So you’ve got customers to your site and placing orders, but now you’ve got to start shipping the orders. Luckily, Shopify makes shipping pretty simple. In this post, I’ll go over what Shopify Shipping is, why you should use it, and how to set yourself up with the best carrier for your needs.
Shopify Shipping is a free built in tool that calculates real time shipping rates, gives you the option to purchase and print discounted shipping labels, and track shipments all within the Shopify platform.
Shopify Shipping works directly with multiple carriers - UPS, USPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post. Each of these carriers offer different shipping classes to Shopify Store owners at a discounted rate.
Using Shopify Shipping ultimately helps you get order’s into your customers hands quickly and affordably (more on this later.)
Currently, the platform supports discounted shipping through USPS, UPS, DHL Express, and Canada Post.
First off, you and your customers will save money on shipping. Shopify Shipping offers pretty great shipping discounts to Shopify store owners. The discounts are often around 20%-50% but range all the way up to 90% depending on your Shopify plan and the carrier. Since Shopify has access to shipping carrier rates, they provide you and your customer with real time shipping calculations both on the order processing page and in your customers checkout. Meaning you will charge precise amounts for shipping - reducing the risk of underestimating your shipping expenses!
Secondly, Shopify Shipping has other features that can improve order fulfillment. For example, you can process orders and print shipping labels in bulk right from your Shopify admin account, which saves you time. And since time is money, you’ll be saving some moolah.
Thirdly, Shopify Shipping is totally free. And the cool part is you’ll have have many of the same features that you can find with third-party shipping software, but for free! It’s a win-win!
With Shopify Shipping, you pick which shipping carriers you’d like you use (USPS, UPS, DHL, or CanadaPost), add your product specifications, and that’s it! Shopify will then automatically calculate real-time shipping costs for your customers. You’ll then log in to your Shopify admin account, print order shipping labels, and package up all of your orders and send to your very happy customers.
It really depends on what you’re shipping and where the product is going. For example, USPS is known to have the cheapest shipping, UPS is best if you want packages delivered quickly, and DHL is best for international shipping.
Like I mentioned above, Shopify Shipping is already built into your Shopify account and is totally free to use (meaning no additional monthly fees or per-label fees!)
In comparison, if you were to use a third-party shipping software, you can expect a range of $0/month to $100/month depending on the number of orders you ship and the level of customer support you receive.
Once you enable Shopify Shipping, you’ll get access to shipping discounts with a choice of shipping carriers. For example, with the Shopify Shipping USPS partnership, Shopify users can save up to 90% on USPS shipping costs.
Note: All Shopify Store owners will have access to shipping discounts, but customers on higher plans will save more on shipping.
Shopify Shipping is already built into your Shopify account, making it a really easy and convenient shipping solution for you and your business.
Since Shopify Shipping partners with some of the largest carriers out there, you and your customers will have access to real-time shipping rates. This ensures that both you and your customers are getting an accurate rate for shipping.
Below, you’ll find a more detailed look of the breakdown of shipping rates available with USPS, UPS, DHL, and Canada Post. It’s important to know that pricing for all of these carriers depends on a variety of factors (shipment’s weight and dimensions, and the shipments starting point and destination.) Because of this, I can’t give accurate representations of pricing examples.
The USPS (United States Postal Service) is a great option if you’re shipping small, lightweight packages. It’s the cheapest option for shipments under 12 ounces, and with the Shopify Shipping/USPS partnership, you can save up to 90% on your shipments and can ship domestically or internationally.
Are you worried about getting stuck in a giant line at USPS? Don’t be. When you purchase your shipping label through Shopify Shipping, you can drop your packages directly at the drop-off box.
Here’s what you should expect for shipping options with USPS:
Domestic USPS Services:
International USPS Services:
UPS specializes in fast shipments and guaranteed delivery and you can normally expect a pretty enjoyable in-store experience (if you need to go in-store.) Most of the time, UPS is your best option for a fast delivery.
With UPS, you’ll be offered great package tracking features and super fast shipment with options like Next Day Air. When you use Shopify Shipping with UPS, you can save up to 73% on UPS rates, depending on your Shopify plan.
Another way to save money with UPS is to have them directly pick up your packages from your workspace, so you and your team can focus on other things without having to leave your warehouse.
While UPS does offer a ton of different shipping services, only some of them are available with Shopify Shipping. Fortunately, these services include air and ground shipping as well as domestic and international services.
Here are the UPS services you can expect with Shopify Shipping:
Domestic UPS Services:
International UPS Services:
DHL is a great option if you’re shipping internationally and want a fast delivery. Since DHL ships to over 220 countries and reaches 95% of the worlds population, you’re more than likely to be able to use them. DHL also has tools for creating custom forms and incredible guaranteed international delivery (sometimes 2-3 business days!)
When you use Shopify Shipping to purchase DHL shipping labels, you can save up to 75% on DHL’s rates!
The downside to using DHL with Shopify Shipping is they only offer one service. However, it is a pretty decent option!
Canada Post is Canada’s USPS. For shop owners based in Canada, Canada Post is the only carrier available through Shopify Shipping and is only available to shop owners based in Canada. Meaning that sellers in the US can’t ship to Canada using Canada Post.
Canada Post is a great option for sellers shipping domestically within Canada and with Shopify Shipping, you can save up to 47% on shipping labels. Your shipments will come with order tracking, allowing you to give your customers notifications on the status of their orders.
Much like USPS, Canada Post offers domestic and international shipping services with Shopify Shipping.
Note: Canada post rates vary by location and are differentiated between international shipments to the United States and international shipments to the rest of the world.
Here’s what you can expect from Canada Post’s available services with Shopify Shipping:
Domestic Canada Post Services:
International Canada Post Services: USA
International Canada Post Services: The Rest of the World
Shopify gives you the option to charge a specific amount for shipping at checkout. You can create flat shipping rates for any order based on where the item is being shipped to, or only for orders whose meet or beat a certain weight or price range.
What customer doesn’t love free shipping!? Companies like Amazon have really spoiled us. Shopify gives you the option to offer free shipping on all of your orders or to orders over a certain amount.
Need to adjust your shipping rates to attract customers OR to cover your shipping costs? Shopify allows you to mark up or discount the calculated rates we discussed above. You can mark up or discount calculated rates by adding an additional flat fee or by a percentage of the total shipping rate.
Shopify Shipping has built in features that majority of store owners will find are sufficient to process orders.
Here’s what you can expect:
Shopify Shipping supports most packages, but it’s worth noting that that they don’t support all packages. Here are some things that you can’t ship through Shopify Shipping:
Shipping through Shopify can be an affordable and easy way to streamline your eCommerce store’s shipping. Since the Shopify Shipping suite is already built into every Shopify account, it doesn’t take much work to start using the program! Here are the steps you should take to implement the Shopify Shipping suite.
More than likely when you first created your Shopify account, you entered your business address. Double-check that you’ve done this and that your address is correct.
If you ship from a location that is different than your business’s primary location (for example, a warehouse), add that address into the “Locations” section in your settings page.
Next, decide which shipping service you would like to use. Depending on the country you’re based in, you can add shipping services from USPS, UPS, DHL, or Canada Post. Click the checkbox to make those services available on your order processing page.
In order to calculate accurate real-time rates, your store must include weights for all your products. If you haven’t done this already, now is the time!
Note: Shopify Shipping gives you the option to set weights in pounds, ounces, kilograms, or grams.
Shopify Shipping finds the most accurate weight of your package by adding the products weight and the weight of your packaging material. To do this, you’ll need to set up the dimensions and weight of a “default package.” Shopify Shipping will then automatically add up the weight of the product and packaging to give the most accurate real-time shipping rates to display on the customer’s checkout page.
Unfortunately, you can only set one default package. So if you have products that vary dramatically in size, you may end up charging incorrect amounts for shipping. You are able to select another package size during the order processing step, but the rates Shopify displays at checkout are only based on this one default package.
If you need the capability to have multiple packaging rate options, Shopify recommends that you use a third-party shipping app to calculate rates at checkout.
Shopify Shipping makes it easy to print labels on a regular desktop printer or on a supported label printer. Desktop printers create regular paper labels, which you can attach to your shipment using packing tape or plastic sleeves, while label printers create stickers labels.
Supported label printers include:
Some Shopify store owners choose to offer certain shipping services only within specific shipping zones. For example, you might want to offer expedited shipping only to customers near your workplace. Or, you might want to offer international shipping only to a few select countries.
With Shopify Shipping, you’re able to adjust your settings to offer certain shipping services only to some shipping zones.
When you have everything set up - your shipping services, added your products weight, set up a default package size, and tested your printer - you can begin fulfilling orders! You can find all of your orders on the order page and start processing shipments!
Shopify Shipping is a great choice for most store owners that are already using Shopify as their ecommerce platform provider. The built-in features are incredibly beneficial, easy to use, and are an absolute steal considering it’s completely free! I highly recommend adding and double checking your products and default packaging weights and dimensions to ensure you’re getting the most accurate shipping costs for you and for your customer.
If you still need some help creating your Shopify store, send me a note. I’d be happy to chat with you to see if we’re both a good fit!
.svg){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}