Dear cs-cart team,
I have used cs-cart for 3months, right now I still face some difficult problems. Hope you can help.
We are a global seller and we need to add 3 different shipping methods.
#1: HK POST, set for package less than 2000gram, for location default all countries.
#2, EMS, I created 9 location zones called EMS Z1, Z2, …Z9. Each zone includes different countries and charge with different weight based shipping cost.
example: EMS Z1, includes Hongkong, Taiwan, Z2, USA CA,
#3, DHL, I created 18 location zones called DHL Z1, Z2…Z18. Each zone includes different countries
example: DHL Z1. includes RU, UKRAINE, Z2, USA, Z3, UK, IRELAND,
Now the problem is, at the very first the #1 shipping is working fine. After I created #2 Zones and set shipping rates for each zone, the #1 shipping methods is useless, not work when I test at cart page with GET RATES. It shows:
[color=#ff0000][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Calculate shipping cost
Sorry, it seems that we have no shipping options available for your location.[/font][/size][/color][size=1][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#ff0000][size=3] Please check your shipping address and contact us if everything is okay. We'll see what we can do about it.[/size][/color][/font][/size]
All my products have right weight setting. I have attached a screenshot:
HOW TO SOLVE THIS BIG PROBLEM??
We need 3 different weight based shipping methods with different localtion zones.
Thanks for your time and help!
I just tried to disable all other location zones and only keep default all countries, in this way, the #1 shipping method is working. I guess CS-CART can only support 1 shipping locations? Does not support manual shipping methods with different countries zones???
What a bad idea for international sellers.
Works for me, I use UK, Euro, Zone1 and zone2
Check the products you are adding to the cart and also note the is no account for overweight - it will show that message if the cart is 10kg and your shipping quotes end at 9.99kg
I tried to add one item weight 110gram to cart and checkout and GET RATES. There is a problem them. After I disable all other zones and only keep one default zone, it works well.
I don't know why? The core does not support to set different zones which contain same countries?
My first free shipping is to default all countries.
My EMS shipping contains all countries with zone 1 to zone 9.
My DHL shipping contains all countries with different zone setting z1 to zone 18.
[color=#ff0000]I guess the problem is one country can be included in only 1 zone???[/color]
Please clarify. Thanks! I have this problem becuase we ship to worldwide and let customer to select different shipping cost/method.
Hello surmall,
[quote name='surmall' timestamp='1342419821' post='140822']
I tried to add one item weight 110gram to cart and checkout and GET RATES. There is a problem them. After I disable all other zones and only keep one default zone, it works well.
I don't know why? The core does not support to set different zones which contain same countries?
My first free shipping is to default all countries.
My EMS shipping contains all countries with zone 1 to zone 9.
My DHL shipping contains all countries with different zone setting z1 to zone 18.
[color=#ff0000]I guess the problem is one country can be included in only 1 zone???[/color]
Please clarify. Thanks! I have this problem becuase we ship to worldwide and let customer to select different shipping cost/method.
[/quote]
Thank you for your message.
In CS-Cart, you can set up different locations as many as you wish. However, you should make sure that these locations do not intersect each other, otherwise the system cannot recognize what location to use and an error occurs. So, in order to resolve the problem you need to create location zones which will have different countries/states. Unfortunately, you cannot use locations with the same states correctly, but you can specify different shipping cost for the same location. To do it, you need to specify different shipping cost for a necessary location in the Shipping charges tab of the necessary shipping method (in the administration panel of your store, go to Shipping & Taxes > Shipping methods, click on the Edit link of the necessary shipping method. On the opened page, open the Shipping charges tab and click on the necessary location link. After that you will be able to specify shipping cost for the necessary location. Repeat the same steps for another shipping method. In this case you will get different shipping cost for the same location).
To learn more information about manual shipping methods please refer to this article in our Knowledge base: http://kb.cs-cart.co…al-ship-methods .
—
Anastasiya Kozlova
CS-Cart Support team
thanks for your offcial clarification. I am totally clear now that you don't support different location zone contains a single same country. But for international shipping, different shipping method have different shipping location zones. In this way, I can only set shipping fee to 200+ countries manually. I need to do it 2000 times!!!
I can't believe it. This is not the way the shipping system should use. It's not fit for international selling. CS-CART is a good cart, but in this case, we can not recommend or use CS-CART again unless there is a good solution for this problem.
Hello surmall,
Thank you for your reply.
We are sorry to hear that the default Shipping methods feature in CS-Cart does not suit your needs. As I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, you cannot use the same country in different location zones because in this case the system will not recognize what location to use. However, with CS-Cart you can set up your store in the way to sell your products all over the world. Real-time shipping processors were integrated for these purposes (UPS, DHL, USPS, FedEx, etc.), which get rates of the necessary location automatically. With real-time shipping processors the problem of intersecting countries will not occur. For more information about how to set up real-time shipping methods please refer to this section in our Knowledge base:
CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation
If you want to set up rates manually in order that the shipping method could calculate shipping cost according to your special rates, you need to spend some time in configuring shipping rates according to the necessary location in the administration panel of your store.
If the country has states, provinces or counties, you should necessarily add them to the location. If you create a location with a lot of countries (for example the Europe location or All countries location) it is not necessary to add any states or counties. But please note that if geographic areas (states or countries) of location zones intersect each other, the one with more precise location conditions will be used for a customer at checkout. For example, if both of the following locations include a customer's address: France + Paris, France + All states - the first one will be used. So, in this case you should add European states and counties to the Europe location.
Also I would like to suggest you contacting us via Customer Help Desk in order that we can check all your current shipping settings and examine whether it is possible to set up shipping rates according to your needs exactly. In this case please send us the necessary shipping rates for the necessary locations and let us know the content of these locations as well (e.g. what country/countries/states should be specified for the necessary location) .
I hope that we will manage to find the necessary workaround solution for you.
—
Anastasiya Kozlova
CS-Cart Support team
[quote] I can only set shipping fee to 200+ countries manually. I need to do it 2000 times!!!
[/quote]
This is what “Realtime” Shipping Rate calculations are for, and if done properly, will be far more accurate (especially over time), with far less intervention on your part.
It would be foolish to manually create these, and then to also re-adjust all of these prices at least once per year when all major shipping carriers implement a price increase, fuel surcharges, etc. 
Real time shipping is fine if you have a store of 100-500 items that seldom change and hold stock for that. But if like me you have 10,000+ unique items and hold just one of each it's pointless. You can't measure each and every item or simply fit you item into a DSL shipping box. If I did that I would have to charge £5 min for sending out an item that might cost £1 and the customer knows I could send via royal mail for 50-60p.
I have to use weight and give my customers a choice, I then average our items the best I can but make no mistake if I over charge on shipping I'll lose 75% of my customers.
The manual shipping is not ideal but if you are offering free shipping you shouldn't need to use it anyway.
[quote]I have to use weight and give my customers a choice, I then average our items the best I can but make no mistake if I over charge on shipping I’ll lose 75% of my customers.
[/quote]
Like I said, if you set your realtime shipping rates up correctly, it will still be far more accurate that what you are currently doing.
Of course you have to determine your product weights, do it now, or do it later, regardless you will need the product weights. As far as options, we offer multiple service rates from multiple carriers on every order, and ship everything from flat rate envelopes to several thousand Lb pallets and everything in between, so yeah, we give plenty of options and have very accurate control over all shipping charges (our actual shipment costs vs. what we display to our customers). There are truly alot of tricks to be learned behind the scenes in making your shipping operation work to your advantage, as in providing extremely competitive shipping rates to your customers while at the same time also adding additional profits from shipping charges to your bottom line. I view it as an “Art”! 
Thanks for all the above comments. Yes I love real-time shipping methods. But unfortunately we are in China Mainland and we use DHL Hong Kong agent for cheaper shipping to other countries in the world. We don't have DHL account. It's very very expensive to send goods via DHL/UPS/FEDEX offcial. So most of we Chinese sellers ship with DHL/UPS agent with 40% percent of offcial cost.
It's difficult to do internation sale. The biggest problem is shipping and payment. Actually we want to choose AIR POST MAIL for free shipping for goods under 50$ and weight under 2KG. But we still want to let buyers to select the shipping speed&shipper they like.
By this way, the only solution may be is to set only 1 shipping method and set some cheap products with worldwide free shipping.
Can anyone here quote us a probable cost of develop such a solution? I need the boss's final decision.
I love cs-cart actually.
Many thanks.
Hello Surmall,
[quote]So most of we Chinese sellers ship with DHL/UPS agent with 40% percent of offcial cost. [/quote]
I may have a solution for you, obtain a DHL (or UPS) account for your company then set up your realtime shipping methods using DHL (or UPS). You can then “adjust” these realtime rates displayed to your customers to match what your “agent” is actually charging you by applying a discount percentage to each of these realtime shipping methods in CS-Cart. With some quick testing you should be able to get your displayed rates to be very accurate!
Thanks. But the reality is very different in CHINA. We can't send many goods via DHL offcial account as many limits and high cost. I think we can only set 2 shipping options. thanks for all!
SURMALL is right. normally asia does not use like that. DHL FEDEX IS very expensive.