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70 Responses to “Simple WP Shopping Cart – How the Shipping Cost Calculation Works”

1. Jenny Says:
   August 29th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

   I am using your brilliant e-commerce store and I have one problem. I have added the shopping cart and visit the store as a widget to the sidebar. This is the only way they can get to the Product Page.

   1} is there any way I can have an image link within the static first page of the site saying Vist the Store and can I make Visit the Store larger so people can see it in the sidebar?

   Otherwise it works great, thanks

2. admin Says:
   August 30th, 2009 at 4:32 am

   Hi Jenny, yes you can put a link to the shop page anywhere like any normal HTML link

3. Chris Melton Says:
   September 1st, 2009 at 11:42 pm

   Hi,
   I’m using your plugin and really like it – except for one problem – “shipping charges”.

   I use paypal’s flat rate charges – ie $.01 – $50.00 = $9.95 shipping charge
   $50.01 – $150.00 = $12.95 shipping charges – these charges should be added once the customer proceeds to paypay processing.

   I don’t know how to make this happen with this plugin and right now I don’t have anything in the shipping field and no shipping charges are being added by Paypal to orders.

   Can you help?

4. Chris Melton Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 5:10 am

   Is it possible to disable the shipping option? If so, please tell me how to do it.

   I would like to use the shipping calculator on the paypal website once the customer clicks “proceed to checkout”.

   Thanks

   Chris

5. admin Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 8:40 am

   Hi Chris, Yeah you need to modify the code so it doesn’t send shipping info to PayPal in order to use PayPal’s profile based shipping. Open the “wp_shopping_cart.php” file and search for the following word:

   “shipping_1″

   Delete the whole line once you find it. That should do it.

6. Chris Melton Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 2:38 pm

   Thanks for the help. I’ve deleted this line:

   $form .= “”;

   Is this correct? your quick response is outstanding. Super client service.

   Chris

7. admin Says:
   September 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 pm

   @Chris, that will do but you can delete the whole line including that form bit too.

8. ilsita Says:
   September 9th, 2009 at 8:12 pm

   I came here with exactly the same question, removed that line from the code, and it worked perfectly! Thank you!

9. Max Supera Says:
   October 9th, 2009 at 6:28 am

   This is freakin awesome. thanks so much!!!

10. Jeremy Says:
    October 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    I really dig this plug in A problem I am encountering is it is sometimes charging double shipping. I have a flat rate of “0″ because we are charging shipping per item (which is $4.95 per item) but my client just sent me a Paypal receipt and it charged someone double shipping. Any advice on this would be most appreciated!

11. Jeremy Says:
    October 12th, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Nevermind, found out it was on Paypal’s end! Keep on rocking with this plug-in!

12. RevTrev Says:
    December 1st, 2009 at 9:53 pm

    Is it possible to use the base shipping price as you’ve outlined above, and yet NOT charge for shipping on downloadable products?

13. admin Says:
    December 1st, 2009 at 10:17 pm

    yep, downloadable products won’t have a individual shipping attached to it so the base price won’t be added to the cart. Base price is only added to the cart if one of the items in the shopping cart has an individual shipping price (meaning it’s a physical product). If you want to charge flat rate with your physical price then simply use 0.0001 as the individual shipping price of the physical items. This way the base price will simply get added to the cart but won’t really increase the shipping price.

14. jamal Says:
    January 10th, 2010 at 4:15 pm

    hello thanks for providing a great plugin i am using wordpress 2.8 it works there i want to know how i use this plugin in seperate page that is php page.

15. admin Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 7:09 am

    This is a wordpress plugin so it only works for wordpress site.

16. Vincent Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    Hello and thank you for such a great product.

    Is it possible to include options for shipping costs ?
    For example International Shipping : 10$ , FedEx shipping : 20$ …

    Do you have any idea about how to do that ?

    Thanks again

17. Ivy Says:
    January 14th, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    Vincent, We do not have a complex shipping option for any of our shopping cart plugins. Paypal has some shipping options that may be able to help you. Please see the following post: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?&cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_html_ProfileAndTools#id08A9EF00IQY

    Ivy

18. DeBorah Beatty Says:
    January 17th, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    So, reading what’s above in the comments, how does the shopping cart tell if it’s a download or a physical product? Sorry, but I’m new at this

19. admin Says:
    January 18th, 2010 at 6:41 am

    If you don’t use an individual shipping cost for an item it will treat that as a digital product.

20. Vincent Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    Thanks for the quick and accurate answer^^

21. Dawn Says:
    January 20th, 2010 at 5:22 am

    Hi!

    I am using this plug-in on one of my websites and it works great except that I already have a shipping calculation set up in my PayPal profile for another website.

    My question is can I use this plug-in (each item has different shipping costs) so that it doesn’t want to pull the shipping calculation that is set up in my PayPal profile.

    Is there a way that can be done?

    Thanks!

22. admin Says:
    January 20th, 2010 at 6:32 am

    By default the shopping cart do not use the shipping options specified in your PayPal profile so you shouldn’t have any issue around that.

23. Ric Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    Hi,

    Is it possible to set the shop to only charge one single shipping price, rather than one for each product? This is what is happening when someone buys something. I only sell stickers so there is no need to charge more shipping if two or three things are bought at the same time etc.

    Thanks in advance,

    Ric

24. Ivy Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 4:41 am

    Hi Ric, Yes you can do this. The following post (option 1) should explain this more:

    http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-the-shipping-cost-calculation-works-in-wordpress-estore-50

    Even though this is for the eStore it can be used for the Simple shopping cart also.

    Ivy

25. Kay Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 7:40 am

    I do both domestic and international shipping can I set up options. Shipping based on location/

26. Riccardo Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    Is it possible to set 2 different shipping costs?
    Like “For Europe” and “For Asia”?

27. Ivy Says:
    January 23rd, 2010 at 12:55 am

    @ Kay, Both of our shopping cart plugins have only simple shipping options. These carts where designed more for digital products. The following post explains the shipping options that are available. Even thought this post is for the WP eStore the shipping is the same for the simple shopping cart.

    http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-the-shipping-cost-calculation-works-in-wordpress-estore-50

    @Riccardo It is not possible to set 2 different shipping costs. Please see the link above for the shipping options that are offered.

    Ivy

28. Thomas Says:
    February 19th, 2010 at 7:32 pm

    Great plug in…I’m going to have to install this one!

29. Amanda Says:
    April 4th, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    Hello,

    I think this plug in is great, ive just got one problem. I want to charge £5 shipping as standard so i have followed all the instructions to set this up (put £5 in base rate, added 0.001 in the html of individual product) then when someone adds 1 item to their cart or 2,3,4 etc it said £5 for shipping, which is correct but then when you go through to paypal to pay the £5 comes off and only the product price appears no shipping added.

    What do i need to do?

    http://www.blinkinpink.com/blog/products/makeup-brush-sets

    Thank you

30. admin Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 1:29 am

    Hi Amanda, You seem to have done everything right.. please use “0.01″ as the shipping of the individual product instead of “0.001″. Removing that one extra “0″ should fix the issue… let me know how you go.

31. Amanda Says:
    April 5th, 2010 at 11:36 am

    Hi

    Thanks for the reply that seemed to just add the 0.01 so it would say £5.01 of one item £5.02 for two items ect… i have now changed it to 0.00 and that seems to work, so all good now.

    With this shopping cart is there any way of having a minimum order amount?

    Thank you

32. Alison Says:
    April 19th, 2010 at 7:31 pm

    Hi, I have the same problem as Amanda.
    Like Amanda, I want a flat, per-order shipping charge of $10.00 and I used the 0.01 in each item’s individual shipping cost. But that makes the shipping charge on the cart appear as $10.01 for an order with one item or $10.02 for an order with two items, etc.
    I just want a flat rate of $10.00, no pennies added on (I think it looks unprofessional).
    Amanda said that changing the individual shipping to 0.00 worked for her, so I tried that, but now it doesn’t trigger the base shipping cost at all.
    Like Amanda, I tried to fiddle it by putting 0.001 for the individual shipping, so that the shipping cost would always appear as the flat $10.00, and it appeared OK on cart *while on the site* BUT when checking out via PayPal, the shipping cost was not applied at all.
    I wonder why changing the individual shipping to 0.00 worked for Amanda, but not for me…?

33. Ivy Says:
    April 20th, 2010 at 12:50 am

    Hi Alison, You will need to use .001. Can you please send me a link to your site so I can take a look at this issue? Also have you verified that you do not have Paypal profile shipping turned on in your Paypal settings?

    Cheers,
    Ivy

34. Alison Says:
    April 22nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Hi Ivy, you can just delete the previous post from me – I have switched to base+individual-cost shipping, and it’s working as expected.

35. Aaron Says:
    April 24th, 2010 at 5:33 pm

    Hi,
    What if you’re selling digital products where products are downloaded but you may have the option to have it delivered. Is there a way to give customers this option without having to send them an additional email asking for shipping cost?

36. admin Says:
    April 25th, 2010 at 1:14 am

    You could use a variation option with added price for the delivered option but the simple shopping cart doesn’t have the variation with price increase option (only eStore has that at the moment).

37. Scott Ashby Says:
    May 1st, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    I have my currency set to CAN in the plug-in settings, but when it gets sent to Paypal, it shows USD. What am I missing?

38. Ivy Says:
    May 2nd, 2010 at 12:52 am

    Hi Scott, You will need to make sure you have specified the CAN currency in your PayPal profile also. This should fix the problem.

    Please let me know how you go.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

39. Sonya Says:
    May 3rd, 2010 at 8:34 pm

    I keep getting this error for all my items “The link you have used to enter the PayPal system contains an incorrectly formatted item amount.”

40. Ivy Says:
    May 4th, 2010 at 12:58 am

    Hi Sonya, I believe you may be using a special character (e.g. “,” or currency symbol) in the price field instead of a “.” in your price. Please make sure to read the help text under this field as it explains how to enter the price as PayPal will not accept special characters in this field.

    “The link you have used to enter the PayPal system contains an incorrectly formatted item amount.”

    This indicates that your currency is formatted incorrectly for PayPal’s system. For many currencies PayPal requires that the decimal be a dot or period.

    If this does not fix the issue can you please send me a link to your products page.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

41. Scott Ashby Says:
    May 19th, 2010 at 7:08 pm

    Thanks, Ivy, but my profile is set to CAN dollar. Any other ideas?

42. Ivy Says:
    May 20th, 2010 at 1:10 am

    Hi Scott, Can you please send me a link to where your products are so I can have a quick look at the issue?

    Cheers,
    Ivy

43. Scott Ashby Says:
    May 20th, 2010 at 2:16 am

    http://www.ashbyme.com/?page_id=187

44. Ivy Says:
    May 21st, 2010 at 9:26 am

    Hi Scott, Did you set the currency code and symbol in the main menu settings of the plugin?

    Cheers,
    Ivy

45. Jim Says:
    May 21st, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    Hi, I need to have shipping calculated by the product and where it is being shipped. I also need to add packaging cost. Can you tell me how to do this?
    Is it possible?
    I do not have my store live yet, because I need this issue solved first.

    Thanks,
    Jim

46. Ivy Says:
    May 22nd, 2010 at 3:52 am

    Please see option 2 (PayPal Profile Based Shipping) here: http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-the-shipping-cost-calculation-works-in-wordpress-estore-50

    this is for the eStore but we have add this feature in the Simple Shopping Cart also.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

47. FeltGrinder Says:
    May 22nd, 2010 at 11:58 pm

    Ivy, Thank you for the response, but that doesn’t seem to work for me, there are no options like that in the simple cart that I can see, does this not involve me changing code? I deleted the section it said to above with Chris Melton and it didn’t work, when you get to paypal it still doesn’t add the shipping like I have programmed. Can you be of any more help please?

48. FeltGrinder Says:
    May 23rd, 2010 at 1:42 am

    Version 2.8.2 is what I am using Ivy

49. Scott Ashby Says:
    May 25th, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Ivy,

    If by the main menu you’re referring to the “Simple Paypal Shopping Cart Settings v 2.8.1″, then yes, I did.

    Scott

50. Ivy Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 1:40 am

    Hi Scott, It looks like you are using the wrong currency code for Canada it should be “CAD” not “CAN”. You can find a list of all the currency codes for PayPal here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/sell/mc/mc_wa-outside

    Cheers,
    Ivy

51. Ivy Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 2:03 am

    Hi FeltGrinder, We have changed the shipping for the Simple shopping cart so you should not have to change the code now. In version 2.8.2 there should be the following option “Use PayPal Profile Based Shipping” This should be about the 9th option down on the list. If you check this box then it should work. If not please let me know and I will trouble shoot this a little more.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

52. Scott Ashby Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 2:24 am

    Ivy,

    You’re right! What an embarrassing mistake. Everything is working fine now. Thanks for your help.

    Scott

53. Ivy Says:
    May 26th, 2010 at 4:17 am

    Hi Scott, We all do it, I even thought it should be CAN until I went and looked it up. =) I am just glad it is all working fine now.

    If you need anything else please let me know.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

54. Madelyn Says:
    June 6th, 2010 at 9:04 am

    Hi there,

    I am having the worst time trying to figure out the cart and shipping area of my website. When the check out button is clicked, it leads to nothing and I’m getting this:

    “Error 404 – Page not found!
    The page you trying to reach does not exist, or has been moved. Please use the menus or the search box to find what you are looking for”.

    What am I not doing or doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thanks!

55. Ivy Says:
    June 7th, 2010 at 3:02 am

    Hi, Can you please send a link to where the shopping cart and products are located, so I can take a look at this?

56. dan Says:
    June 26th, 2010 at 12:55 am

    Hi, I’m interested in the plug-in but for one problem. My client wants to charge a fixed fee per product for 1 item, but then an additional fixed fee per additional item. So, for example, if you buy 1 teddy bear it will cost £3 shipping, but if you buy 2 teddy bears it will only cost an additional £1 (so £4 shipping for two teddies), and 3 teddies would cost £4 shipping. Is this possible with your plugin?

57. Ivy Says:
    June 26th, 2010 at 2:42 am

    Hi Dan, You can set the base shipping as $2.00 this will add $2.00 to the cart no matter how many items are there. Then you would need to set a per product shipping cost of $1.00 this will add $1.00 for every item that has this shipping to the cart.

58. dan Says:
    June 26th, 2010 at 8:27 am

    Hi Ivy, unfortunately that won’t help. If it was just one item that was sold in the shop that would be fine, but the client sells 100s of items, and he wants to configure each item differently – some items only cost £0.50p to send 1, while others will cost £1 or £5.

    He runs an ebay shop and ebay allows him to set a different shipping fee for each and every item for sending 1 item, and another different shipping fee additional units He needs this functionality to keep shipping fees as low as possible and stay competitive.

    Best regards,

    Dan
    .

59. Ivy Says:
    June 27th, 2010 at 12:48 am

    Hi Dan, Since the Simple Shopping Cart and eStore where both designed mainly for digital products they only have simple shipping options.

    Cheers,
    Ivy

60. KH Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 4:07 am

    Hi, this plugin is awesome. One minor question: is there some way, via shortcode or other method, to exempt particular items from the base shipping cost?

    As described in the “giving shipping discounts” section above, I’ve set a base shipping cost in combination with a smaller per item shipping cost, which is working great. However, what I’m doing is taking preorders for an item that will be released late next month, and I want to give locals the option of prepaying online and picking up their merchandise in person when it arrives.

    Ideally, I’d like to include an “add to cart” button specifically for local pickup orders, which wouldn’t automatically add the shipping charge. However, I’d still like to use the base shipping fee + individual shipping fee method for all other orders. Is this doable?

    Thanks in advance!

61. Ivy Says:
    July 1st, 2010 at 4:21 am

    Hi, The base shipping cost will only be added to the cart when a product has a individual shipping cost also.

    The best way to do this will be to make a new product for “locals only” (you can copy the product you already have) just take the “individual shipping cost” out.

    You can then make a add to cart button for this product and it will not have shipping.

    Remember if the customer adds a product with a base shipping cost to the cart the shipping will then be charges along with the specified individual shipping cost for the other products.

    Let me know if this does not make sense.

62. guest Says:
    August 6th, 2010 at 6:59 pm

    the plug in installation is super easy, thanks! however, the shopping cart does not show the price (it comes up as $0 no matter how many items i add to the cart) and doesn’t update the total (again, it shows $0). when i go to the pay pal page, however, the price shows up fine.

    this is the code i used: [wp_cart:My Product:price:10:end]

    thanks!

63. Ivy Says:
    August 7th, 2010 at 12:38 am

    @Guest, Can you please post a link to your site so I can take a closer look at this and see what is happening?

64. Lisa Says:
    August 20th, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    Hi, I have added the great plug-ins to my website, I love the simplicity of it and it is a very good plug-ins. However I have this problem whereby the shopping cart page does not allow me to update the quantity even after I change it, I can see that there is an instructions for me to hit enter to update the changes, but it did not reflect the changes and instead just refresh the page. Can you please let me know what I can do to rectify this error?

    Thanks a lot.

65. Ivy Says:
    August 21st, 2010 at 3:51 am

    Hi Lisa, Can you please send me a link to your site so I can take a look at what is happening?

66. Lisa Says:
    August 21st, 2010 at 5:18 am

    Hi Ivy,

    The website link is http://enviocarb.com/?page_id=387

    Thanks for helping.

    Cheers!

67. Ivy Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 2:40 am

    Hi Lisa, I had a look at your site, this looks like a PHP session issue. You will need to contact your hosting provider to fix this issue. They will need to check that the PHP session is turned on and configured properly. This should only take them a few minutes to do.

    Let us know how this goes.

68. Lisa Says:
    August 22nd, 2010 at 4:04 pm

    Hi Ivy,
    I followed your instructions and thanks for your help, the issue is finally resolved now I’m looking forward to implement this cool plug-in to other website

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