Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

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evanb@firefold.com
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Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by evanb@firefold.com » Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:41 am

This might have been covered already, but we would like to use only the zip code to give an estimate for shipping on items. Is this possible?

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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by afm » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:45 am

It depends on the shipping methods. Some of carriers require more address information than just the zip code. For example, FedEx requires the zip code and the city. Even then, the estimate will often be higher than the actual cost (which is based on the street address, city, and zip).

You could subscribe to a zip code service and then add code that looks up a city based on the zip code. But that will probably lead to even worse estimates. Many zip codes touch multiple cities and the the shipping cost to each can vary quite a bit. If your code simply picked the first city in the list, the estimate would be wrong quite often.
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by mazhar » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:34 pm

There are many reasons for making country, province and city fields required for shipping estimator.

* Firstly, the shipping estimate needs to work for countries other than US.
* Secondly, some of the carriers require more address information than just the zip-code. For example FedEx requires zip-code and city.
* Thirdly, and most importantly, the shipping estimator can not work correctly with shipping zones defined in the store if zip-code is the only information available to determine the applicable zone.

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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by Robbie@FireFold » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:19 am

The reason we asked this was actually because of Joe's website: http://www.solunar.com/GPS-Automotive-C42.aspx

He said he was running RC3 - which only required zip. I just did a test calc on his website and was able to pull:

UPS Ground
$12.38
FedEx 2day
$40.23
UPS 2nd Day Air®
$32.87
FedEx Standard Overnight
$84.88
UPS Next Day Air®
$86.59
UPS 3-Day Select®
$26.00
UPS Next Day Air Saver®
$79.53
UPS Next Day Air® Early AM®
$124.92

Currently we only use USPS and UPS - which both only require zip code.
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Katie
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by Katie » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:41 pm

You can probably use the shipping estimator from RC3. I can't guarantee it will work, but it's worth a try.
We fixed the shipping estimator in the final version because we were getting 2-3 complaints each week that it didn't work properly.

By the way, I think that USPS requires a country code. It's also not going to work with multiple warehouses, shipping zones, any postal code outside of the US, and there are probably other things I can't think of right now.

Good Luck,
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by compunerdy » Wed Sep 10, 2008 10:56 pm

What would be nice is once the customer is logged in or the address is saved into a cookie that it shrinks the thing down and lists what is selected in small print with the option to change it. That way all the info is there for new customers but isnt a big ugly box for returning customers.

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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by AbleMods » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:18 pm

You're better off with the AC7 Final version of estimator.
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by jmestep » Wed Sep 17, 2008 4:08 pm

Joe, are you using the one from RC3 or the final build with un-wanted fields taken out?
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by AbleMods » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:57 pm

RC3, Solunar.com hasn't been upgraded yet :oops:

Based on what Katie said, doesn't sound like removing the extra fields is such a good idea. My estimator still hangs every so often with the AJAX "processing..." message.

Plus it has the All Zones bug although I believe that's in the classes and not the page code.
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by jmestep » Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:50 am

I've taken off all but the country and zip code since we use only UPS and didn't have a problem with rates- I just kept taking off a field one at a time and checking. I took off all but zip for a client and warned him he might have rate problems, but so far he is satisfied with the rates he is getting. I'm not sure yet that it's wise to do that, but it works for him.
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by kastnerd » Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:26 pm

Maybe if your select USA as your country then it have only zip and country? If you select another country it add the city, (mot other counties don't use state per say) Are you sure Fedex needs city?

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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by afm » Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:32 pm

FedEx will return a quote if you do not include the city, but it will be high. Sometimes very high (like 2x).
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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by kastnerd » Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:07 am

afm wrote:FedEx will return a quote if you do not include the city, but it will be high. Sometimes very high (like 2x).
couldn't you use a city zip code look up and prevent the quotes from being to high?

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Re: Shipping Estimate - ZIP Code only

Post by afm » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:41 am

No, for the same reason FedEx does not. Many zip codes cover multiple cities.
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