Hi all, welcome to the new Community Co-op forum!

First off, I want to say right away that this forum is not meant to be "exclusive" in any way, nor to take energy away from any of the astrological, metaphysical and consciousness-raising discussions on the other forums. Rather, it's intended to provide a focused location where folks can come to ask and answer questions about the Community Co-op, for brainstorming and planning sessions with booth owners and those interested in opening booths, and for technical support in using the co-op for everyone. All are welcome to participate!

Onward and upward!

Love,
Greg

Hi Greg

I was just poking around at the Co-op (making a shopping list once a little money flows my way ) and was wondering if I need to ask for peoples email addy to reply for readings I am doing or is the system automatically set up that I will have that information?

This would be a good thing to know.

I agree, Kel, that would be a good thing to know!

Did you read the other thread on this new forum? It will tell you how to go to your admin area and look at your orders when they come in. There's a "test" order for your booth in there now, and that will show you what information you'll see when an order comes through. It will have the buyer's shipping address and email address, so that's information you don't need to ask for.

Love,
Greg

Hi Greg,

I don't think I ever got a yea or nay to this query ... I would like to apply the Domestic shipping rate to orders in the U.S. AND Canada, as our friendly hometown postmaster informs me that "we have an agreement with Canada" so that stuff goes there as cheaply as here. Is that possible under the software setup?

Maria

Hi Maria,

Sadly it's not, under the present setup.

Well, let me rephrase that. Anything is possible in code, but the cost of introducing conditional exceptions to a simple algorithm (like "are these two countries the same or not?") is high, because it has to break the flow of processing to check for the exceptional condition, and it has to check for the exception in EVERY shipping calculation! This not only increases processing time across the board, but it also makes the code harder to maintain and update because the logic is more complex and therefore the effect of changing it - or the other functions it has to interact with - much less predictable.

I do understand the problem, and the only real solution to it is to create shipping "zones" that the rates are based on. Then multiple countries (like the US and Canada) can be put in the same zone, or a single country can be broken into multiple zones, or whatever. This gives you unlimited flexibility in assigning shipping rates to locations, and I do plan to introduce a zone system at some point, hopefully in the near future (the database is already set up to accommodate it.) But that has its own knotty problems, in that it puts the burden on each booth owner to come up with a whole schedule of shipping rates for each product instead of the two that are required now, and that's a lot to ask ... plus, the zones have to be defined in such a way that the zone a buyer is in (relative to each seller) can be determined from the shipping address!

Now having been through all that and in the meantime ... the case for an exception between the US and Canada could be strong enough to make it worth doing anyway, since such a high percentage of our members and visitors are from these two countries ... but only if there is general agereement among all our booth owners from US and Canada that they should consider each other "domestic" for shipping purposes. If it has to be done selectively for different booths and products then it really will have to wait for the zone system, 'cause that's just too much spaghetti code to be smart programming practice!

If you want to take a poll on this, I'll go along with it. I imagine it will probably the case that most folks will go for it ... although for folks using shipping methods other than the postal system there still are significant cost differences!

Shipping rates are the problem child of e-commerce, no doubt about it! Anyway let me know what the consensus is.

Love and blithers,
Greg

Heh. I had the feeling I should probably duck when I asked that. No problem. I'll change what it says on my page and probably reduce the international shipping charge to split the difference.

Hi Greg,
Do you have a COUNTER that lets you know how many people
visit the Co-op?
And, are there any IDEAS on how to bring more
interested people to visit us?

Rena

Hi guys!

Thanks for setting this forum up Greg - I think it'll be helpful to the booth owners, and most especially to new booth owners as they start coming on-line

As for Canada / US shipping - from the perspective of my side of the border - there's a BIG difference in shipping to the US or within Canada! For example - a letter sized bubble envelope holding 2 CDs can be mailed to anywhere in Canada for $2.25, but it's closer to $10 to send it to the States AND takes about 10 business days to get there! So from the Canadian point of view, it makes much more sense to consider the US "International" shipping, as opposed to domestic. Just my two cents!

Love,
Terri