Template courier policy bulk upload csv?

[fizzbang]

There doesn't seem to be a template csv for uploading courier policies in bulk. I am informed there is a way to do it, but that is all l've been told. Does anybody know how?

 

Also is there a way to manually assign a specific courier policy to a specific item via a bulk iitem inventory upload spreadsheet? I see no column for courier in the products import csv.

 

I don't want the cart to calculate anything, other than matching buyer's country to what the designated policy has to offer for that country. Buyer pays item + predefined postage & packing fee for that shipping policy for that country for that tariff. Seller then shops around for the best current deal using buyer's money OR seller goes with the courier policy's nickname that only the seller can see, where it instructs seller to "Try PostCo Express Global or other Express Courier"

 

[all the buyer will see is "Express Global Courier (7-10 Days) - inc. Basic Insurance"]

 

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by fizzbang

[datakick]

Thirtybees does not have CSV carrier import. 

[fizzbang]

Regarding the rest of my OP, how do you assign courier policy to inventory item?

 

I want to assign on the basis of predefined policy, not item weight etc. Just a policy l have already decided in advance, from a kitbag of pre-written policies.

 

Sorry but i've uninstalled thirtybees for now owing to some quite bad attitude received on another thread and therefore l can no longer see if it's possible or not.

Would be tempted to reinstall if l can get a straight answer. All l seem to get is "it's possible, but why should i tell you?"

[datakick]

First of all, there is no  'Courier policy' in thirtybees. There are only Carriers. Carriers of course don't need to be associated with real-world carriers like fedex. You can create your own carrier with generic name, and simulate your 'Courier policy' using carriers objects. There's nothing special about this. 

Then you can associate your products with carriers (Courier policy) in shipping tab, and then let the thirtybees does it magic 

[fizzbang]

I want to send wedding rings weighing <100g worth £500: 

To UK for £8 via Royal Mail 1pm Special Delivery

To Ireland for £13 Royal Mail Express

To the rest of the EU for £15 via Royal Mail Express

To Asia for £24 via UPS Standard

To Asia for £32 via UPS Express

To North & South America for £20 via Royal Mail International Standard

To Oceania for £26 via Royal Mail International Standard

[I CALL THIS "ABCD Policy <100g EXPENSIVE" - but only l can see it called that, customer doesn't see nickname]

 

I want to send CDs <100g worth £5:

To UK for £3.50 via Royal Mail 2nd Class Recorded Delivery

To UK for £5 via Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded Delivery

To Ireland for £8 Royal Mail Express

To the rest of the EU for £9 via Royal Mail Express

To Asia for £16 via UPS Standard

To Asia for £19 via UPS Express

To North & South America for £15 via Royal Mail International Standard

To Oceania for £21 via Royal Mail International Standard

[I CALL THIS "XYZ Policy <100g Cheap Stuff" - but only l can see it called that, customer doesn't see nickname]

 

 

Take product called "Smash Hits 23 Double CD"

I want to assign "XYZ Policy <100g Cheap Stuff" as shipping policy.

 

Take product called "24k Diamond Eternity Ring"

I want to assign "ABCD Policy <100g EXPENSIVE" as shipping policy.

 

 

Lucky day: One customer buys both Smash Hits 23 Double CD *and* 24k Diamnd Eternity Ring.

At checkout l want rule: Buy more than 1 item, cheapest item is 8% off total cost inc P&P

Then l decide to just bundle the CD with the diamond ring and send it all via Royal Mail Special Delivery 1pm to UK - it weighs 160g but that's okay, customer has paid shipping for both items and only got a small discount off the cheapest item, l can still afford to send both items together via the Special Delivery 1pm tariff.

 

If it is NOT okay, Iduplicate the shipping policy used, and make an updated price that works better for, say, diamond rings. Then l  email customer telling him there was a problem with the shipping policy, cancel his order, and tell him to order again, with my updated policy.

 

 

 

^^^^^^ datakick, please tell me, is this possible? Because l gave it a long hard try and it just didn't seem possible. The tiny screenshot you sent me was nice but l've no idea how to get to that stage.

[datakick]

It is possible, except this:

10 minutes ago, fizzbang said:

customer has paid shipping for both item

In thirtybees, you can have only one carrier for order. If order contains two items, each assigned different carrier (=courier policy), then system will not offer you any carriers.

[datakick]

4 minutes ago, datakick said:

It is possible, except this:

In thirtybees, you can have only one carrier for order. If order contains two items, each assigned different carrier (=courier policy), then system will not offer you any carriers.

Sorry, I take that back. Looks like tb will split the order into multiple orders if it contains items that must be shipped using different couriers.

So yeah, it should be possible to do that.

[fizzbang]

Dude l'm sorry but this means generalised policies and therefore "safe" high postage costs.

A vendor might index their prices to eBay, to keep a competitive edge (the shopping cart price = eBay Price MINUS eBay Fees MINUS PayPal fees PLUS [for example] STRIPE FEES)

If your shopping cart cannot allow the same geographical location in different policies, or if your shopping cart cannot allow different policies mixed together (we don't all sell Apple iPods, some ppl sell antique telescope, new doll, old army hat, 20kg lawnmower, all in one shop!), then you reject us that sell anything and everything to everywhere with a choice of different couriers.

It's not just you, it's all open source carts. Also l believe closed source carts that l've looked at too. None of you guys think hard enough about shipping. Your solution: "Mark products up by £1 million + Offer free global shipping!"

At checkout, customer does quick last minute price comparison. Sees eBay price. Cart is abandoned.

No worries, cart abandonment plugin can harrass customer. Customer will bookmark yourshop and change bookmark name to "The shop that harrasses me, avoid" so if he sees your shop again, he'll see it's bookmarked and see the title he gave it.

 

 

What l'm proposing is so, so, so simple. Just do it like eBay.

eBay method:

Create policy with private nickname.

Allow multiple individual countries. All entire continents. All from same window.

Also allow option for outlying areas.

State cost for 1 item. State cost for multiple items.

Allow whatever courier you want to whatever country, all under same policy.

 

Also, allow duplicates of that policy, to give slight variations. Must give different nickname.

 

 

What you are doing is:

- Forcing customer to see policy nickname because that's all they see (l think)

- Not allowing vendor to use policy nickname in any effective way

- CRUCIALLY: Not having an ENTIRE policy covering the entire world, with separate parts e.g. for local country, EU 1, EU 2, Rest of Europe 1, Rest of Europe 2, Asia (excluding Japan), Japan, Oceania (excluding Australia), Australia, N&S America

all under ONE policy.

 

Cart shouldn't need to calculate weight because 1 kg of feathers is way diff. to 1kg gold. Cart no longer needs to max out CPU of anybody.  I know you can have other options not indexed by weight but they really don't make the slightest bit of sense to me.

All the cart should do is: Check buyer's country. Check policy. GIVE: All relevant courier deals for that country, for that policy.

- Also you don't allow people to upload all this courier info via CSV

 

My solution is a simple lookup operation that is quite easily done on a spreadsheet: Check buyer's country. Check policy. GIVE: All relevant courier deals for that country, for that policy.

If it's easy on a spreadsheet, then surely it's easy if you code it into your software?

Also if you could then make the courier policies (e.g. 60 policies altogether) uploadable in CSV, people could trade in spreadsheets, sell them to each other.

 

So simple, so elegant, but instead all carts copy each other and make it hard and force vendors to MARK UP when the point of a shop is to MARK DOWN from eBay.

[fizzbang]

Tell me something.

 

How do l create a policy for Republic of Ireland <1kg?

Without actually indexing it to weight - l assign it manually to a product. I just know it's for <1kg because in my nickname for it, l called it "Cheap non-fragile stuff, <1kg"

How do l offer 2 different couriers to Republic of Ireland for the <1kg policy?

 

 

Would l THEN be able to create a separate policy for <2kg EXPENSIVE stuff, where l have 2 different carriers for Ireland?

 

 

This is what l'm doing:

Carriers ---> Add new carrier --> Call it ABC (but i better be careful cos the customer will see that) --> Transit time (l say 3-5 days, there's no way on earth an extension for calculating due date will be able to read "3-5 days" - this shouldn't be prose, it should be done via direct input boxes, min value = 3, max value = 5) --> Speed grade (this is the point where i realise i'm going crazy. It's okay when i'm full on crazy, i no longer mind this. In this box, you enter your favourite number 🙂 ) -->  Logo (yes that makes everying alright) ---> Tracking URL (ok l'll admit this is a good feature)

 

Next

 

Select a continent. Why you wanna select a country? No you select a continent, be a man!

 

Next, entire business plan falls to pieces.

 

Next, click localization.

 

Next click zones

 

OK l thought l already had ABC but anyway i create zone ABC

 

Next

 

Realise this does absolutely nothing. Business plan really has fallen to pieces because real men do not post things. Real men are professionals. Why you wanna sell things if you are a pro? A pro does not sell things! These beautiful instruments, you wanna sell them? Post them to another country? No you cannot.

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by fizzbang

[datakick]

*Dude*,

as I wrote before -- there are NO POLICIES in tb, so stop using that in the context of this shop. You can simulate them by creating carrier that acts like a policy -- but then, you can't have 'real' carriers in the system, obviously.

[fizzbang]

But you know what i  mean by policy. A plan to kick in when customer wants product in own house. No longer in your house. It now is in customer's house. To get there, you got policy. Cart looks at policy, gives customer options.

[fizzbang]

Dude if it helps, two things:

- All carts are doing the same stupid thing, it's not just you. Could one of you companies just be original though, please? If you're going to be original about one thing, it should be shipping (original? l mean just copy how eBay does it)

- It no longer matters, l have actually gone crazy. All these different shopping carts have broken me. 🙂 😞 I just wanted to post some stuff. Gosh.

[Traumflug]

2 hours ago, fizzbang said:

To UK for £8 via Royal Mail 1pm Special Delivery

To Ireland for £13 Royal Mail Express

To the rest of the EU for £15 via Royal Mail Express

To Asia for £24 via UPS Standard

[... and so on ...]

Setting up about 20 carriers (one for each variant) should do this. All these carriers can have the same icon and (AFAIK) even the same name, so customers barely recognize the distinction. And I wouldn't be surprised if eBay does it the same way, just hides this from merchants.

Quote

How do l create a policy for Republic of Ireland <1kg?

Go to back office -> Localization -> Zones and set up a zone with just Ireland. Then set up a carrier which ships to just this zone (the just created zone will appear there), set billing to "According to weight" and limit weight to >= 0.00 kg and < 1.00 kg.

For having a distinct carrier for other (cheaper) products, one has to define another carrier with the same settings (except price).

On the "Shipping" tab of each product one can set which carriers can ship the product. Select only the ones you want. On cheap products, select the carrier(s) for cheap products, on expensive products select the carrier(s) for expensive products.

It's certainly some work for all the combinations possible, but the fine grained control needed for this kind of setup is there.