ECommerce is a game changer in many ways. It has made shopping so much easier. With the click of a button, you can make orders from half way across the world. Deliveries can also be made straight to your doorstep after entering your details on the particular online store you made your purchase.

 

As much as online shopping has made life easier, it has also come with its fair share of challenges. One of these challenges is delivering customers’ orders on time. Many online stores have built a brand by simply ensuring that their delivery timelines are realistic. Customers would rather be told that their orders will be delivered in 5 days rather than 3 days and then get disappointed.

Shipping is a crucial part of any online store that wishes to be successful. Accuracy in your delivery timelines is very important if you want to retain your customers. Having said that, you need to have a WP eCommerce shipping calculator that will provide accurate timelines for various deliveries. If you think that this is way too much for you to handle, then it is recommended that you contract the services of a WordPress maintenance company.

Today, we will be looking at Temando, a WP eCommerce shipping calculator that will help you track your shipments.

Below we cover how to install and configure both WP eCommerce and Temando plugins

 

Temando WP eCommerce shipping Calculator

We will look at the various steps you need to follow to setup Temando successfully.

First of all, we need to install the WP eCommerce plugin. This can be done by heading to the dashboard on your WordPress. Click on plugins and select add new.

In the text box, enter WP eCommerce and hit the search button. WP eCommerce should appear in the search results. All you have to do is install the plugin and activate it.

After activating WP eCommerce, we will now install Temando plugin. The steps to follow are similar to what we did with WP eCommerce. You can also install the plugin if you have a zip file of Temando.

Next, we will be looking at how to configure Temando settings. On the dashboard, locate Temando and a page with the settings should appear. You will first need to set up an account with Temando if you do not have one. Simply click on the Sign Up link to get your account. After signing up for an account, enter your credentials in the Temando settings page on WordPress. Select ‘No’ next to Sandbox, and ensure that you also select ‘Credit’ in the payment section. Click on save and you are done.

The next option after signing up is carriers. These are simply the carriers you will be working with. Select the carriers you wish to partner with and then head on to Options. In the options section, you can choose to display the carrier names, the estimate shipping on the product page, the label type, transit type and time. In this section, the only thing you need to change is the label type. Set it to plain and save the changes.

We will skip the next two categories and go right into the pricing aspects. So, click on pricing and under the Pricing Method, select Dynamic Pricing All. This selection means that you will be able to display the various forms of shipping prices.

Other options include the units that you will prefer to use, the default values and so on. There is one more option that we need to discuss, and that is the Stock Origin details. This will include the description, contact name, company name, street, city, postcode, region, country, type and your contact details.

 

* Quick tip: make sure that Temando activates your account.

 

Configuring WordPress eCommerce

On your dashboard, click on settings and select store. Proceed to shipping. In the general settings, select ‘Yes’ and enter the relevant details as instructed. Scroll down and under the External Shipping calculators, select Temando. Update and save your settings.

 

Test Your Online Store

In the shopping cart, click on checkout and calculate your shipping price. Enter the required details and click on calculate. The next page will list all the available carriers that you can select from.

 

Common Pricing Methods

  • Free Shipping: To select free shipping, select Pricing on the dashboard under the Temando plugin. In the pricing method, select free shipping and save the settings. When you go back to the shopping cart and checkout, you will realize that after clicking on calculate, the shipping price will be zero.
  • Cheapest Courier: We will do exactly the same as we have done in the free shipping only this time, under ‘Pricing Method’, we will select ‘Dynamic Pricing Cheapest’. What this method does is that it will only display the cheapest courier available. Save the settings.
  • Dynamic – Multi Courier: In this category, we will select the couriers that you want to display. To do this, select the carriers option. Select the carriers and save your changes.

 

Conclusion

As you can see, WP eCommerce shipping is not as hard as it sounds. What you need to do is select the best partner so that you satisfy your customers and keep them coming.