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Installing the Shipping Calculator Plug-In For Mals-e.com

What specifically are the steps to install the plug-in?

  • Register for the Plug-in if you have not already done so
  • Configure your shipping calculator preferences by completing our Setup Wizard


    Next, using our plug-in is essentially a matter of completing two forms, one our our side, one on the Mals side:

  • Complete our Mals E-commerce Settings form. This will tell us about your Mals cart and allow you to customize our calculator page to match the look and feel of your Mal's shopping cart.
  • Update your Mals-e.com Shipping Preferences to use the Plug-in as described below

  • And finally, make sure you have used the Mals "units" field to list your item weights, as described below.

 Please follow all the below instructions in both sections (both AuctionInc and Mals sections):

AuctionInc Account Setup

1. Shipping Calculation Preferences (Setup Wizard) When you register for our Mal's Plug-In,  you will be forwarded to the AuctionInc Setup Wizard which will lead you through the various configuration options for the selection and calculation of shipping rates.  This process includes selecting your carrier services, setting your handling fees,  insurance options, packaging weight factors, etc.  (The Wizard includes a section for sales tax, but you should actually handle these through the Mal's configuration.) You can also establish additional configuration options such as promotional discounts from our Settings Menu after you have completed the Wizard.  

2. Register your Mals cart with AuctionInc and Customize your Calculator page. Next, go to our Mal's Configuration form. This configuration page will allow you to tell us about your Mals cart and customize the Plug-in to have the same look and feel as your Mal's Shopping Cart.   The Help popup window on the form contains the details for each of the settings.   If you used a third party to set up your mals cart and dont know your Mals Server URL, look in your third party Admin area; it will be listed where your Mals userid is also listed.

    Special Note:

    The Split Weight setting merits some additional information. The Mal's integration with the AuctionInc Plug-in passes only the total weight and value of the items in the shopping cart when the shopper presses the Calculate Shipping button. This limitation can present a problem when the combination of two or more items might require multiple packages to ship the order. To address this situation, the Split Weight setting allows you to control when the shipping calculator should split an order into multiple packages.  All items in the Mals cart will be included when determining this split.

    When the combined weight of the order exceeds your defined limit, the calculator will automatically determine the appropriate number of packages and compute the shipping rate each. When creating multiple packages, the dollar value of the order is distributed evenly as a percentage of the weight of the package for the purpose of computing insurance.

    Here is an example of how the calculator would work:

      Split Weight setting of 40 lbs.
      Combined weight of shopping cart items equals 60 lbs
      Combined dollar value of shopping cart items equals $100.00
      Calculator would compute shipping rates and insurance for following:
        1 - Package at 40 lbs, valued at $66
        1 - Package at 20 lbs, valued at $33

    If you typically package most of your items together in the same box, you should set the split weight to the highest weight you are willing to pack into one box.  The split weight setting is more critical if you sell items that typically ship seperately.  In this case, set your split weight to the average weight of your items. Setting the split weight lower will result in more packages being generated which in turn increases the shipping rates. Setting the weight higher will generate fewer packages and might result in shipping rates that may not cover your actual cost. You may need to experiment with this setting to find the right balance.  

 

Your Mals Cart Account Setup

The configuration on Mal's Shopping Cart is very quick and simple.  It is a matter of selecting the correct shipping option and adding the URL to the calculator plug-in and adding some explanatory text.

1.  Shipping Calculation Configuration

    Leave the checkbox for Automatically set units to equal the price (shipping by value) unchecked.
    Note:  if you are using Advanced Shipping, you may need to turn it off in order to see the Standard Shipping options. To do this, go to "Global settings" and select "Just use the standard shipping calculations."

2.  Shipping Calculator Message

3.  Weight of Items

 

Other Configuration Considerations

1.  Handling Fees   Both AuctionInc and Mal's allow you to configure handling fees.  It is your decision which system, if any,  to use to manage these. We do not suggest that you use both as this would make life more complex than it need be!  AuctionInc does offer far more options in determining and setting your handling fees than does Mal's at this time. 

2.  Sales Taxes   You should configure any necessary taxes on your product cost through the Mal's configuration.  Also, if you need to tax shipping as well as your item cost, please also set this option through the Mal's configuration (the first option on the Mal's Sales Tax configuration page). 

3.  Insurance Calculations   Mal's sends to our shipping calculator one summary figure for the item value in the Mal's Shopping Cart.  Similar to the weight total, our shipping calculator has no way of knowing how many items are represented in this total and if more than one item, how much value each item has.  This makes correctly calculating insuance costs somewhat problematic.  Our solution to this is very much like the one we are using for the summary weight total; ie, we will divide the total value by the same percentages as we use with the weight on splitting packages.  For example, if the total value of the item(s) in the cart is $100, the total weight is 12.5 lbs, and your split weight is 5 lbs, we will assume that the first two packages are worth $40 and the third is worth $20.  Insurance also cannot be controlled at an item level; you may set it as either globally on or off, by setting your insurance threshold appropriately on the Carrier Settings page. 

4.  Optional Insurance Option   The optional insurance configuration option which is listed on our Carriers Configuration page is not available for the Mal's Plug-In at this time.  It will be available in future versions.

A comprehensive list of the differences in supported features between our ShopCart and our Mals Plug-In is available here.


 

How Do You Determine Which Carrier Service your Customer Selected?:

The shipping method that your customer selects during their purchasing session will be listed in the Detail of each Mal's order.  In Mal's, click on "View Orders" and then the "Detail" link for each order.  The method appears in the Delivery Details section, directly below the customer's phone.  After the selected service, we also list, in parentheses, the two letter country code and the postal code which were entered in the calculator and upon which the shipping rate was determined, i.e., "USPS Priority Mail (US:01609)".




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