This isn't really a Perl answer, but you should learn a bit about the shipping business before you start programming. First, forget about box sizes. Unless you're shipping oversize packages you only need to be concerned about weight. Visit your shipper's website to see what they determine to be oversize. Also, except sending very small packages by USPS, shippers round fractional weight up to the next pound. With that simplification you have better options, but these involve estimation and policy, which may be out of your influence:

• Just add a little more weight in your database for each item to compensate for the packaging.
• Write an algorithm or create a table to estimate packaging weight based on product quantity & mix.
• Estimate shipping costs and use that to mark up the product price, then advertize free shipping

With mixed products & quantities you cannot compute exact shipping parameters beforehand unless you can account for every possible combination. Most companies either do some kind of estimation, or weigh each completed package before computing shippping costs. Over time, you can use empirical data from actual shipments to fine tune your estimates.

Shippers have many pricing scales and many extra cost options you can add on. Businesses with shipper accounts receive significant pricing discounts based on their shipping volume. UPS is generally the most expensive shipper, but even $13.99 sounds too high unless you asked for some added options.

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