posted on May 28, 2004 10:41:00 AM new
Hello!
I use Vendio to post my book auctions. It has saved me so many hours it can't really be calculated! Now I seem to spend a lot of time calculating shipping options after the sale is over. Does Vendio help out with this in some automated way if I supply all the item information (Weight, Dimensions, etc.)?
What I would really like is a way for the winning bidder to simply enter their destination zip code and be presented with shipping options from UPS, USPS and FedEx. Then they can select that option, pay for it and I will ship accordingly.
When I upload in batch, I enter 0.00 for everything so that I can be allowed to quote the rates once I know the zip code.
THanks for a great service and I hope to hear from you soon!
posted on May 28, 2004 12:46:30 PM new
I also would love to see shipping calculators become available.
One of the major limitations to Vendio service is the fact that it takes to much time to figure out shipping for customers.
I ship via USPS for international and UPS for domestic.
In both cases the priority mail only calculator does not help.
I see the export capability for fedex but that does not help with calculations.
PLEASE PLEASE bring this to your system as it is a major road block for increased sales.
This company has an open source shopping cart that implements the shipping methods needed.
http://www.nightmedia.net/shop/shipping.html
There are also other free perl/asp scripts out there that should not be to hard to buy and include with your services.
posted on May 28, 2004 03:02:16 PM new
The only other thing I can add to this is that there is a shipping calculator available at iShip.com. Once you enter the data in about your destination, size, etc., it displays a matrix that shows all the potential options from the major shippers. The cool part about it is the time scale across the top (delivery date) that clearly shows the benefits/costs of the shipping methods and vendors based on how long the Customer is willing to wait.
As the auction lister, I could provide all of the details; all the buyer would have to do is enter their destination address and then select their preference for shipping. Once selected, it could come back to me, I could print the label and out it goes.
It seems as if it would be a small matter for Vendio to partner with the service as I would be happy to pay a little more for the immense amount of time it would save.
At this time, we do not offer automatic insertion of a USPS shipping calculator in listings. We are evaluating the implementation of this feature in the near future. In the meantime, you may use the HTML for the shipping rate calculators you have found available online in your default text or item description.
I have forwarded your suggestions to Product Development as well.
posted on May 28, 2004 05:14:38 PM new
One other thing is that with UPS and Fedex they have offline tools (similar to stamps.com and Endicia.com for usps).
With these offline tools is the ability to import files.
I believe that is what vendio just released for fedex. (althoug I do not realy see any use for it with out the ability to calculate shipping as well.)
I have used the export feature from other auction companies and it seems pretty slick.
No cut and paste... Just sellect the items you want to ship. export to file... import into UPS worldship. print.
Same with quickbooks.
Makes 20minute chore to ship 10 packages to only 5 minutes and a couple clicks.
Of course the problem is other companies do not have the nice off line tools.
Seems that no mater where I go to look its only a 50% sollution...
posted on June 9, 2004 03:16:18 PM new
Hi. Since it is okay to use our own shipping calculator code in the listings, could the engineers/technical support gurus at Vendio please suggest/provide a code snippet that we can use in our listings for a temporary USPS and UPS shipping calculator until Vendio gets it integrated with the main system? That should help us all a bunch and cut down on the posts til it is officially up and running at Vendio. Thanks.
posted on June 9, 2004 05:05:38 PM new
I would hope that this type of enhancement is extremely high on the priorities for Vendio. I am not sure I understand what the issues might be but I have yet to find a single tool that will calculate all possible rates from the major vendors (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Airborne, DHL...).
All of these carrier web sites publish their rates. I even got to the point where I wrote a small tool in Excel that takes the first 3 digits of a zip code, finds the zone assigned to that code for the various carriers I use, then takes the weight for that zone and gives an array of results. All with a simple vlookup function. While I am not very code saavy, if I can write this little bit in Excel then surely an elegant solution cannot be that big a deal.
All of the rate tables are simple reference data that can be kept current through agreements with the carriers. Basically the output would be an array that would list all of the carrier's services, the pricing, and the rules for that service. The auction owner ought to be able to select specific carriers and services and add materials costs if desired.
To be clear, I do NOT care if the solution prints labels, does barcodes, whatever - for that there are already many solutions. It is getting the shipping options and amounts in the hands of the buyer that takes by far the most time in calculating the final transaction price.
I think Vendio does a terrific job on the rest of the process, particularly batch uploads (that alone is worth the price of admission!!). Unfortunately, this lack of a shipping calculator is a glaring aggravation that takes far too many emails and tribulations to resolve through current means. As I said before, I would pay a little extra for the function, were it made available.
posted on June 29, 2004 09:58:02 AM new
I never got any reply or response or any help from Vendio to my request here 2 posts earlier, so when I stumbled across an alternative I posted in sales manager as general info a source for copy and paste free shipping calculators for anyone who wants to put them in their listing html:
