You can provide your customers with real-time carrier rates at checkout by integrating your online store with carrier companies such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, Australia Post, Canada Post, and others.
Shipping rates are calculated in real-time based on the order weight, parcel or product dimensions, origin and delivery address.
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Real-time rates from integrated carriers
Your store features seamless integration with the following carrier companies, enabling automatic display of their shipping rates for customers' orders at checkout:
- UPS
- USPS
- FedEx
- Canada Post
- Royal Mail
- Australia Post
- EMS Russian Post
Adding real-time rates shipping
To enable the automatically calculated rates in your store:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Add Shipping.
- Select the carrier company that you ship with. The carrier companies are suggested depending on your country. Click Set Up.
- If you don't see the needed carrier among the suggested options, you can view all carriers or change your country below.
- Choose Automatic calculated rates from the chosen carrier and click Set Up.
If you are going to ship worldwide and offer all the available shipping options from the set carrier, no additional set up is needed.
The default "worldwide" destination zone will be automatically applied to any enabled shipping method, allowing buyers from any location to place orders. Additionally, popular shipping options offered by a carrier will be pre-enabled, such as USPS First-Class Mail®, USPS Priority Mail™, and so forth.
If you are going to ship orders within a certain area and you want to offer particular shipping methods at checkout, you can edit the settings of the shipping method.
Choosing shipping options for real-time rates
To select what shipping options of a carrier will be offered to customers at checkout:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Actions → Edit next to the set carrier-calculated option.
- In the Shipping options section, enable the rates you want to offer at checkout and disable those you don't need. Changes are saved automatically.
Choosing shipping region for real-time rates
To select the geographical area where the shipping method can be offered:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Next to the set carrier-calculated option, click Actions → Edit.
- In the Shipping region section, select your option:
- (optional) If you already have a shipping zone, you can assign it to the current shipping method by clicking Copy settings from existing zone and choosing the zone.
- Click Save.
Learn more about adding and managing destination zones →
You can also present the estimated delivery date for your customers during checkout. Providing a specific delivery date enhances the customer experience as people want to know when they will receive their order. With a clear understanding of when to expect their delivery, buyers are more likely to complete their purchase, leading to a higher number of successful sales.
Showing an estimated delivery date at checkout
To display the estimated delivery date next to delivery options at checkout:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Actions → Edit next to the set carrier-calculated option.
- Enable Show estimated delivery date at checkout toggle.
- In the Order preparation time block, specify how many days it usually takes for you to prepare an order. That time will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
- In the Days when you pack orders block, specify when you pack orders for shipment.
- Set the final time to pack orders in the I pack orders received past this time on the next day box. Your schedule will be taken into account when calculating the delivery date for customers.
- Click Save.
Product dimensions
If your products vary in size and weight, you can specify their dimensional weight to obtain more precise real-time rates from carriers at checkout.
To add the product dimensions:
- From your store admin, go to Catalog → Products.
- Open the product details page.
- Make sure the option Requires shipping or pickup is enabled for this product.
- Switch to the Shipping & Pickup tab.
- Fill out the Weight, Length, Width, and Height fields.
Package dimensions
The package dimensions are utilized to compute real-time shipping rates for products with no individual dimensions specified. If most of your products fit into the same shipping boxes, you can specify the package dimensions only.
To add the package dimensions:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Actions → Edit for the configured carrier-calculated shipping method.
- Under the Shipping settings block, find the Default package size section.
- Fill out the Width, Length, and Height fields for the Default package size.
- Click Save to apply the changes.
The specified package dimensions will be passed to the carrier company at checkout and will be used in the rate calculation.
Shipping markup
You might consider slightly increasing shipping rates to offset postage or other expenses associated with order fulfillment. You can adjust the automatic rates of carrier-calculated shipping methods using the Shipping markup option. This fee will be incorporated into the shipping rate provided by the carrier company.
To add a markup to a carrier-calculated shipping method:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Actions → Edit for the configured carrier-calculated shipping method.
- Under the Shipping settings block, find and fill out the Shipping markup field with a flat amount that will be included in the shipping fees.
- Click Save.
Shipping origin
The shipping origin address is where you ship your orders from. Integrated carriers utilize this address as the ship-from location when calculating real-time shipping rates for delivering orders to buyers' locations.
Make sure that you enter the correct address to get precise shipping quotes from the carrier enabled in your store.
For your store's shipping origin, you can choose one of the options:
- Your company's address specified in Settings → General → Store Profile.
- Any other location that has a different address. For example, a warehouse.
When you set up real-time rates from carriers in your store for the first time, you are asked to specify your shipping origin. The option you choose is then saved in your store's settings and is automatically used for any future real-time rates you set up. You can edit your shipping origin later if you want.
To edit the Shipping Origin address:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Under the Settings block find the Shipping Origin section.
- Click Set Up Origin Address.
- Select your option and edit the address if needed.
- Click Submit to save the changes.
Minimum order subtotal for a shipping method
You have the option to establish a minimum order subtotal for any shipping method within your store. If the purchase amount before discounts falls below this specified amount, the corresponding shipping option will be unavailable at checkout. Customers will be informed of the minimum order requirement for selecting this particular shipping method.
To set a minimum order subtotal:
- From your store admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Actions → Edit for the configured carrier-calculated shipping method.
- Scroll to the Minimum order subtotal section and enter the amount.
- Click Save.
Integration with other carriers
You can also get the rates from your carrier's website and set up a table with your carrier rates in your store admin. The rates can depend on order weight and customer locations.
If you want to receive real-time shipping rates from the shipping company that is not integrated with your store yet, you can opt for a custom integration, based on the Shipping API. This functionality will work in the form of an application installed into your store admin that will connect your store to the new shipping company to provide the real-time shipping methods and rates at checkout.