Advanced shipping methods – Live Rates
We have partnered with Shippo to provide you with real time shipping quotes and shipping labels with your chosen postal carriers.
Live Rates (Real Time Shipping Rate Calculation)
The Live Rates method allows you to provide your customers with real time shipping quotes from any of Shippo’s carrier partners, including Royal Mail, FedEx, UPS, and many more. You must connect your Shippo account to utilise Live Rates.
Follow these steps to set up per-product shipping:
- Navigate to your Seller Dashboard, then go to Settings, and Shipping from the menu.
- Scroll down to “Shipping Methods” and select “Live Rates – Calculate live shipping rates and print shipping labels with Shippo”
- Click on Save changes and then click on the Configure button to the right.
- On the next screen select “Use Shippo to calculate shipping rates and print shipping labels”
- Follow the steps on screen to connect to your Shippo Account and select your packing strategy.
- Enter your rate adjustment – a positive value will result in a markup whereas a negative value will result in a discount.
- Enter your boxing settings from the drop down menu
- Click Save Changes
Shippo Shipping Labels
You can create or connect a Shippo account to purchase and print shipping labels directly from the seller dashboard. These labels are connected to your selected carriers.
You can either take advantage of the discounted shipping rates provided through one of Shippo’s master carrier accounts or connect your own carrier accounts to Shippo to leverage their negotiated rates. Shippo handles all postage billing for and support directly with you.
Shippo Tracking
When you print a shipping label using Shippo the tracking number displays on the order screen and it is also included in the email sent to the customer when the order is marked as “Completed.”
What is the cost of Shippo?
Shippo’s Pay as You Go plan is free with an additional cost of £0.03 per label printed. Plans with no per label fee are available for sellers with higher shipping volumes. For more information, please consult Shippo’s pricing page. It does not cost anything for live calculations, you pay the per label plus the cost of postage and optional insurance.
Do I need a Shippo account?
You will only need a Shippo account if you plan to enable Live Shipping Calculations and Label Printing. Your Shippo account will always be used for purchasing shipping labels and will also be used to retrieve shipping rates.
Do I need a carrier account?
You will need to sign up with your chosen postal carriers and create an account with them. Once registered you can add the details to Shippo and you are ready to go
Whatever the right option is for you we have a shipping solution to cater for all levels, from new start-ups to those who want automated options to expand their business.
Store Level Settings
The Live Rates method has a number of store level settings, depicted in the screenshot below.
Rates store level settings
The settings are:
Live Rates
Controls whether the Live Rates method is enabled or not.
Shippo Account
Allows seller to quickly connect or disconnect their Shippo account.
Packing Strategy
In order to provide accurate shipping quotes, the Live Rates method must pack the seller’s items into one or more boxes. This option allows the vendor to control how their items are packed. There are two choices:
- Pack items individually – Pack each item separately into the smallest box that can fit it.
- Pack items together – Pack items into one or more boxes using the BoxPacker algorithm.
Pack items together will generally yield the most accurate shipping rates, but Pack items individually may be more appropriate for certain vendors.
Rate Adjustment
This gives sellers the ability to adjust carrier returned shipping rates up or down by a fixed amount or percentage. This can be used, for instance, to account for the cost of packing materials.
Boxes
In order to pack the seller’s items at checkout, Live Rates needs to know the boxes the vendor will be using for shipping. The seller can manage their shipping boxes in this section.
To add a new box, simply click Add Box. For your convenience, you can either select from a predefined box template or choose to enter a custom box. Please note that when entering a custom box you should enter the box’s outer dimensions. The inner dimensions will be estimated automatically.
To edit or delete a box, click the pencil icon or trash icon, respectively, next to that box in the Boxes table.
Usable Box Volume
By default, we will only use 85% of a box’s inner volume for packing. This is to account for extra space occupied by packing materials, instruction manuals, and so on.
Too Large Items
Items that can’t fit into one of the seller’s configured boxes will be packed into a box the same size as the item.
Guide to Printing Labels
You can create or connect a Shippo account to purchase and print shipping labels directly from the seller dashboard. These labels are connected to your selected carriers.
Sellers can either take advantage of the discounted shipping rates provided through one of Shippo’s master carrier accounts or connect their own carrier accounts to Shippo to leverage their negotiated rates. Shippo handles all postage billing for and support directly with you.
Here’s how that process works:
- Go to the Orders page in the sellers dashboard. Select an order. You will now see a list of shipping labels similar to this:
- Click Create new label
- If this is your first time attempting to print a label you will be prompted to create or connect a Shippo account. Click “Create or connect account” and follow the on-screen instructions to complete this process.
- Enter the full address you’re shipping from, if it’s the first time printing a shipping label.
5. Verify the destination address.
6. Enter the weight and dimensions of the box you’re shipping. If you’re using the Live Rates shipping method you can either select from one of the boxes that was computed at checkout or enter a custom box.
7. Optionally add extras like shipping insurance.
8. Select the desired shipping service/rate.
9. Select label format (optional).
10.0After clicking Buy & Print, label(s) are automatically opened in a print dialog.
Some browsers, like Firefox, don’t support automatic label printing. If you’re using one of these browsers, the label(s) will open in a new tab instead.
Shipping Labels – Tracking
The Shipping Labels box will display the label(s) you purchased and contains the tracking number for your shipment. The tracking number(s) will be included in the email sent to your customer when the order is marked “completed.”
You can also reprint your label or request a refund, if necessary. Click the three-ellipsis menu for the label to reveal these options.
