charge the least shipping it's problematic for buyers. There is no way to know what charges to expect and whether it's reasonable or not. Also, reasonable is different than actual. I have done a lot of shipping over the years and there are many choices for carriers leading to wide varieties of costs.

I still think the best options are providing a cost upfront either by estimate or quote.

Hal


Sent from my iPad using Rocketry Forum

In general, if I don't know the shipping charges ahead of time, I don't buy... The only site I purchase from where I don't know the shipping cost up front is McMaster Carr - and they're very good about getting shipping estimates out if you ask ahead of time.

chrisudy said:

In general, if I don't know the shipping charges ahead of time, I don't buy... The only site I purchase from where I don't know the shipping cost up front is McMaster Carr - and they're very good about getting shipping estimates out if you ask ahead of time.

Click to expand...

I also am happy to quote shipping ahead if need be. I'm working on a way to get the shipping calculated when the items are ordered.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

I think you need a technical fix so that you can provide an accurate charge for shipping when the customer is processing payment for the purchase. Other sites manage to do it, so it is possible. I know it is tricky because rocketry items can be lightweight but large, but I think you can probably find a consultant who can help you get it sorted out. The idea you had proposed makes it hard for a customer to know the full delivered cost of the item before committing to the purchase.

tbonerocketeer said:

I also am happy to quote shipping ahead if need be. I'm working on a way to get the shipping calculated when the items are ordered.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

Click to expand...

You could include an option for the customer:

• Ship now and bill for shipping later
• Hold for shipping quote

McMaster-Carr has a similar problem. Their solution is to hold off billing until the shipping is known then bill the total. I suppose it comes down to trust. I have never felt burned by them. If you are up front about it I don't think it's a problem.

ThirstyBarbarian said:

I think you need a technical fix so that you can provide an accurate charge for shipping when the customer is processing payment for the purchase. Other sites manage to do it, so it is possible. I know it is tricky because rocketry items can be lightweight but large, but I think you can probably find a consultant who can help you get it sorted out. The idea you had proposed makes it hard for a customer to know the full delivered cost of the item before committing to the purchase.

Click to expand...

This is what I have now, although there is an error I am working on that was crashing the cart page so I have a temporary bill shipping choice. What other feedback is there as I know what needs to be done for shipping.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

tbonerocketeer said:

How about examples of what they "did right".


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

Click to expand...

It was just simplicity and convenience. I don't really make huge orders that get me free or discounted shipping every time, so it was nice to know the total upfront as opposed to entering a lot of info during checkout only to find out the shipping was going to cost me more that it would be worth and just going to the hobby shop to get it instead. Semroc also treated you with great customer service weather you bought one rocket or a truckload. I know they might have given up profit to make things that convenient for small orders, but it did make me a loyal customer who would have made bigger orders when the time was right for me.

The big thing to me is to make it clear up front and let me know when you would expect to have shipping information. That and be prepared for cancellation if the shipping makes it not worth it. If possible for this kind of thing, I would say to have the customer submit a "request" and then after you update with shipping, they come back and pay it off.

The big thing for me anymore is that if you can automatically add a charge to my card, explain how and why. I am not concerned so much with the bill if the number leaks. But it has become a pain to replace a card.

1tree said:

The big thing to me is to make it clear up front and let me know when you would expect to have shipping information. That and be prepared for cancellation if the shipping makes it not worth it. If possible for this kind of thing, I would say to have the customer submit a "request" and then after you update with shipping, they come back and pay it off.

The big thing for me anymore is that if you can automatically add a charge to my card, explain how and why. I am not concerned so much with the bill if the number leaks. But it has become a pain to replace a card.

Click to expand...

I don't have any cc info for that exact reason. My processor runs the info and I will never see card info.


Christopher Short
Chris' Rocket Supplies
www.csrocketry.com
850-554-6531

Accurate shipping is a Very Hard problem to solve. It requires a lot of accurate data, as well as some "fun" algorithms, the most important of which is the Box Fit Algorithm. FYI, people have made that algorithm the subject of their PhD

Better to quote high and charge less than quote less and charge more

Canned shopping carts don't grasp HAZMAT and similar fun topics we have in the hobby