harveyc

Richard, I use Endicia for my business and it was first suggested to me by a regional customer representative at USPS because I was having such a hard time getting labels printed out fast enough. For the past two years I've shipped 160-175 boxes on my busiest day and I simply could not have done it without Endicia. I can just right-click on the shipping address in my shopping cart and it imports it into my label where I've got different default package sizes along with custom graphics on my label. It also greatly simplifies the shipping notices and ability to check deliver confirmations.

Other than a few special orders I ship everything with USPS Priority Mail because I'm shipping a perishable product. Bulbs and many plants can take a longer shipping time so UPS Ground might be okay, though it seems most folks are still using something faster.

Kat, this past year USPS came out with "Regional Rate" boxes which I've also found very helpful, especially for my in-state (California) sales. For smaller orders, the Regional Rate A boxes work out better than the Medium Flat Rate boxes that were first introduced on 11/7/2004 (which have been great for my business).

Without a fair amount of willing to learn some technical things, it will be a little difficult to set up and edit your shopping cart so it's really best if you can learn to do it yourself.

I use Mal's E-commerce for my shopping cart and I can set the postage based on weights but not shipping zones, though I'm just using the free version. The checkout process is completed at PayPal which has worked out well for me.

Some junior colleges offer classes in web site design and that would be good to look into.

Good luck!

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