We’ve just rolled out a big new feature: quotes for larger quantities of printed circuit boards. Instead of a maximum quantity of 100 boards, we now support orders for up to 1,000 PCBs.
This wasn’t an easy feature to implement. Not only did we need to add new calculators for each manufacturer that offer “small batch” quantities, but we had to calculate shipping. Previously, we just always quoted the shipping cost for a small order, and hoped that would satisfy most users most of the time. That was not acceptable for our new, larger quantities. So now we estimate the weight and package size and use that to calculate shipping from China or the US.
How well does it work? Better than it used to, but not as well as I’d like. For the same size order, even different manufacturers come up with different shipping costs. We can’t duplicate them all unless we get cooperation from the manufacturers, which I don’t expect to happen. But we’re close – hopefully close enough.