Custom Shipping Zones

NORX

Hi,

I've recently started up an Australia-based store (check it out, 'Mint-Bricks'!) and I've noticed the shipping section options are incredibly lacklustre.

As far as I'm aware, there's no way to set your own custom zones for shipping prices, which sucks if you're not selling from somewhere like the USA where there is already in-built USPS pricing options for zones. BrickLink allows you to set your own zones, which is what I use to list AusPost zone prices.

Maybe I'm just not privy to this knowledge, but if I understand correctly I will have to individually make different shipping options for each of my packaging options (small, medium, etc.) for each zone that AusPost has a different shipping price for just so that the automatic shipping prices are calculated properly and so that I'm not losing/gaining from my customers orders on shipping. And no, I can't just make one page for each zone and have all the different packaging options banded out by weight, because each uses a box with different dimensions, so large pieces may not fit into the smaller boxes even though the weight is low but it won't force the customer to use the more expensive option even though I would have to pay more for shipping as the larger box is used to accommodate said piece.

I'd like for my shipping to be as cheap as possible for international customers, but without this feature it is incredibly difficult and frankly I'm probably just not going to bother. For now, I just have all my domestic shipping options and one custom quote only option for international customers (which is terrible).

If anyone knows a workaround that isn't hairpullingly annoying as a unique shipping option for each zone and packaging size, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
NORX - Owner of Mint-Bricks

Calibrick

Norx, hi! While I'm in the US, so have no insight into Australian setups, I do recommend using the Contact Us link below to reach out to BO administration to see if there's a simpler method to approach this. You could also search for other Australian stores and ask how they've done their setups? Lastly, many stores DO share their shipping bands here so others can use them - another Australian store may already have set all these up and shared them, leaving you to merely tweak them to your needs.

Just some thoughts for consideration - and welcome to BO! It's a super fun and friendly place to sell! :-)

Emporiosa

Hi Norx! Been a few days since I checked the forums but saw your question. To clarify - you mean international zones specifically, right? For international, what I've done is create a shipping profile per "zone" because we have the same thing in Canada - our mail systems are almost identical I believe. So I replicate the intl zones by creating each zone a profile (and it has weight/price bands within it), and check off the boxes for the countries that apply to that zone.

Also to go above and beyond for domestic zones, which BL doesn't have (and sorry Lawrence, not trying to make more work for you, you're just too good at giving us features lol!), admin has gone the extra step for Canada to put in some higher level zoning that we can use. So it's not as granular as postal codes (because at least in Canada, we have a HUGE spread and the "remote" postal codes have insanely high shipping), but he was able to put it in per province which was already infinitely better. As Calibrick mentioned, if you reach out to him via the Contact Us and give some info like the different provinces in AU, he could potentially do something similar for AU if he hasn't been running into too many issues for Canada. It's been great having that option to use domestically.

ATKK

Yes, the added zones have been working great for me in Canada.