Mine is set up thru Woocommerce and wordpress. In the program there's a place for you to assign dimensions of each product and a weight. Then test out some combinations in a test order. You will then need to adjust the dimensions until the program gets it right all of the time. I started with exact sizes but soon found I had to allow for packing material. It took 2 or 3 refunds I had to send back to customers in the initial stages of going live but after that it has worked perfectly. Woo commerce also tracks your inventory and you can edit it as you bottle more or sell some locally. I only show about 80% of my inventory in each item on the site and that way I only need to edit the inventory every 2-3 weeks rather than every time I sell some locally. Right now I only offer plastic jugs except my bourbon barrel aged syrup which only gets packed in glass. In the future I might also expand to ship more glass, I have not decided yet.
In the program you will need to choose which size boxes you want to use. I only use 3 sizes, a 6x6x7 priority mail, a medium flat rate and a large flat rate. One nice thing about going thru woo commerce is that you actually get a lower shipping cost from the USPS. I think it's about 10% discount if I remember correctly.
I wasn't smart enough to set it up, my computer IT son did it. Check it out, I went live with it last fall and my sales from my website more than tripled. I never took credit cards with my old site, just paypal, and the customer had to fill out a form, then I calculated the shipping and sent them a PayPal invoice. With the new site in Woo Commerce, the program does it all, gives the customer choices for method of payment and I never see their credit card number, I just get the order marked paid. For my credit cards I use Stripe who take all or most cards, or the customer can choose to use PayPal or they can mail a check. Since the site started in the fall no body has chosen the check option yet.
As each order is placed you will get an email from woo commerce. Then you go into the program and process it. In the program you click on "create label" and you will then see the mailing label, then select print and your printer will print off the label. I chose the option to show the customer the full price on shipping and the label just says postage paid. I figure the difference help pay for the bubble wrap I use and part of my time. After I print the label(s) I go to th USPS web site and schedule a pick up. If done with your regular mail delivery they pick up at no extra charge so I don't even need to go to the P.O. and all of the boxes I use are delivered free, the cost of the box is part of the postage charge.
My web prices are the same as at the sugarhouse, some producers charge more but I don't. Right now, I sell about 45% of my product thru the site (and I retail 90-95% of my production, the only bulk I sell is any commercial I might make), if I get to 60% or more I might raise the syrup prices on the site a little to cover my time for packing too, but not yet. Check out my site: www.cnymaple.com Send me a PM if you have any further questions, I'll try to answer them if I can.
Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.
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