Module description

“Metrologist” module deals with item weight to help you to calculate shipping cost more precisely. This is particularly important when item weight cannot be directly gotfrom Taobao.

As known, Alibaba.com limited obtaining some data through its API including “real item weight”. However, over the course of the work statistics had been collected that summarized weight data of about 9 million of goods. It helped to implement an improved version of Metrologist module.

Item weight calculated with “Metrologist” module is shown on item page and is taken into account for calculating shipping cost.

Module price is 220$. It is available right after payment and request (ticket) to OpenTrade Commerce support system.

“Metrologist” module is an additional module for your business development! It is included into Top and Standard versions of OT Commerce Box. 

Contact OT managers in your Skype-chat to buy module and follow instructions provided.

Besides, manager will answer questions on module functionality and will help with payment.

See price-list http://en.otcommerce.com/prices-and-promo#2 for module price.

How module works

There are several types of product weight: 

  1. Real weight received from seller.
  2. Approximate weight from Metrologist module.
  3. No weight — when seller did not provide weight data and Metrologist module was not connected.

You can determine weight type in product card by its name.

Weight in product card is displayed below the quantity of product in stock:

“Metrologist” module deals with statistics on item weight. It collects data on item weight for each category of catalog and automatically calculates average item weight for a product category.

“Metrologist” module accounts for both accumulated (i.e. previously analyzed) data on item weights and those ones that can be specified manually (for example, while placing an order for your buyer).

Thus, if item weight specified manually is known it will always be used when shipping cost of this item is calculated.


Since there are many weight sources, the Metrologist module takes into account the agent's interests first and selects the weight in the following order (the order of taking into account points 2 and 3 can be changed using the settings):

“Metrologist” module gives the priority to interests of an agent and sets the following order in which item weight is selected (the order of selection of (2) and (3) can be changed using settings), since there are a lot of weight sources.

  1. Item weight specified manually by OT Box agent
    • Item weight you provided when placing an order will be shown on item page.
    • In case you didn’t specify weight but it was stated by other OT Box agent the latter will be used.
    • In case item weight is not specified manually,the module checks whether item weight is available in (2).
  2. Real item weight stated by trade provider (Taobao, 1688.com, etc.). If accurate item weight stated by a trade provider is available it is the one which will be used. If no, then the weight from (3) will be used.
  3. Approximate item weight calculated with “Metrologist” module. Weight is calculated for each product category based on data ofitem weightsfor this category. When the approximate weight is found it is assigned by default to all items within this category which do not get weight from (1) or (2).
  4. 1 kg is a standard weight for unknown items. If the weight is not known it can be either specified by default (1 kg) or ignored(0 kg will be used).

Thus, you can get item weight that most closely approximates realitywith “Metrologist” module.

Data on actual item weight enables you to improve accuracy of weight calculation for other items of the same category and increase loyalty of customers as well, as they see how much shipping will actually cost.

Module set up

Display or hide approximate weight of product category

You can display or hide product weight. To display product weight go to “Configuration” section in admin panel of your website and scroll page up to “Item info” block.

Click blue dotted line:

Select necessary option (display or hide) in drop-down list:

Save settings clicking check mark button:

 

Changes immediately take effect after saving and the element is hidden or displayed.

Set approximate weight of product category

Go to "Catalog" section and hover the mouse over the necessary category. Action menu will appear. Select pencil icon "Edit category":

When we specify weight for category all its subcategories get its weight by default. Unless you specify separate value for subcategory.

Fill in approximate weight in kg (the field is available if you have "Metrologist" module) if category contains products with approximately the same weight (for example, all travel bags weigh approximately 700g). This field can be left blank:

Click “Save” button after making changes.

Set approximate weight of product

There are 2 options to set approximate weight of product

In product card

Find item on website and copy its code:

Go to "Catalog" ->"Items" in website admin panel:

Enter item code into "Item ID" field and click "Edit" button:

Page to edit product will open. Look for “Manual weight” field and write necessary weight here:

Save changes clicking check mark button: 

Specified weight will appear in the product card:

In customer's order

Go to "Orders" section in website admin panel and find necessary order:

Select item and find "Weight" field:

Specify weight and save changes clicking check mark button:

Customer will also see weight change of the product. Order status will also change (for example, to “Awaiting additional payment” if product weight increased delivery cost)


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