Can you add "Calculated International Shipping" to listings with "Free Domestic &Free USA" shipping?

[intimewithmusic]

Happy New Year Sellers!

   I recently added free domestic and USA shipping to some of my listings. When I configure my store shipping policy for Domestic buyers I switched my choice from Calculated to "Flat Rate". I get a check box for "Free shipping". No problem. 

   Below that I get the normal choice for "International/Select specific Countries." I select USA and then "Flat Rate". There's no Free shipping checkbox this time so I enter "Zero" into the amount for Flat Rate shipping. This works great. USA sees "Free Shipping" in the listing.

   The problem is there is no option to stay with calculated shipping for my overseas buyers. There is only an option for Flat Rate.  I can do Free Shipping to the US and Canada but not the entire planet. What they see now is "The Seller ships to your country but you have to message them for shipping costs " whereas before, when I had calculated shipping for all three sets of buyers they saw their calculated amount. This issue can reduce sales overseas. Does anyone know how to set a store's Shipping Policy to "Free Domestic, Free USA and Calculated Shipping to overseas buyers? Thank You!

[femmefan1946]

Try this.

Choose Custom Location -> Choose named countries-> Enter Flat Rate for those countries.

Then.

Choose Custom Location -> Choose named countries-> Enter Flat Rate for those countries.

The idea being if your first group are France, UK, Germany as named countries, then you enter a Flat Rate that covers shipping to those countries, which are going to be very similar.

Then your second group are Australia, Japan as named countries which are, I believe, in a different Rate group.

You could do this again for Mexico, Brazil, allowing extra Cookie Jar Insurance for these countries which have notoriously bad postal systems.

Do you often have customers in Benin or India or Fiji?  Those will still have to contact you for costs.

[kawartha-ephemera]

In short no, I do not believe you can in the manner you are wanting to do it.

Personally I choose not to use Business Policies preferring instead to work directly from the listing form. That said, those policies are just mimicking the features available on the listing form or in account preferences. 

The advanced listing form does allow mixed types of shipping calculations. For instance it is possible to set domestic to flat rate and international to calculated rate or vice-versa. 

However, the flexibility noted in the previous paragraph is not provided within the International shipping setup. If you set International shipping to Flat Rate, all International services created thereafter whether they be U.S., Europe, Australia or Worldwide must use the Flat Rate calculation. It is not possible to setup some flat rate and others calculated rate. 

Of course using flat rate one can set U.S. to zero (free shipping) while also adding additional custom locations around the globe whose rates are actual cost or estimates of actual cost depending on the service offered. Flat rate works pretty well with Tracked Packet International as there are to my recollection just two rates for that service. I believe most if not all of the European countries (where TP is available) carry the the same rate, likewise Asia, Australia except the rate is higher. Small packet international rates are also known so those can be reliably set as flat rate too.

If, there is a need to set flat rates for a great many countries, as opposed to just regions plus a few selected countries that are offered on the SYI form, the new ability to "create international rate table" feature should work better.

[intimewithmusic · Accepted solution]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

Try this.

Choose Custom Location -> Choose named countries-> Enter Flat Rate for those countries.

Then.

Choose Custom Location -> Choose named countries-> Enter Flat Rate for those countries.

The idea being if your first group are France, UK, Germany as named countries, then you enter a Flat Rate that covers shipping to those countries, which are going to be very similar.

Then your second group are Australia, Japan as named countries which are, I believe, in a different Rate group.

You could do this again for Mexico, Brazil, allowing extra Cookie Jar Insurance for these countries which have notoriously bad postal systems.

Do you often have customers in Benin or India or Fiji?  Those will still have to contact you for costs.

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Thank you femmefan1946. Most of the "Free US" shipping items I have are similar in weight and size. I think you've made some great suggestions.  I'll group the different "zones" you've pointed out and run some rates for <2 kgs. Some of them will automatically be excluded by Canada Post from Tracked Packets. For example Mexico I think is only serviceable with Xpresspost. Most of my Int customers outside the US are European or Australian and a few in South America. I'll give your program a try. Probably 3 or 4 variations to the rate would work. Thank you so much! kawartha-ephemera has also given some useful information below which combines nicely with yours. Thank you!

[intimewithmusic]

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@kawartha-ephemera wrote:

In short no, I do not believe you can in the manner you are wanting to do it.

Personally I choose not to use Business Policies preferring instead to work directly from the listing form. That said, those policies are just mimicking the features available on the listing form or in account preferences. 

The advanced listing form does allow mixed types of shipping calculations. For instance it is possible to set domestic to flat rate and international to calculated rate or vice-versa. 

However, the flexibility noted in the previous paragraph is not provided within the International shipping setup. If you set International shipping to Flat Rate, all International services created thereafter whether they be U.S., Europe, Australia or Worldwide must use the Flat Rate calculation. It is not possible to setup some flat rate and others calculated rate. 

Of course using flat rate one can set U.S. to zero (free shipping) while also adding additional custom locations around the globe whose rates are actual cost or estimates of actual cost depending on the service offered. Flat rate works pretty well with Tracked Packet International as there are to my recollection just two rates for that service. I believe most if not all of the European countries (where TP is available) carry the the same rate, likewise Asia, Australia except the rate is higher. Small packet international rates are also known so those can be reliably set as flat rate too.

If, there is a need to set flat rates for a great many countries, as opposed to just regions plus a few selected countries that are offered on the SYI form, the new ability to "create international rate table" feature should work better.

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   Thank you kwartha-ephemera for the validation. I thought I was doing something wrong.  I hadn't thought of retreating back to entering shipping individually in listings. I like the production rate of Business Policies but it might be a useful option in certain categories if using both methods is possible. 

   The items I sell range in size from a guitar pick to complete drum sets.  That said the shirts, publications and memorabilia I send out overseas go out under 2 kg via tracked packet. I'm finding that in the USA Free Shipping, especially in the vintage clothing category benefits sales more than any discounts or promoted listings where shipping is added.  Many sellers of vintage clothing include free shipping and most sales are above $75. So far the lack of Free Shipping isn't hurting my other categories. 

   The new Canada Shipping Rate Tables are the idea but I've only seen them domestically. I'll look for an International version as I haven't seen it yet.

  Thank you very much for all of your input!

[kawartha-ephemera]

When business policies were first introduced I gave them a trial for a short time but in the end I reverted to using listing templates. Both methods accomplish the goal of pre-filling the shipping details. Mostly just a personal preference I guess. 

When International shipping is set to Flat Rate the option to create shipping tables appears in the form of a link, just as it does for Domestic. 

I've not felt a need to setup any International tables but I have followed the link to see how it would work. I was surprised by the apparent ability to set a rate for literally any country worldwide. If I am recalling correctly it seemed possible to in effect create custom groupings of countries and apply a single rate to that group. I did not actually create a table to try it out though.

[intimewithmusic]

That's really helpful. I will try that out and write a follow up. Thanks!