Why Should Shipping Be So Hard?
- By Mitchell Harper
- Published 08/22/2007
- StoreSuite Features , User Interface , StoreSuite Updates
-
Rating:
I've looked at a *lot* of eCommerce solutions while building
StoreSuite, and the one thing that 99.99% of them lack is usability -
that is, they aren't easy to use. This is especially true when it comes
to integrating shipping providers. Why should it be hard to integrate
shipping into your eCommerce shop?
I've spent the last few days building the shipping modules for StoreSuite. So far UPS and Australia post are integrated with USPS, CanadaPost, FedEx and Intershipper to come later in the week.
Today I just wanted to share a few screenshots with you that demonstrate how shipping integration works. I spent quite a bit of time working on the usability for shipping as I feel it's *the* most difficult thing to setup in other eCommerce solutions.
Here's the main shipping settings page. It appears when you click on the Settings -> Shipping Settings menu option. Nothing special here. You specify your location (which is used by the shipping providers as the base point of pickup) and can choose which countries you want to accept orders from. You also choose which shipping modules you want available from your store under the "Available Providers" section.
Certain shipping modules only work in certain countries, and StoreSuite factors this in. For example, if you set your location to USA and try to select the Australia Post shipping method then you'll see a message telling you that it's only available in Australia.
Here's the UPS settings tab. You'll notice the white "UPS" tab. All shipping modules you enable will appear along here, so it takes just one click to configure any of your shipping providers. The "Custom Shipping Methods" will allow you to define other shipping types such as free shipping, $x shipping if the order is over $x, etc.
After you configure a shipping provider you can click the "Test Shipping Provider" link to generate a live shipping quote. You simply fill in a form specifying weight of the package (and optionally physical dimensions and number of packages for certain shippers) and click "Get Quote". You'll then see a live shipping quote, or an error if something went wrong.
The shipping modules (and eventually the payment provider modules when they're done) are very easy to customize and if required you could add your own shipping provider in about half an hour.
I'll also be adding the option to include a handling fee for each order. You'll have the option to display the handling fee separately or as part of the shipping cost too.
I've spent the last few days building the shipping modules for StoreSuite. So far UPS and Australia post are integrated with USPS, CanadaPost, FedEx and Intershipper to come later in the week.
Today I just wanted to share a few screenshots with you that demonstrate how shipping integration works. I spent quite a bit of time working on the usability for shipping as I feel it's *the* most difficult thing to setup in other eCommerce solutions.
Here's the main shipping settings page. It appears when you click on the Settings -> Shipping Settings menu option. Nothing special here. You specify your location (which is used by the shipping providers as the base point of pickup) and can choose which countries you want to accept orders from. You also choose which shipping modules you want available from your store under the "Available Providers" section.
Certain shipping modules only work in certain countries, and StoreSuite factors this in. For example, if you set your location to USA and try to select the Australia Post shipping method then you'll see a message telling you that it's only available in Australia.
Here's the UPS settings tab. You'll notice the white "UPS" tab. All shipping modules you enable will appear along here, so it takes just one click to configure any of your shipping providers. The "Custom Shipping Methods" will allow you to define other shipping types such as free shipping, $x shipping if the order is over $x, etc.
After you configure a shipping provider you can click the "Test Shipping Provider" link to generate a live shipping quote. You simply fill in a form specifying weight of the package (and optionally physical dimensions and number of packages for certain shippers) and click "Get Quote". You'll then see a live shipping quote, or an error if something went wrong.
The shipping modules (and eventually the payment provider modules when they're done) are very easy to customize and if required you could add your own shipping provider in about half an hour.
I'll also be adding the option to include a handling fee for each order. You'll have the option to display the handling fee separately or as part of the shipping cost too.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by krillz)
Rating:
Nice, nice, got to say that you implemented this very cleanly, looks to be easy to use and understand.
Nothing complicated that will give a new commerce site creator headache.
Nice job!
Nothing complicated that will give a new commerce site creator headache.
Nice job!
Comment #2 (Posted by Jamaal Charles)
Rating:
Wow man, you're really beating the rest of the e-commerce field but doing the small things. You know what people want out of a store and you're delivering it and more!
Comment #3 (Posted by Johnny)
Rating:
I reckon the most difficult thing about setting up an eCommerce store is the product options, which can become incredibly complicated with variants using different product codes, prices and pictures. Also, the taxing system can be made unnecessarily complex. I recently purchased SunShop and the bloody thing doesn't even allow for tax inclusive pricing...for GST. I'm re-assured by the fact that you mob will keep Aussie interests in mind when developing this monster ;)
Comment #4 (Posted by Johan Cyprich)
Rating:
How would you handle selling software in your shopping cart which does not have a product for shipping? The purchased software is for download only.
In another shopping cart application that I'm using, I have to create 1000 items in inventory just so people can order the product, and then I have to send them an e-mail later telling where to download the app. This is not the way I want to sell my software.
I also have free products and my customers have to go through the same process to download it.
The problem is that many shopping cart apps are designed for people who sell and ship products, they're not designed for software companies. I want list my software, have people pay for it online, and then give an option to download it once their credit card is approved.
This wouldn't be very difficult to implement, would it?
[From Mitch: Hi Johan. StoreSuite was built from day one to support physical and downloadable products. If you only sell downloadable products the shipping step in the checkout process is skipped.
StoreSuite will have a customer area where your customers can login and download their digital products (eBooks, MP3's, etc) and you can even add expiry dates to the downloads.
Basically *EVERYTHING* is automated - from checkout, to email, to product downloads. Hope that helps.]
In another shopping cart application that I'm using, I have to create 1000 items in inventory just so people can order the product, and then I have to send them an e-mail later telling where to download the app. This is not the way I want to sell my software.
I also have free products and my customers have to go through the same process to download it.
The problem is that many shopping cart apps are designed for people who sell and ship products, they're not designed for software companies. I want list my software, have people pay for it online, and then give an option to download it once their credit card is approved.
This wouldn't be very difficult to implement, would it?
[From Mitch: Hi Johan. StoreSuite was built from day one to support physical and downloadable products. If you only sell downloadable products the shipping step in the checkout process is skipped.
StoreSuite will have a customer area where your customers can login and download their digital products (eBooks, MP3's, etc) and you can even add expiry dates to the downloads.
Basically *EVERYTHING* is automated - from checkout, to email, to product downloads. Hope that helps.]
Comment #5 (Posted by Jonathan)
Rating:
Hi. This software looks promising as well as others that are being created. I was curious about the license this software will come with. Please elaborate if you can.
[From Mitch: Hi Jonathan. StoreSuite will be released under a commercial license, like all of our other products. No word on price yet as we're still deciding.]
[From Mitch: Hi Jonathan. StoreSuite will be released under a commercial license, like all of our other products. No word on price yet as we're still deciding.]
Comment #6 (Posted by Johan Cyprich)
Rating:
Hi Mitch. StoreSuite looks like what I need for my business. Too bad there's no beta, or alpha version, to try out. :) I'll post an article on it on my blog.
Comment #7 (Posted by an unknown user)
Rating:
one thing I notice in our current cart is that some of the shipping prices are accurate and others inacurate according to the manual USPS online pricing charts. So getting this right is important.
Comment #8 (Posted by Cindy Scinto)
Rating:
Didn't know where to post this . . . Will StoreSuite intergrate into Quick Books? Quicken? Peachtree? Will there be an option to export the customer database to Excel or a csv from within StoreSuite? Currently I had to write a database query and it took me forever and does not even work correctly . . .
[From Mitch: Hi Cindy. You'll be able to export orders in CSV format, but the first release wont have QuickBooks integration. We'll be adding that in a future release]
[From Mitch: Hi Cindy. You'll be able to export orders in CSV format, but the first release wont have QuickBooks integration. We'll be adding that in a future release]
Comment #9 (Posted by st)
Rating:
one request that is a small, but annoying thing in sunshop, please have addresses print out the country name in full. Sunshop only prints country codes (eg LV for Latvia). Our shipper brings these packages to the post office and they dont know what that code means. It seems a simple thing to print the full country name, but they refuse to do it after years of requests. Please consider including this small request. Thanks
[From Mitch: Hi St, that's something I would've assumed all shopping carts do, but I guess not. Rest assure StoreSuite does print the full country name.]
[From Mitch: Hi St, that's something I would've assumed all shopping carts do, but I guess not. Rest assure StoreSuite does print the full country name.]
