When you first install Dimensional Shipping you need to decide the packing algorithm you wish to use. The choices are:
- Exact Packing – With this we look at how full a box is in reality. So we ask you to define the maximum quantity of each item that can fit in a box. You might have a set of lotions and for the small lotions you can fit 50 in a box. But the large lotions you can only fit 20. We can work out from this how many to pack in a mixed box setup, and also given a set of boxes make a good estimate on the box to select and use for shipping. This approach gives the most accurate rates
- Best-Fit – With this algorithm you specify the dimensions of a product, and the possible shipping boxes it will fit into. Volumetrics are then used to determine how many of the item will fit in the box. It makes intelligent calculations based on the percentages of the box used to determine the best boxes to pack in
- Largest Box – We take the approach here of ignoring dimensions of products and instead allowing you to specify the boxes that a product fits into. If you just specify dimensions it will take the largest set in the cart and that becomes the shipping box. If you specify multiple possible boxes it will take the one that it can most fill then pack all the items into this (assuming the products also specify that box)
It’s recommended you view the videos under the Media Category which will walk thro each of these algorithms. If in doubt use Best-Fit, this is the simplest setup.
You configure the packing algorithm under System->Configuration->Shipping Settings.
If you have SKUs which ship in multiple boxes (e.g. a table/chairs might fit in 5 boxes) then this is supported aswell, its agnostic to the packing algorithm.