One of the required steps in the listing process is to specify shipping destinations and charges. This can be done for each item individually or through the use of Shipping Profiles. In both cases, you must select one or more destinations and specify what the customer will be charged for shipping to each destination. You can select a single destination or a combination of destinations. Zibbet even includes an ‘Everywhere Else’ destination.
The use of Shipping Profiles is a convenient way to save time and streamline the listing process. A Shipping Profile is a predefined set of shipping destinations and charges that you save for future listings. Each time you list a new item you simply select the name of the Shipping Profile you want to apply to the item you’re listing. In addition to making listing easier, the use of Shipping Profiles is a huge time saver when you need to edit shipping charges. Instead of having to edit each listing individually, you only need to edit the Shipping Profile. Changes made to the profile are automatically applied to all of the listings that the edited Shipping Profile is associated with.
To set up shipping profiles, follow these steps:
1. Log in to your Zibbet shop and click the ‘Shipping Profiles’ link on your ‘My Zibbet’ page.
2. On the ‘Shipping Profiles’ page, click the ‘Create a new profile’ link.
3. The ‘Create a new Shipping Profile’ page will appear.
4. Enter a title for your new Shipping Profile. Select something descriptive, especially if you’ll be creating more than one Shipping Profile. For example, if you sell handmade jewelry and paintings in the same shop you may have a Shipping Profile named ‘Jewelry’ and another named ‘Paintings’.
5. Your country will automatically be selected in the ‘Shipping From:’ field.
6. The default for ‘Destination’ is ‘Everywhere Else’. Because shipping costs vary, unless you’re creating a Shipping Profile for free shipping, you’ll probably want to select a more specific destination.
7. Next, fill in the cost of shipping for an individual item. Note that if you want to set the shipping cost at ‘free’, enter a value of zero (0).
8. In the box labeled ‘Multiple’, enter the amount of shipping to be charged when a customer purchases more than one item from your shop. Normally, a discounted rate is set for additional items. However, for larger or heavier items this may not always be feasible. You need to do some figuring to see what works for your items.
9. To add another destination, click the ‘+ Add Another Destination’ link. Continue until you’ve entered all the destinations you want for this Shipping Profile.
10. Be sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button before leaving this page.
Here is an example of what your Shipping Profile page will look like after saving several different profiles:
Now, when you list a new item you can select one of your Shipping Profiles:
It’s important to note that if you select a Shipping Profile and also select additional destinations for a particular listing, whatever you’ve selected specifically for that listing will take priority over settings for the destination(s) in your Shipping Profile. Another important point to remember is that if you have any shipping settings active within your PayPal account, those settings will take priority over any shipping settings sent from Zibbet to PayPal when your customer goes to pay for the order.
If you’ve not set up Shipping Profiles in your shop yet, I encourage you to do so. You’ll be amazed at the time savings you’ll see when listing and especially when you need to edit shipping charges.
Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!
Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of five Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls, A Stitch and a Prayer, Black Creek Crossing and Think Like a Fish. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.
Tags: shipping profiles, Success on Zibbet
