Special Shipping Choices per Product Item

I'd like to say, I'm pleased with HikaShop so far. Things are arranged nicely.

Problem: I have products that are really a collection of parts and it take multiple sizes packages. Other products that take 3 different sized boxes .... etc.

My customer uses different postal carriers, UPS and USPS.

From history, it is known by product which sets of boxes, their weights, the price for each box and the total shipping cost, as well as which postal carrier is cheapest.

When displaying a product price, I don't see a way to show separate cost for shipping other than itemize it in the product description. Problem with this is the invoice can not itemize the costs.

I tried to set up pre-defined shipping options for several of the products (lots of work). But this adds the shipping cost to the product cost prior to final invoice. Plus this method tags the shipping name to the end of the product name.

Is there a way to assign a defined manual shipping to a product and have the invoice show product and shipping separately?

NO PROBLEM with other products that are small in volume and weight being grouped into one of several defined manual shipping definitions by weight. The volume thing really is messy and makes more errors so by weight is more accurate. and then as the grouping of products becomes larger in a box and it actually exceed the limits of a box, I don't see a second box being started with additional shipping charges.

Currently we are having to have customer call us for shipping and we add it in manually to a "off Line" invoicing system.

I've got a disconnect here for automation.

Thanks

I was thinking that would be the answer.

I've been playing with a combination of settings as follows:

1. set product that needs specially defined shipping weight to zero (important).
2. define a manual shipping method named "no shipping required" with no weight or volume and cost of $0.00 .
3. define a Characteristic for a "specific shipping type" with values for "Customer Pick-Up" and "shipping package".
4. open and define a 'option' Product and add the "specific" Charisteristic.
5. "manage variants" and define each of the Charistic Values; Customer Pick-Up and shipping package.
6. "set the variant default.
7. save the "option" Product after setting default (important step).
7. edit the Product requiring special shipping and add the "option product" as an "Option"
8. in product description, give instructions to customer to note shipping (default)
9. SAVE.

Done.

When a customer opens product and reads detail (or not);
1. the price of the product is displayed as originally priced in product definition.
2. the total price is the price of the product + shipping option default (yes they are different)
3. when customer clicks "add to cart" several things happen:
a. the quantity default is 1 but the customer could select 2 or more.
4. at checkout
a. the Auto Shipping feature selects "no shipping required".
b. the cart details on products will:
.reflect the initial price of the item
.itemize any product Options choices
.itemize the Shipping option
.total will be the sum of product + all option costs TIMES quantity.

The invoice is correct and full itemized. And YES the shipping costs track with quantity.

This isn't too bad a solution for a Shop with a few dozen of these special product shipping considerations. It appears smooth enough for a customer and the client to see everything that is going on. Client and Customers don't have to see all the back end work nor do they care.

Do you see any holes in this approach. It might be a solution for others with a small number of products with this requirement.

Mixing of these special shipping items and normal products requiring shipping charges HikaShop manages to group them just like normal .... so long as the grouping of items fits in ONE box and the total order weight doesn't exceed realistic weight limits .... like putting 500 lbs into a single box .... some of my products weigh 10 lbs but if you order 20 of them, they go into the highest weight defined box even if that box is defined at 40lbx. Not smart enough to divide the total weight up by the maximum limit of the box.

Thanks again for listening.