If you are an artist who will be taking care of the handling and shipping of your art pieces, you can set up your shipping methods based on the weight of your products.
Suppose you are offering originals, limited editions, and other products that you will be self-fulfilling (products in your Standard Store), and you have different weights and/or different package options. In that case, you should then set up your shipping method by weight and not cart subtotal.
Your weights don't have to be exact, just an estimate and begin charging shipping.
If you find the prices are too high or too low, they can be changed at any time.
Please keep in mind that the first step to set up your shipping method by weight is to decide what delivery company you will choose to deliver your products, and the second is to get their shipping prices based on the weight of your products.
Before adding your shipping methods, we suggest researching shipping rates on FedEx and UPS. Make sure to open a Business Account with UPS or FedEx since the business shipping rates are much cheaper than the public rates. You can then use their shipping calculators to calculate a rough estimate of shipping costs for a particular package weight.
1. Log in to your Art Storefronts Site Manager, and in the Jump To menu, select the item labeled Shipping Method.
2. This will take you to your Shipping Methods page, where you will see the option ADD SHIPPING METHOD.
3. This will open up a page to create a brand new shipping method. First, make sure that the Available slider is set to On so that this shipping method can be used immediately on your website.
4. In the Name section, you can provide the Shipping Method with a name (keep in mind that your customers will also see this)
5. The Location Based On section will allow you to choose either a Country or a State. We strongly2 recommend using the Country opt for your first Shipping Method ion unless you only want to ship to specific states. To find out how to do this, check out How to create a shipping zone
6. Once this is done, you can click on NEXT.
7. On the next page, you will see an option labeled Force Local Tax when selected. Leave this feature set to Off for Shipping By Weight.
8. The Available on Child Site slider should be set to OFF unless you are a Fulfillment Partner.
9. The Internal Description section is not required but can be used to write a brief description that only you can see regarding this Shipping Method.
10. The Description box can be filled out with a brief description of the Shipping Method that your customer will see.
11. In the Countries box, choose the Country you would like to apply this Shipping Method. In this example, we have chosen the United States.
12. Under Calculate Shipping Based On, you will need to select Cart Weight.
13. In the Amount By Weight section, you will enter each weight and its associated shipping Cost.
Please note: Looking at the example method above, the first two fields under Total Weight ( 0 and 5 in the example method) create a weight range from 0 to 4.99lb. Anything within that range will be charged from the first Shipping Amount field (15$ in the example). Anything from 5lb to 9.99lb will be charged from the second Shipping Amount field (20$) etc.
The shipping weight of each media type in the cart is added up in the final stage of the checkout phase. For example, if I have three items in the cart, and each one has the shipping weight set to 2lb, the total amount of shipping weight will be 3x2=6lb.
If the overall weight of all items in the cart adds up to 6lb, for example, the shipping cost for that cart will be 20$ if we use the example shipping method.
SETTING UP THE SHIPPING WEIGHT FOR A MEDIA TYPE IN YOUR ART PRINT STORE (APPLIES ONLY TO SELF-FULFILLMENT SITES)
After you set up your shipping method based on the weight, you need to set the shipping weight to your custom media types.
1. Log in to your Art Storefronts Site Manager and click on your Art Print Store.
2. Click on the Media tab and make sure you are on the Custom section.
3. Click Edit on the media type you wish to add the shipping weights.
4. Scroll down to the section Shipping Weights, where you can add the sizes for each style of that media and corresponding weights. (In the example, I used the canvas media type). In the boxes on the left, you can enter the sizes, and in the boxes to the right, you can enter the weight of that media style on that size. You can use the + key to add more fields.
5. After that has been done, remember to click on the SAVE button to save your changes
