Get Expert Shipping Advice for Your Online Store 📦 👈

[AdamB]

Hi everyone!

We’re back with the next installment in our “get expert advice” series. This time, we’re focusing specifically on shipping. 📦 📦 📦 

The holidays are right around the corner, and this is a great time to make sure you have your shipping rules, box sizes, and rates ready to go for all those holiday orders.

Not sure how to handle boxes when you have items of very different sizes? Unsure of how to set up rates to provide the best prices for yourself and customers? Our resident shipping expert @BernadetteA will be on hand to answer your questions between Today and Thursday, October 28th.

If you’d like advice on all things shipping with your online store, post your question below! 👇

[GourmetOnWheels]

Shippo and ShipStation charge a Monthly fee PirateShip is free and offers USP and UPS Discounts.

[blackberryhouse]

Yea, I know several companies charge monthly fees. We ship about 1000 pieces a month. I've tried most all of the programs at one time or another, and have found my best discounts to be with XPS Shipper. Even vs Pirate Ship, I get around $1-1.50 less per box. And, they don't charge a monthly fee. The other thing I like about that particular one is that I can load my "bank" with funds, and each shipment comes out of that. When I need to add money to cover shipping, it lets me "recharge" immediately right on the page without any interruption to the process. The only thing I dislike about it is that the invoice only shows the price charged for the first box on the order, so if you ship 5 boxes to the same address at the same time and each box is $9.50, your invoice will only show $9.50 for the total. If you're prepaying via the "banked funds" (which I prefer), it really doesn't matter, but if you bill your customers after the fact, it's a big problem. When choosing a shipper, always google for a side by side comparison and choose the one that best fits your business' needs.

[collinsandcoupe]

When will Square have an option to add a "packaging weight" to the shipping settings? I spent weeks weighing everything in my shop and inputting that only to find that my packages always weigh more due to adding packing material, etc. If I can add custom box dimensions to my settings, why not a default "box weight" as well? I shouldn't have to pad the weight of my 1000+ items in order to allow for shipping materials that can weigh up to a few pounds.

[keicollective]

We got around this by adjusting where our pricing cuts are for what we charge customers based on weight. That way the box weight isn't padded into every item, but just applied once. I agree that it would be much easier to have a box weight, but hoping this workaround might help in the meantime! 

Example: USPS charges their rate for up to 0.57 lb. Our small item padded mailer weighs 0.2 lb so we charge our customers that rate for up to 0.37 lb and anything over goes into USPS' next rate category. That way someone buying a lot of small items like stickers isn't over charged because we added the 0.2 to every sticker, yet we don't lose out on under charging shipping costs. 

I hope that made sense! 

[BernadetteA]

Hi @collinsandcoupe 🙂

Have you tried adding a package & handling cost adjustment? It will allow you to add a dollar amount or percentage of the label cost to the shipping fee. Navigate to Fulfillment > Shipping then click the edit button next to the shipping profile. Scroll down to the rate section, and click on the Real Time Shipping rule you setup. You should see the option to add the additional fee directly under the rate options.

[collinsandcoupe]

No this doesn't work. It's not the extra cost that I'm worried about, it's that certain package types cannot weigh more than a certain amount or they will be sent back. Also the shipping label lists a weight at the time of purchase and this is inaccurate if I can't auto-add the weight of packaging. It also changes depending on how much and what someone buys. 

A first class mail parcel cannot weigh over 1 pound. They will get sent back. 

[keicollective]

Shipping providers often change rates or have disruptions in service. Like USPS holiday rate increases, or suspension of service to international locations during COVID-19. We unfortunately don't always notice these until after a customer has placed an order and we try to fulfill. Is there a way that Square Online could alert us when there is a major change to service with our connected shipping carriers? Or what's the best way to make sure we don't miss these kinds of changes? 

[BernadetteA]

This is a great question @keicollective

I know that Shippo posts updates on their blog about upcoming increases. For example, this post about the 2021 USPS Peak Season Prices Update: What You Need To Know. You can also find real time information directly from the shipping carrier websites which I'll post below. I believe you may be able to sign up for email alerts as well because I receive emails from FedEx about possible delays. 🤔 I'll update you here once I figure out how I got on their email list. 😊

• Fed Ex - Service Alerts
• UPS - Service Alerts
• USPS - Service Alerts
• DHL Express - Service Alerts

I’m not sure if Square has plans to provide these types of alerts through our status page, or perhaps on the Square Online dashboard, but it’s definitely great feedback to pass along to the teams.

[Selflove]

Can I use my own shipping boxes that I purchase from online like amazon and that put an ups shipping label it. ? 

[Marnie1]

You can use any packaging for UPS shipments, just put the dimensions and weight in accurately when creating your label.

[BernadetteA]

Hi @Selflove 😊

Yes, you can use your own boxes! You will want to remove any previous labels or cover up any barcode stickers or branding. Check out this UPS page for Guidelines for Proper Packaging

One important thing to keep in mind is that shipping carriers may offer certain rates based on their own packaging. Make sure to enter your custom dimensions like @Marnie1 suggested when purchasing your shipping label as opposed to selecting a specific UPS box that is similar to your box size. 

[GourmetOnWheels]

I get my orders to ship copy the full name and address and use PirateShip to get the same discounts on USPS and UPS as Endicia and Stamps without the monthly fee.

I use a Zebra LP284 Thermal Label Printer to print my 4X6" labels.

Very simple and no monthly fee and discounts on shipping

No need for Ship Station, Stamps, Endicia, or Shippo

René

[Sweetmagnolias1]

I am a furniture store and looking and getting into shipping some of our larger furniture items beds, tables etc.. but am having trouble finding good carriers who will do this any suggestions?

[BernadetteA]

Thanks for posting, @Sweetmagnolias1 😊

I'm not super familiar with freight shipping, but UPS has a limit of 150 lbs per package without needing special freight service. More information here.

Is the furniture fully assembled? Do you have an estimated weight range (min/max) that you will be shipping?

[FLD57105]

We ship large items and have linked our Shippo account to use UPS Ground. Is there a better/cheaper way to ship larger items?

Also I'm curious how it works if someone orders 3 of the same item for shipping. I had someone order 3 items and it only charged shipping on the one item.

[blackberryhouse]

Refer to my response to Molly57 below for help with your question also.

[BernadetteA]

Hi @FLD57105 👋

Can you please check your box settings under Fulfillment > Shipping > Shipping Boxes

You should see an optional field to set a max quantity. If this field is entered, the system will charge for more than one label if the cart amount exceeds your max quantity total.

[Molly57]

I'm kind of lost on how to determine shipping rates. It looks like Square will let you charge shipping by weight of each item/total but the formula is x lbs = $x. We use USPS to ship many items within the US, from small to large, and they determine cost based on weight AND buyer's zip code.

Creating flat rates or free shipping has bitten us before and we've had to just eat the difference (like $x spent = $x shipping). So where can we go from here? Choose USPS flat rate boxes? Set the shipping rule based on the weight formula and hope we don't lose out on shipping costs? Or pick a different rule other than weight? 

[blackberryhouse]

In our store, we assign a shipping rate to each item, and that is called Flat Rate Shipping within the website. You set your own flat rate price. Then, you can set a secondary rate to that same item in case your customer orders multiples of it. For example, we sell paint. We have quarts set at $9 for the first can, and $1 per can afterward. So, if a customer orders 1 can, they will charged a "Flat Rate" of $9. If they order 4 cans, then their shipping is a "Flat Rate" of $9, plus $1, plus $1, plus $1, for a total of $13 shipping. It's so much easier to set a per ITEM price for shipping that it is to enter the size and weight of every item you sell. When you are deciding on your set fee per item, be sure to account for the packing supplies that product will use to pack and ship it, ie, the box, bubble wrap, newsprint paper, chipboard, etc. If the customer orders a mixture of products, the website will automatically charge the highest shipping rate you have set for the products in their order, and each item thereafter will be charged the secondary rate. 

Hope this helps! 

[keicollective]

USPS shipping within the US has 8 different zones for pricing. The further away a zip code is from you, the higher the zone and the shipping cost. We used a zone map like the one from Pirate Ship below to determine our zone 8 and then charged everyone in the US the zone 8 rate (x lbs = $x with the $x being the zone 8 cost). That covers us for shipping charges, and the amount that someone closer to us is over charged is what we use to cover some of our smaller shipping costs like tape. We ship smaller packages though, so the difference for the customer is usually within $1 or so. If you're shipping larger items you may need to setup different rates for your different zones. 

https://www.pirateship.com/usps/zone-map 

Note: there's also a zone 9 for US territories, but Square Online lets you set those up independently 

[allwhowander]

Hi @AdamB & @BernadetteA! Thanks for taking questions about this important topic before the holiday rush.

I would love some advice on shipping beer. I went through a lengthy process last year with UPS to get setup with a special Alcohol Shipping account. We only need New York State shipping - which means I can get away with ground shipping in most cases and it will still be there in 2 days or less. Where things get confusing is we have Tier Incentives on our account through UPS, which gives us benefits like 67% off adult-signature confirmation and 100% off Smart Pickup. Is there a way to get this to sync up to our Square Online portal and reflect our actual shipping prices to customers?

I was paying for the $80 Square Online Premium plan with the understanding this is what I needed to connect the two, but I couldn't get it to work. Am I doing something wrong? Or is this just not an option because I'm probably 1 in a million that needs this feature 🤓

I am looking to do some subscription boxes this holiday and would like to nail down a plan this month. Thanks for your help!