Web2Print stores might be a really profitable online business, but you must be able to receive any type of order from your clients, having the required system to calculate the shipping charges in order to provide your customers a final price.
But what is the best solution to do this? Many variables are taken into account, from the print size and material used, to quantity, weight of packing material and freight rates according to the shipment location.
The first thing you must do is giving your system the necessary data to automatically calculate a final price considering the type of product, its weight, consignee location and shipping charges. How?
- Make sure your website can support a database of weights for single products: weight for one calendar, for one flyer, for one business card, for one envelope, for one birthday card etc.
- Include another database for packing materials weights.
- Add another database for delivery rate services according to postcodes. This way, the system will be able to calculate and offer you the most economical delivery charges.
How it will work? The process will be very simple. The application will calculate the weight of the product multiplying the quantity of the order by the weight of just one copy. To get the total consignment weight it will include the weight of the packing material. Then, according to the consignee location and consignment weight it will find the best delivery rate in the system. Finally, the application will add up all these variables to give a final price. If you want to take part in the automatic process you have the chance to access through an interface to modify the values if needed.
Two important tips to keep in mind!
- To find better offers from delivery services, try to sign a contract with a company that can give you special discounts according to the volume of consignments and locations. In this case, you must make sure your system is able to use the API (Application Programming Interface) of that particular system to send it the location and weight of your order, so it can give you its special rate. This way, you won’t have the need to enter zone-wise delivery rates or modify them every time you need to calculate the final price.
- Take into account that many regional delivery agencies usually offer you discounts for specific locations according to their networking area.
Always try to find the best and most professional solutions to facilitate your work and offer your customers an excellent service. Create a system able to improve the performance of your web printing store and give your business the chance to succeed!