It makes more sense to calculate shipping by weight, since that's how the post office will charge your museum (though you may want to provide the option for insuring more expensive items). A museum that I used to work for had a policy of charging a flat rate of $5 per order for orders up to (I think) 20 lbs, which saved the staff the headache of making calculations; orders of over 20 lbs were calculated according to weight on a per-order basis. I think you would do well to consider setting up a fee structure by weight ranges -- whether you want to complicate things by giving your customers the option of sending by different shipping rates (priority, 1st class, 3rd class, etc.) is also something to consider.
Hope you don't mind if I pick the brains of those of you who sell your
gift shop items throughthe mail. We frequently get requests from people who
can't actually visit
the museum, butwant to order something from our gift shop, or who visit but
don't have
the cash on hand. I'mthinking of making up an order form of the items in our
shop, and wonder
how I should"handle" the shipping and handling charges. Are these more
frequently
calculated by price orby weight?
Susannah West
John Rankin House
Ripley, Ohio
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