Shipping & listing confusion

[theplantattraction]

Ok we have a few problems & questions...
We offer plants & seeds. Our plants can only be shipped within the U.S., we ship our seeds worldwide.
On our plant listings we calculate shipping using the matrix (by weight). On our seeds we use the fixed shipping rate to the U.S, Alaska, Hawaii, & Canada. We do not want to add additional countries on the Matrix, because we only use that option for our plants by pounds. How do you add countries to the fixed shipping.
How can we still list on the UK & Australian Ecrater? Can we somehow only list our seeds in ALL the countries, and leave our plants off those international sites? Is it even possible?
Any info would help before we screw up our store

[maggiethehousecat]

The UK and AU stores are mirror stores. You can't limit certain items and not all.

The best bet for you would be to have two stores. One for plants that is US only and one for seeds that would be international. The international seed store could then have UK and AU mirror stores.

I wanted to limit certain items to NA only because of the weight or fragility of the items but couldn't.

[theplantattraction]

Is it possible to open a 2nd store with the same name, but only offer it on the UK and Australian sites? This way we can add all the additional countries from that store? It is a shame you just cannot check on each listing if you offer international shipping or not for that particular item. It would so easy if it were that way. A simple check box, because there are a lot of products that are not allowed internationally, not just plants.

When we added countries on the matrix, it did not add those countries on the fixed shipping list you see on each listing.
Maybe if we could figure out how to add countries to the fixed shipping list it would help...

[cosmicray]

There may be a trick you can play. Tell me more about the shipping calculation for the seeds.

[theplantattraction]

For shipping our seeds we use the fixed shipping option & list the price on each individual listing. Which is nice because not all seeds weigh 1oz.
With this fixed shipping option the matrix (by pound for our plants) does not even apply. So it works out well in the U.S. only.

We really would like to offer our seed on the international sites, but our plants we cannot offer over sea's...
Now Canada is on our matrix with no shipping costs because we only use the calculated matrix for our domestic plants. Canada is also listed on the fixed shipping, & that is where we list the price to ship seed to Canada. BUT that still gives the public false impression they can purchase plants with zero shipping costs...
This morning we tried for giggles to add the UK to the matrix but the UK did not show up on the fixed shipping option. Why, we do not know? Cannot figure out how to add countries to the fixed shipping.....
It's a mess we have been trying to figure out for years now & I hope I did not confuse you in the process LOL

[cosmicray]

The only options you will ever see on the listing is the item's (packed) weight and the fixed costs for the US. Fixed for Canada shows up there if Canada is enabled, but none of the other international destinations will.

Using USPS Calculated is where the trick might (or might not) be possible. USPS Calculated has an interesting capability to enable domestic, enable international, or not. This pertains to the class of shipping, and is always evaluated before fixed or the matrix. If you had something that you only wanted domestic, it could be possible (with some careful selection of weights) to make it pass muster in USPS Calculated for domestic, but have no configured shipping class for international. That doesn't prevent it from being passed off to the matrix.

Since everything you have is shippable to all 50 states, I think you have met the basic qualification for eCRATER shipping. You may want to put something on the plant listings making it clear that they cannot be shipped outside the US. Anyone who actually places such an order, you could always refund the payment and point them to where it says you cannot do that. Not a great solution tho.

[tigercreekgifts]

You can't open a 2nd store using the same name. When you try to sign up for it, ecrater will tell you "that name is not available" because it's already been taken by you. You can however, name the 2nd store ThePlantAttraction2 or something like TheSeedAttraction.

[theplantattraction]

The USPS calculated option does not allow you to add handling costs, that's one problem we can see. Second, how does that calculated shipping even work? Does it use the matrix to figure out how much the item weights?
If this was the case, then what would happen to the items that are listed with fixed shipping?
If there was a way to add countries to the fixed shipping list (on each listing), and a check box whether you ship that item internationally or not would fix this entire confusion.
We would have no problem stating on our plant listings that we only ship plants within the U.S. BUT there is still no way for us to list the international shipping costs on the seeds. We can't use the matrix because we already use the matrix in pounds for the plants and our international seeds are in ounces....

[cosmicray]

[theplantattraction]

Yes you are correct, we always put 1 (just to put something there) because the fixed price overrides that. And the valid packaged weight your talking about will not let you put .06 (for 1oz), it must have a 'positive number'.
The matrix is in pounds & the seeds are in ounces. Basically you cannot use the matrix for all your items, if you sell some that use Parcel Select by pounds, and some by First Class by ounces.

[cosmicray]

[MoonwishesStore]

While you can't get handling charges with the calculated weight, I would think that by upping the actual weight a couple of ounces to what would be the price for your handling should cover that. Just a guess from me as I only use the matrix and use the 'synthetic' weights myself.