Hi All,
We’re trying to figure out a new shipping scheme for our company. One that is consistent and logical.
We’re a boating company and we sell a lot of large, heavy items. In the past we have been doing a flat shipping rate for each item. This works great for single purchases, but for multiple purchases it’s a problem. For example, a customer purchases a 50 lbs boat anchor (shipping ~$40). He then purchases some anchor rope (shipping is normally ~$15). However, it doesn’t really cost us that much, it’s closer to $5, so it’s not fair to charge him $55 in total.
The normal solution would be to add an extra $5 or so per additional item. This is an issue though if the customer purchases two 50 lbs anchors. We’re charging them $45 for shipping when it’s really like $65.
The other option is to use a dynamic shipping calculator, based on weight/location. Our only beef with that is that we’re located on the West Coast and many of our customers are based on the east coast, and we like to subsidize our shipping a little bit for them.
Any suggestions on what type of strategy to take regarding shipping?