Shipping Setup Guide & Tips

WP EasyCart offers an abundant amount of shipping options all within a low-cost plugin, but that doesn’t mean the options are not as powerful as some competitors plugins. ?The shipping options of an online business can be confusing, and often difficult to setup regardless of the plugin used and the configuration needed. ?When you consider all the facts that need to go into a good well rounded shipping system, it can easily be overwhelming.

This guide is to help you consider some of the many options EasyCart has to offer. ?While I will be the first to say we do not offer ALL shipping configurations and options one could conceive, we do offer a good well rounded majority of choices that many businesses can adopt.

First Tip: ?? Before you read further,?consider every software package is built for the masses, so if you have developed a shipping system that MUST be used, reconsider as it may not be conventional at all and/or have a small portion that will not conform to any software package… ?be flexible as you explore options in software.

?Second Tip: ?Are your products shippable. ?Not every item in EasyCart is made to apply to shipping charges. ?Downloads and Gift Cards for example are digital goods, they will not trigger shipping charges on checkout. ?Also consider if you have a weight for a product! ?If you enter a weight of 0.00 for a product, then it’s considered intangible good like a service… so shipping will not apply.

[divider]

Step One: ?Determine your Shipping System

WP EasyCart offers a variety of systems, all fit different businesses, different models, and will likely cover at least a good portion of what shipping system you need in your business.

 

 

Price and Weight?Table Rate – These methods use triggers to establish shipping prices. ?The are extremely stable if you set them up correctly and provide a quick return on shipping rates. ?You essentially enter either a price or weight?that you want to trigger and the rate it should show. ?So you start with a trigger price or quantity ?of 0.00 and then establish a rate, say $5.00. ?Then at maybe $50 dollars you want to trigger a rate of $7.50 and then at $100 you want to trigger $10.00. ?so on and so forth. ?Same goes for weight, if a user has a total weight order of 5?in their cart, then trigger $x.xx amount, so on and so forth. ?Remember that weight in EasyCart is just a numeric value… it can represent pounds or ounces, you set the measurement of calculation in various places where appropriate, such as live shipping gateways which use this. ? Easy to setup, and easy to see working.

Percentage Table Rate – This method is the same as price and quantity, except you simply establish a set percentage when a trigger price range is reached. ?Say from $0.00 to $99 dollars you want to charge 10% shipping, and then from $100 – $500 in cart total you want to charge 7.5% in shipping, this method allows you establish tiered pricing using ?a percentage of their order. ?Again, very easy to setup and very reliable system.

Quantity Table Rate – Like the other table rates, quantity table rate shipping simply adds the total in the cart. ?This can be appropriate if you need to track how many items there are and then charge appropriately. ?Set a quantity trigger, and then the price to charge. ?The quantity table system only looks at products, so if you have option sets that change quantity, it will likely not be affected. ?So this may work in your situation, or it may not. ?It’s reliable and easy to setup.

Static Method Rates – ?These are by far the most reliable shipping methods available. ?Set a name for the static shipping and a rate… that’s it. ?So if you always ship ‘Standard Ground’ and charge $5.00 for it, use this method. ?Customers always see the correct list of options. ?You can create several shipping methods using this option, such as a ‘Ground’, ‘Next Day Air’, ‘Express’, ‘In Store Pickup’ or whatever you need. ?It gives you control over labeling, pricing, and options available to customers.

Fraktjakt – This is primarily only available to swedish residents, but a popular option that allows customers to select from several live carrier rates and get current up to date rates.

Live Shipping -?UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, Australian Post, and Canadian Post have all been pre-integrated with EasyCart. ?Live shipping can be intriguing and many businesses think they want live rates, but there are a few considerations before you choose to go this route. ?Every detail must be accounted for on your part of the setup. ?If you think you can just offer UPS Ground, think again… ?Hawaii, international orders, they will see error messages with that setup. ?If you offer only Express and 2nd day air, think again, some cities don’t offer all services… so those customers will see error messages.

Live shipping can be difficult to understand, but the key to it is to consider every single variable in the shipping world and it needs to be setup. ?If you are game to tackle this, then we can show you some tips.

1. ?Setup one shipping carrier first, get it working, connected, and then move on to another carrier.

2. ?Include as many shipping codes as you can. ?I realize you may just want ‘ground’ and ‘2nd day air’ but those may not be available in all cities or locations. ?Adding more shipping codes means that you will likely get more to show to the customer and also less errors and holes in your locations.

3. ?Do not apply shipping zones. ?We will discuss this later, but if you only ship to US and Canada, don’t create zones for that. ?The purpose of zones is to provide different rates, not limit who can buy on your store. ?Get the entire shipping system working for your default country, whether that be US, Canada, Europe, Australia, or wherever…

4. ?Use as few shipping carriers as possible. ?It may be nice to show FedEx, USPS, UPS, and DHL, but that’s 4 calls to 4 carriers during checkout and can greatly slow the system down. ?Try to stick with one or two.

5. ?If you want to offer free shipping, simply add a common shipping code, such as ‘Ground’ and then override the price with $0.00. ?You can even override the name of it and say ‘FREE shipping’ so customers have that as a selection.

6. ?Even if you enter 6, 7, 10 shipping codes, EasyCart will only display what the carrier returns for that location. ?So your customer may only see 1, 2 or 3 rates. ?This is why we really suggest testing. ?We have found some cities require select shipping codes if shipping within the same city. ?If you have zero rates returned, we suggest you look at your settings zip code and the zip code during checkout and contact your carrier to see what rates are available.

7. ?IF you have negotiated special rates with your carrier, we will try to display those instead of general rates. ?AGAIN, test, test, test… ?you are the web developer and that is part of the job!

 

[divider]

Step Two: Test Your System

We can not say it enough, but as a WordPress user you are likely taking on the task of making a website yourself. ?Part of that job is to test your system. ?Don’t assume it should just work or is working without going through the entire checkout process as a customer would. ?This would be like fixed someones automobile as a mechanic and then assume it’s fixed and hand the vehicle over to the customer. ?Always check to see if it is working as desired and fix accordingly.

test-shipping

 

Even when using basic table rate shipping systems, we have seen gaps in triggers, which means there is no rate going to show up. ?We have seen live shipping setups without any shipping codes, which means no user will ever be charged shipping.

 

 

[divider]

Step Three: ?Adding Shipping Zones

IF you feel you need to have a shipping zone, then you must be thorough about your setup. ?Shipping Zones is not for the faint of heart. ?You must have a thorough knowledge of what it means to setup a shipping zone, and DO NOT use shipping zones to limit who can buy from your store. ?That is not the purpose. ?IF you want to remove china or any country from ordering, do so by removing the country from the pull down of countries within the store admin -> settings -> manage countries.

 

 

Third?Tip: ?Think of shipping zones as a post-address filter. ?It only works AFTER the customer has entered their billing/shipping address information. ?NOT when a customer just views the shopping cart.

So you decide you want to setup different rates for the US versus Australia versus Canada… ?EasyCart can do that, but only with the right setup.

1. ?Setup all of your shipping for your default country with ‘Do Not Apply Zone’ for every setting. ?Whether using table rates, static, or live rates, set it up first without any zones.

2. ?Test to insure it’s working for your default country. ?What this will do is establish a ‘Default’ rate that all customers will see when they simply add an item to the shopping cart and view the cart. ?Remember, they have not entered their address yet, so without a default, they would just see $0.00 for shipping, and it’s better to supply SOME type of shipping in the cart.

3. ?Once all your default shipping is working, now you can setup a shipping zone. ?Lets say you are in australia, and you setup all your shipping for australian customers. ?Now you can add more shipping prices, triggers, or live shipping codes and add a shipping code. ?So maybe you use Australian POST live rates, you could add ‘International shipping’ with a shipping zone of ‘North America’. ?IF easycart sees a user checking out from anywhere in North America, it will apply International Shipping code that you applied. ?If someone from Europe ordered, it would not see this ‘Post Fitler’ and just apply default shipping codes.

4. ?This means if you use, for example, Price or Weight table rates, you would setup an entire table structure with ‘Do Not Apply Zone’ and then you would create an entire table structure for ?each zone. ?It’s necessary that you do not have any gaps, so 10 trigger rates would be added for default, then north america, then europe, then asia, so on and so forth. ?This way you do not have any gaps…

Fourth?Tip: ?If you get confused, create a simple spreadsheet, list out the ‘Shipping Method’, ‘Trigger Rates’, and the ‘Rate expected’ and you can see how vast the options can become. ?Now throw in a shipping zone and see things multiply! ?Pre-Planning is important and can become overwhelming

 

[divider]

Step Four: ?Handling Fees and Expedite Order Options

EasyCart has tried to make shipping as flexible as possible, without getting overly complicated that nobody could set it up. ?Two options that are common are to add a handling fee. ?Let’s say you have a trigger rate system or live shipping system, but want to add a simple $5.00 handling charge to it, we provide a quick way to do so. ?Another option is to do it at the product level. ?Only add a handling charge to a product IF you enter it at the product level under advanced pricing options. ?A great example is a furniture store… a couch may incur an extra large handling fee on one product, while the rest of the products may be just regular shipping rates.

 

 

We also offer an ‘Expedite Shipping’ option. ?This can represent anything you want, maybe same day processing or actually a shipping expedite upgrade. ?You can choose to enter that for trigger rates or not.

Fifth Tip: ?Don’t be afraid to be a little off on shipping. ?If you get fairly close on shipping costs, it usually will come out in the wash. ?Consider the time and hours it may require to setup a perfect shipping solution versus setting up a really good solid simple solution easy for customers to understand and you may come out neutral.

 

 

[divider]

Step Five: ?Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)

As a web developer or business owner who is building their own website, the old web design rule of keeping it simple stupid should apply… ?Try to keep things to a minimum because if it’s hard for you to figure out, your customers may find it impossible to understand. ?Many visitors want a choice or two on shipping, or to have it simply calculate automatically… which makes trigger table rates a good choice. ? Static rates work great for flat rate type orders… giving customers simple pricing that is consistent and accurate.

The fewer intricate?details you try to build into your shipping system the fewer errors you will receive on shipping, the less over and under charging you will receive, and the more conversions can be had by doing so. ?Fewer errors, fewer complaints, and more conversions is what every store owner wants! ?Keep It Simple…

Sixth Tip: ?Remember EasyCart is an $80 dollar plugin made for the masses in WordPress. ?If you NEED a solution that you do not see, you might consider ramping up to an Enterprise shopping cart solution and spend the thousands it costs to attain your specific customization.

EasyCart Child Themes and Layouts

What is a EasyCart Child Theme and Child Layout?

Beginning in version 3 of the WP EasyCart, we offer developers the option to keep the latest theme and child files up to date automatically as the plugin upgrades without having to manually upload the latest store theme and store layout! This is a great option to help developers keep their clients’ stores up to date and functional at a single click of the button. With this great new feature?we know developers still need the ability to override certain?files, images, css, etc… In order to make the store customized for their specific project (a great example of this is customizing the email receipt).

This is where a child layout becomes an extremely important feature! Child themes and layouts allow you to specify a child theme or layout folder in which you can place individual files to override a specific functionality of the store, while simultaneously allowing your theme and layout to keep the latest features for the rest of store.

How Does the Store Find a Layout or Theme File?

Every file loaded from the design folder of your shopping cart system goes through the following check to find the correct file:

  1. Does the file exists in the plugins folder at wp-easycart-data/design/layout/{your selected child layout}/file.php?
  2. If not, use?the latest file in the wp-easycart/design/layout/base-reponsive-v3/file.php

This applies exactly the same to the theme folder and can be useful for specifying a custom image not found file.

How to Set Up and Specify a Child Design

Setting up and specifying a child theme or child layout is quick and easy! First, add a new folder in the wp-easycart-data/design/layout/ folder (something like my-custom-layout) and repeat this for the wp-easycart-data/design/theme/ folder. Next, go to the WordPress Admin -> WP EasyCart ->? Settings -> Design area and select your newly added custom theme and/or layout folders in the drop down boxes.

That is it! Your store will now look first in your custom child theme folder and next to the latest files in the main plugin. To override any files you should first copy the file you are editing to your custom theme folder and make your corrections there (custom changes should be in the wp-easycart-data folder).

V3 released in time for the holidays!

Just in time for the season! ?We have been busy building this latest version for the past 3 months and it really shows. ?The entire front end of easycart has received a major revision and updated look. ?Don’t let the looks detract though, as this entire front end system now is highly configurable and will increase sales with better conversion rates and higher usability from product to checkout.

New Product Displays

Products are now highly configurable on a ‘Per Page’ basis. ?Meaning you can set columns and animation for each page individually on your website. ?With our new ‘On-Screen’ sidebar editor, you can setup the store ?while you see it on your computer.

products---clothing

 

 

New On-Screen Editor

Logged in as an admin, you can now change store designs from pre-designed layouts to picture hover effects. ?Basic color adjustments are easy as well as responsive settings for different devices. ?While EasyCart is meant to make it easy for you to sell goods, it is also easy for your customers to utilize.

You can even setup how many columns best fit in your theme and on each device such as tablets and phones.

products---sidebar

 

?Preview on ?Devices!

One of the great new features we have is our responsiveness to the design. ?Not only can you adjust columns for the products, product details, and shopping cart for various devices, but now you can actually click our device preview and see your site in action. ?Preview it on an ipad landscaped, ipad portrait, or iphone landscape and portrait. ?This real time previewing will save you time as a developer or site designer and insures your work will be seen on various devices.

device-previewer

 

 

Beautiful Product Detailed Displays

The entire process was redesigned at the product detail level. ?Making ?for a cleaner styling and easier shopping experience for customers will convert more users into clicking that ‘Add to Cart’ button. ?You can even choose to have the layout in 2 columns or 1 column for individual devices and orientations.

productdetails---watch

 

 

Upgraded Checkout Experience

We also worked out a better checkout design that is responsive and can fit into any theme. ?Fitting a lot of flexible options into a checkout process is a difficult process for shopping cart makers like ourselves, but with V3, we feel we hit the nail on the head with this checkout process being flexible enough to accommodate all our features, yet streamlined and easy to look at and responsive enough for a phone.

checkout

 

 

Interested in more?

Just check out our working demos at http://www.wpeasycart.com/demos and see for yourself how easy the shopping experience can be, how vivid the design can integrate into your theme, and how you can start selling this holiday season quickly and easily with the most feature rich WordPress shopping cart solution on the market.

 

Stripe Integration with Subscription Services

The latest release of 2.1.6+ of EasyCart now includes a great new and powerful payment processor that is our new favorite. ?The Stripe payment gateway solution is now complete and we included a full subscription/membership system into EasyCart as well. ?Now you can offer a recurring payment product to your customers and they can signup directly on your site. ?All payment information is synced up with the Stripe payment processor and allows complete customer and administrative control.

Build Subscription Products

From EasyCart, creating a subscription is as easy as setting up any product. ?Simply check that it is a subscription, pick how often you want the recurring payments to occur, pick a url if you like for them to access membership content (optional), and whether there is a trial period and the EasyCart system does the rest. ?Customers will see the subscription product like any other product, except they will see a ‘Sing Up Now’ button instead of ‘Add to Cart’ button.

subscriptionservices

Once users sign up, information is approved by Stripe and the subscription is placed into the EasyCart subscription system along with their first order being placed. ?Each recurring payment will appear as an order in your system.

Administrate Subscriptions

EasyCart administrative tools are completely integrated to communicate with Stripe and allows you to pull up subscriptions, upgrade or downgrade customers, cancel their memberships, and review all related information regarding their subscription. ?You can also see a quick payment history of their subscription.

subscriptionmanagement

 

Customer Subscription Management

Customers also have access to a complete subscription management area from within their account. ?Customers can quickly update their credit card information, upgrade or downgrade their subscription, change billing address information, and/or cancel their membership at anytime. ?This gives you the store owner less support and interaction with members as they can do all administrative tasks directly from their account.

customermanagement

 

Membership Content

One of the great features we offer with our subscription services is an easy to setup membership area system. ?Simply create a new WordPress page, apply our members only shortcode, and then only logged in subscribers can access the new content. ?This makes a great way for you to feed membership content to customers who have purchased a subscription if that is required by your business.

membershipcontent

 

 

Remove Contact First and Last Name in Cart

We get a lot of requests on how to remove the first and last name from the contact information when a user is checkout out for the first time. To do this we need to complete two steps: 1. Hide the two rows of first and last name in the layout file. 2. Remove the check for these values in the javascript file.

remove_contact_box

 

1. Hide the first and last name rows: I like to add the code ‘style=”display:none”‘ for each row. This is to make sure we do not mess with the core functionality, but complete what we want on the display side. The file we are editing is her: wp-content/plugins/wp-easycart-data/design/layout/{my layout}/ec_cart_contact_information.php

hide_contact

 

2. Remove the javascript that requires the first and last name in the contact information section. This file is available here: wp-content/plugins/wp-easycart-data/design/theme/{my theme}/ec_cart_page/ec_cart_page.js.

hide_contact_js

 

Now your users can checkout without providing another first and last name for their account information.

Altering Products Per Page

changing the products per page for your WP EasyCart is really quick and easy. Go to your WordPress Admin -> EasyCart Admin -> Store Admin -> Settings -> Products Per Page. You should edit the values here. The default selected value is always the middle value for the EasyCart.

products_per_page

Manipulating the Product Sort Box

A common request that we get here is how to hide the sort box or change the options that are available.

sort_box

Hide the Sort Box

To hide the sort box, use the custom css box. This is available in your WordPress Admin -> EasyCart Admin -> Store Setup -> Advanced Options.

custom_css

 

Enter the following value:

.ec_sort_menu{ display:none; }

Hide or Show a Specific Row

This feature is already built into the EasyCart system. Go to WordPress Admin -> EasyCart Admin -> Store Setup -> Basic Settings and look for the heading “Store Page Display Options”. You can turn on or off any of these values. To prevent confusion in cases where the WordPress options are not added correctly, we do not allow you to turn all of these options off.

Change the Text in a Specific Row

To change the text displayed in a specific row of the sort box go to your WordPress Admin -> EasyCart Admin -> Store Setup -> Advanced Language and open the “Product Page Sort Menu” section. Change the text as needed and save to finish.

What Makes Up a WordPress Store Design

A WordPress site is made up of the WordPress structure, a theme, plugins, and content. A WordPress theme is what makes the website look a specific way to the customer. It is made up of css, javascript, and php which depicts how the website is displayed to the viewer. Once setup, a website owner can then add and develop content as they see fit. Many website owners need a way to sell products and this is where the EasyCart comes in. The EasyCart is built with the same structure of WordPress and is made up of css, javascript, and php. The EasyCart, however, is a plugin and is loaded after WordPress loads and because of this requires its own css and javascript to make it function correctly.

The WP EasyCart is made up of the EasyCart core, an EasyCart theme, and an EasyCart layout. The EasyCart core is overwritten on each and every update. These files can be edited by a developer who understands php, but should be done with the realization that the plugin should not be updated on a regular basis. The design files (layout + theme) can be created, reused, and are never overwritten.

Layout and theme files exist in two places: wp-content/plugins/wp-easycart/design/ and wp-content/plugins/wp-easycart-data/design/. The system first looks in the wp-easycart-data folder and should be the place you upload and maintain your EasyCart designs. For some users, their severs will not allow us to make the new directory and because of this we have a fall back to the wp-easycart folder. If you are on a server and see this happening, we recommend creating the wp-easycart-data folder manually, then copy the design folder from the wp-easycart folder. This will prevent data loss in the future.

The layout files of a WP EasyCart can be thought of as the shell. They are a series of php function calls that pull in the pieces of the store in a particular location. Most of the time the pieces of the shell pull in content to a div tag, which is then styled by the CSS. This allows a designer to move the pieces around as they are needed to create any look they want.

The theme files of a WP EasyCart is what makes the store, account, and cart pages display properly to the user. The css and javascript can be edited to create any look and act in any way necessary.