Shopify Shipping: A Complete Guide for Your Online Store

Shipping is one of the trickiest things about managing a Shopify store for business owners, particularly those who are just starting out. It will cost the seller a lot of money and effort to send their products carefully; this includes weighing shipments, evaluating modes of transportation, and printing labels. Moreover, you must guarantee that your clients’ purchasing journey is flawless even after they have made a payment. Customers could leave and your brand’s reputation could suffer if you don’t have the proper shipping system in place and your products have problems getting to customers’ homes.

Shopify offers its merchants the greatest shipping options by integrating the Shopify Shipping service. However, it’s a challenging topic to figure out how to best utilize this functionality and offer a smooth shipping process while improving the shopping experience for clients.

In the event that you have not yet discovered the solution, this article will give you all the details about Shopify Shipping, including the benefits, optimal pricing strategies, and how to set up your shipping process properly.

What Is Shopify Shipping?

Shopify Shipping is a suite of shipping and fulfillment solutions offered by Shopify. It is designed to help online merchants manage and streamline their shipping and order processing processes without having to spend additional money, time and effort on third-party shipping solutions.

In other words, this feature simplifies the shipping process for online businesses and helps them provide a more efficient and cost-effective shipping experience to their customers.

Benefits of Shopify Shipping

Shopify Shipping is designed to simplify the shipping and fulfillment aspects of e-commerce, helping merchants operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. It is considered an integrated shipping solution, allowing you to manage and fulfill orders directly from your Shopify admin and reducing the need to use third-party tools. In addition, it offers a number of other benefits including:

• Control costs: Shopify Shipping offers transparent shipping rates and discounts. You can better control and predict shipping costs, which is essential for managing your business budget.
• Seamless integration: Shopify Shipping integrates seamlessly with your Shopify store, making it easy to manage shipping and fulfillment directly from your store dashboard. This integration reduces the need for third-party shipping software.
• Efficiency: By purchasing and printing shipping labels through Shopify, you can simplify your order fulfillment process. In addition to saving time, this lowers the possibility of labeling and tracking errors made by hand.
• Flexibility: You can create and customize different shipping profiles based on product type, shipping zone, or other criteria. From there, offer a variety of shipping options to your customers.
• Powerful marketing tools: Shopify Shipping lets you create and apply shipping rules, such as offering free shipping on orders over a certain amount or setting flat shipping fees.
• Professional packaging: With Shopify Shipping, you can use branded packaging materials to create a more professional and consistent brand image.
• Save time: You can concentrate on other areas of your business by managing shipping logistics with a lot less time and effort when you use Shopify Shipping.
• Reliability: Shopify partners with reputable shipping carriers, which can provide confidence in the reliability and quality of your shipping services.

Typical Features Of Shopify Shipping

For Shopify businesses, Shopify Shipping provides a range of capabilities to assist expedite and enhance the shipping and fulfillment process. While the availability of some features may depend on your location and subscription plan, here are some typical features you can expect from Shopify Shipping: 

• Discounted shipping rates: Merchants may take advantage of discounted shipping costs from major carriers such as UPS, DHL, and USPS by using Shopify Shipping.
• Create shipping labels: The ability to purchase and create shipping labels directly from your Shopify dashboard makes it easy to fulfill orders.
• Order tracking: Real-time order tracking is included with Shopify Shipping. It allows you and your customers to follow the location and status of shipped orders.
• Shipping profiles: Allows you to create and customize different shipping profiles to provide different shipping options for different products or shipping zones.
• Shipping rules: Lets you set up shipping rules and conditions, such as free shipping on orders over a specific amount or flat-rate shipping for certain product types.
• Supports international shipping: Shopify Shipping offers options for managing international shipping, including customs documentation and international carrier integration.

Shipping Shopify Costs And How To Optimize Them

Before going into setting up and shipping any order, it’s important to understand how much you’ll pay for shipping. Along with that is a reasonable fee applied to your customers when purchasing the product. 

Shopify shipping prices might change based on a number of variables, such as your region, the shipping company you use, the size and weight of your item, and the particular services you utilize. Here are a few of the Shopify shipping expenses along with suggestions for optimizing and lowering them.

Shopify Shipping Rates

For monthly subscription merchants shipping from the US, Canada, or Australia, Shopify provides free shipping. However, in the remaining areas, you will need to impose a cost on your clients’ orders, which will be determined by the shipping rates that Shopify offers.

You can compare prices with Shopify’s partner shipping carriers for particular items by using the Shopify Shipping price calculator. From there, it enables you to make informed choices that will boost your company’s revenue.

1. Flat Shipping Fee

Flat shipping rates are specific shipping amounts that you charge customers based on their orders. There are four ways you can calculate flat shipping rates on your Shopify store:

• Universal pricing: Regardless of what your consumers add to their carts, you will only be charged a single shipping fee. For instance: You offer your customers two delivery options: $15 for expedited shipping and $5 for standard shipment. When a consumer orders any goods from your store, these two prices will show up as alternatives.
• Price-based rates: You can define a minimum and maximum cart value for your flat shipping fee using this pricing technique. For instance, you decide to charge $5 flat shipping for orders under $50 and $10 flat shipping for orders beyond $50. Customers with a $40 basket will therefore only be able to choose from one $5 shipping option.
• Weight-based rates: You can define a minimum and maximum weight for your flat delivery charge using this pricing technique. Say you decide to charge a flat $5 delivery fee for goods weighing less than 7 kg and $15 for deliveries weighing more than 7 kg. There will undoubtedly only be one shipping option available to customers whose products weigh more than 7 kg: $15.
• Free shipping rate: Merchants can convert flat shipping rates to free shipping on Shopify. For instance, if you want free shipping for orders above $50, you can set up a price-based flat rate of $0 for orders over $50 or create a general flat cost of $0 for all orders.

Fixed shipping rates give you control over exactly how much your customers will pay for shipping. It is considered a good choice for small Shopify merchants on a tight budget or who want a simple shipping solution.

However, its downside is that you may encounter charges that are too high or too low. This could result in your profits being affected or your customers feeling dissatisfied with high fees compared to other solutions.

2. Calculated Shipping Fee

Calculated shipping fees include the shipping costs provided by any carriers or apps that you add to your Shopify store. The benefit of this method is that it provides transparency in shipping costs as you can pass the exact shipping cost of the order directly to the customer.

The following data can be used by shipping companies to calculate their shipment costs:

• Shipping origin
• Shipping destination
• Product weight
• Product value
• Shipping box size
• Request delivery speed

For example, your customer in Chicago, USA has a cart weight of 1kg and your store is in Melbourne, Australia. If you connect your Shopify store to Australia Post, it will calculate and offer available shipping options to your customers based on their order criteria for them to choose from.

Optimize Shipping Costs In Shopify

Optimizing shipping costs is a continuous process. It is essential that you regularly evaluate your shipping strategy, carrier selection, and packaging materials to ensure that you are providing cost-effective shipping solutions. Meanwhile, you still have to maintain customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Here are some strategies and best practices to help you optimize shipping costs on your Shopify store:

• Choose the right carrier: When choosing a carrier, you need to consider factors such as shipping speed, destination, and package size. From there, you can compare shipping prices from different carriers to choose the most cost-effective option for your needs.
• Negotiate shipping rates: If you have a large shipping volume, contact the carriers directly to negotiate better rates.
• Use Shopify shipping discounts: Take advantage of discounted shipping rates available through Shopify Shipping for carriers like USPS, UPS, and DHL.
• Optimize packaging: Use the right packaging for your product to avoid dimensional weight charges and reduce unnecessary shipping costs.
• Use third-party shipping apps: Examine third-party apps that can enhance your shipping procedure that are offered in the Shopify App Store. Look for apps that offer price comparison, address verification, or label printing services.
• Track and adjust: Monitor the performance of the carriers and shipping methods you have chosen. If a carrier is consistently underperforming or becoming more expensive, consider switching to a more cost-effective alternative.

Shipping Carriers Are Available In Shopify

Shopify offers integrations with several popular shipping carriers, allowing you to choose the carrier that best suits your needs. Below is a list of shipping carriers that Shopify is working with:

• United States Postal Service (USPS): USPS is a widely used carrier in the United States. You can access discounted USPS rates through Shopify Shipping.
• United Parcel Service (UPS): Shopify integrates with UPS, providing domestic and international shipping with a variety of delivery options.
• DHL Express: DHL offers international shipping, and you can get discounted rates through Shopify for international shipments.
• FedEx: Depending on your location and subscription plan, you may have the option to integrate with FedEx for shipping services.

• Canada Post: For Canadian businesses, Shopify integrates with Canada Post, allowing you to ship within Canada and to international destinations.
• Australia Post: For Australian businesses, Australia Post is integrated with Shopify for domestic and international shipping.
• Royal Mail: If you’re in the UK, you can use Royal Mail for shipping, and it’s integrated into Shopify.
• Deutsche Post DHL Group: Shopify offers integration with DHL services in Germany and other countries served by Deutsche Post DHL Group.
• New Zealand Post: New Zealand businesses can use New Zealand Post for domestic and international shipping in Shopify.
• Swiss Post: Swiss Post is integrated with Shopify for businesses in Switzerland.
• Custom service providers: Shopify also offers the ability to add custom service providers and calculate pricing if your preferred service provider is not directly integrated.

How To Set Up Shopify Shipping

Although Shopify Shipping is built-in to your Shopify store, merchants need to manually manipulate some of the necessary categories to optimize their shipping setup.

Setting up Shopify Shipping involves configuring shipping settings, rates, and options to fit your business needs and the carrier you plan to use. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you set up Shopify Shipping.

Set Up Shipping Locations

The shipping location will be where your orders are shipped. Shopify sets the address you entered when you created your store as your default shipping location. Therefore, you must change the exact delivery locations if they are different from the original locations you entered during setting up your store, or the addresses of the fulfillment services you are using.

Depending on the Shopify package you are setting up, the allowed location limits will vary. More specific:

• Shopify Lite: 3 shipping locations
• Basic Shopify: 4 shipping locations
• Shopify: 5 shipping locations
• Advanced Shopify: 8 shipping locations
• Shopify Plus: 20 shipping locations (you can contact Shopify Plus if you require more than 20 shipping locations)

To add or change shipping locations, you need to follow these steps:

• Step 1: Go to “Settings” on your Shopify dashboard. Select the “Location” category
• Step 2: Click “Add location” and enter the name and address of the appropriate shipping point
• Step 3: “Fulfill online orders from this location” can be selected by checking the tiny box next to the location name.

Create Shipping Profiles

Every Shopify store is constructed with a Shipping profile that includes general prices by default. However, creating shipping records is necessary because it helps merchants in managing shipments and costs, especially for stores that are attracting large numbers of customers from different locations.

Steps to create shipping profiles include:

• Step 1: Access “Settings” and select the “Shipping and delivery” category
• Step 2: Right in the “Custom shipping fee” section, select “Create new profile”

• Step 3: In the “Name” box, type the profile’s name. Then, tap “Add products” to add the product to your shipping profile and tap “Done”

By following the steps mentioned above, you will be able to create your custom Shipping profile.

Set Up Shipping Zones

Shipping zones are groups of countries or regions with similar shipping rates. Additionally, setting up shipping zones involves creating shipping information for the countries where you want to sell your products. That means, only customers within your shipping area can buy and receive goods.

For example, if you have a warehouse in the United States, you can create a shipping zone that includes all states. All customers within that specific area will be able to purchase your product and be charged the same shipping fee.

To create a Shipping Zone, you’ll need to do the following:

• Step 1: Right in the “Create shipping profile” category, scroll down to the “Shipping zones” section. Click “Create zone”

• Step 2: Create a shipping zone name and select your desired country and region. Click “Done”

Set Up Shipping Prices

Once your profile and shipping zones are completely set up, you’ll get to the step of creating appropriate shipping rates for each zone. As mentioned in this article, you will be able to set up three different types of shipping costs, including flat shipping rates, calculated shipping rates, and free shipping rates. More specifically, please follow these steps:

Create Flat Shipping Prices

• Step 1: Right in the “Shipping zones” category that you just set up, select “Add rate”

• Step 2: Enter your name and the amount you want.
• Step 3: If you want to give shipping costs based on weight or price, tap “Add condition pricing”. For the condition, provide the minimum and maximum values. Next, select “Save” and “Done”.

Create Calculated Shipping Rates

• Step 1: Right in the “Shipping zones” category that you just set up, select “Add rate”
• Step 2: Select “Use carrier or app to calculate rates”

• Step 3: Choose the shipping option for which you wish to apply a calculated fee from the drop-down menu. Select “Save”

Create Free Shipping Costs

• Step 1: Right in the “Shipping zones” category that you just set up, select “Add rate”
• Step 2: Enter “Free Shipping” in the “Rate name” section and set the fee to $0

Of course, you can also optionally add free shipping conditions based on weight or price. To set up this friend function, you will need:

• Click “Add conditional pricing”
• Put in the condition’s lowest and maximum values.

Print Shipping Labels

The good news for Shopify merchants is that it allows you to create and print shipping labels directly from your store. So the final step in setting up your Shopify Shipping is to connect your computer to a desktop or label printer that Shopify supports. The three types of label printers compatible with Shopify Shipping include:

• Dymo LabelWriter 4XL
• Rollo label printer
• Brother QL-111ONWB label printer

To connect to the printer, you only need a few simple steps:

• Step 1: Visit the label printer’s respective website
• Step 2: Download the appropriate driver to your computer
• Step 3: Use USB to connect the printer to the PC

Once you’ve completed this final step, you’re ready to start fulfilling orders through Shopify Shipping.

When To Use A Third-Party Shipping App For Shopify

Although Shopify Shipping supports many useful features for merchants, some businesses that are large in size or have a high amount of inventory will often need to use third-party shipping applications to easier to manage.

Using a third-party shipping app for Shopify can be beneficial in a variety of situations. This depends on your specific needs and the level of customization you require for your ecommerce store. Here are some situations where you might consider using a third-party shipping app:

• Complex shipping rules: If your business requires highly customized shipping rules, such as tiered shipping rates based on order value, weight, or specific product attributes, third-party shipping applications can provide the flexibility to create and deploy these rules.
• Advanced ratio calculation: Third-party applications often provide more advanced ratio calculation options. If you need to integrate with specific carriers or want to provide real-time shipping rates based on a combination of factors, an app can provide more control over the process.
• Multiple carrier integrations: If your business works with multiple carriers, especially those that aren’t directly integrated with Shopify, a third-party app can help you manage and compare prices from multiple carriers in one place.
• International shipping: If you frequently ship internationally, third-party apps can help you manage customs documents, tariffs, and taxes. It can also integrate with carriers that specialize in international shipping.
• Label printing and batch processing: If you need advanced label printing capabilities or want to process and print multiple shipping labels in batches, a third-party shipping app can provide more powerful options than integrated in Shopify.
• Automated stock and inventory management: Some third-party applications offer inventory management and integration with your e-commerce platform. From there you can monitor inventory levels and prevent overselling.

Overall, before choosing a third-party shipping app, you need to make a careful assessment of your specific needs and requirements. Start by looking at features, price, and compatibility with your current setup. Additionally, read user reviews to ensure that the app fits your business goals.

Shopify’s app store offers a variety of shipping apps to choose from, and you can always start with a free trial to check if the app fits your needs.

5 Best Shopify Shipping Apps for Your Store

Shopify Stores offers merchants a range of handy shipping apps to make shipping easier. These apps provide many useful features and tools that simplify your shipping work. You can do everything related to shipping, from automating processes to finding you the cheapest options.

Plus, Shopify’s shipping apps integrate seamlessly with a variety of shipping carriers, so you can access discounted prices and choose the best shipping options for your customers. Here are five popular Shopify Shipping apps that can help you streamline and enhance your shipping and fulfillment processes.

Pirate Ship: CheapARR Shipping

Pirate Ship is a popular Shopify shipping app that aims to make your business process easier. This app is introduced as providing the cheapest UPS and USPS shipping rates on the market.

Additionally, Pirate Ship supports printing carrier labels using any type of desktop or label printer. Although this application provides many useful features and tools, it is completely free to install. This is a huge plus that makes it trusted by many Shopify merchants.

Price: Free

Shippo: Simplified Shipping

Shippo is a great Shopify shipping app that takes care of all your shipping basics. This app is introduced as a tool to seamlessly synchronize Shopify orders so you can stay updated in real time. It gives you access to the best rates from over 40 carriers worldwide including UPS, USPS and FedEx.

Furthermore, Shippo provides merchants with a branded experience by giving them the flexibility to customize pages, emails, and packing slips. In particular, it can help you improve customer experience through a powerful returns feature.

Currently, Shippo is offering two setup pricing: Free for new merchants and $10/month for professional merchants.

Price:

• Free: No monthly subscription fees, no label fees with default carriers, 50-90% off USPS, UPS, DHL Express & FedEx
• $10 (may vary based on your monthly label count): 30-day free trial, all Starter Plan carrier discounts and dedicated support, branded customer experience, and supports 5 users

Post & DHL Shipping

Post & DHL Shipping is the ultimate app for businesses looking to expand their global reach. This app has the ability to simplify your shipping process by generating DHL Paket labels and automatic tracking ID generation.

By installing Post & DHL Shipping for your Shopify store, you will have the opportunity to use additional DHL delivery services. This will help create seamlessness in the ordering and shipping process. As a result, your customers will have a smoother and enhanced shopping experience.

Price: Free

Shiprocket: eCommerce Shipping

Shiprocket is the shipping app that Indian businesses should use on Shopify to automate shipping and fulfill orders worldwide. A Courier Recommendation Engine (CORE), affordable shipping costs, a brand tracking page, real-time order updates sent to customers via email, WhatsApp, and SMS, and other services are all provided by Shiprocket.

Shiprocket provides a common interface that unites over 25 courier partners on a single platform, enabling eCommerce and D2C firms to ship their Shopify purchases. It facilitates SMBs to ship easily in India to 24000+ pin codes and 220+ countries and territories worldwide.

Price:

• Free: Shipping prices start from @Rs 29/500gms (Excluding GST)
• $17/month: Shipping starts @Rs 21/500gms (Excluding GST)
• $34/month: Shipping starts @Rs 20/500gms (Excluding GST)
• $52/month: Shipping starts @Rs 19/500gms (Excluding GST)

Shipping Rates: Shipeasy

Shipping Rates is a Shopify shipping app designed specifically for Shopify merchants. This application applies advanced shipping rules to flexibly customize shipping rates. More specifically, it allows you to tailor costs by customer, supplier, country, size, and carrier.

Shipping Rates works in all countries supported by Shopify, using the preferred currency. Additionally, it can help traders prevent losses by calculating rates using zip code, postal code, and distance.

Along with a professional customer care team and reasonable prices, this app is positively reviewed by many Shopify merchants and is ranked as one of the best Shopify shipping apps.

Price:

• Free: Configure and test in test mode, supports Zoom/Email/Chat
• $9.99/month (or $107.99/year): Zip/Postal code, pricing based on distance, cart total, weight, quantity, and tiered pricing, multi-region support
• $14.99/month (or $161.99/year): All features in the starter plan, product-based pricing (Unlimited Teams), per-product rate, mix/match rate ( Unlimited), price based on customer
• $24.99/month (or $269.99/year): Everything in the smart plan, carrier-based pricing, dimension-based rates, sync product meta fields for dimensions original

Conclusion

In short, Shopify Shipping can be seen as a tool that helps your store differentiate itself from other merchants by simplifying shipping. A seamless shopping experience is not just about how customers interact with your website, it must also include ensuring the process of shipping products to customers is as accurate and smooth as possible.

Integrating feature-rich Shopify Shipping into the Shopify platform has helped ease the stress of handling shipping activities for merchants. Besides, shipping apps added by Shopify act as shipping experts to ensure you get the best benefit for your store revenue.

Hopefully the information about pricing and instructions for setting up Shopify Shipping in this article has helped you have a more general view of this useful tool. Thereby, you can choose the most optimal shipping solution for your Shopify store.