Real-time rates from carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.)
You can give your customers real-time carrier rates at checkout by connecting your online store with a carrier company such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, Australia Post, Canada Post, etc. Shipping rates are calculated in real-time based on the order weight, parcel or product dimensions, origin and delivery address.
Watch a video about setting up carrier calculated shipping in Ecwid:
Real-time rates from integrated carriers
Ecwid has a built-in integration with the following carrier companies to automatically show their shipping rates for customers’ orders at checkout:
- UPS
- USPS
- FedEx
- Canada Post
- Royal Mail
- Brasil Correios
- MDS Collivery
- Australia Post
- EMS Russian Post
Adding real-time rates shipping
To enable the automatically calculated rates in your store:
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Click Add Shipping Method.
- 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.
- In the Ecwid iOS app, go to Store → Shipping and Pickup.
- Click Add Shipping Method.
- 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.
- In the Ecwid Android app, go to Store → Shipping and Pickup.
- Click Add Shipping Method.
- 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 “World” destination zone will be applied to an enabled shipping method, it means that buyers from any location can place orders. Also popular shipping options of a carrier will be pre-enabled (for example, USPS First-Class Mail®, USPS Priority Mail™, etc). 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:
- 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.
- In the Ecwid iOS app, go to Store → Shipping and 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.
- In the Ecwid Android app, go to Store → Shipping and 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:
- Click Actions → Edit next to the set carrier-calculated option.
- Select a destination zone from the Shipping region drop-down under the Shipping settings block.
- Click Save.
You can also display the approximate delivery date for your customers at checkout. When it comes to shipping, people want to know when they will receive their order. A specific delivery date at checkout gives your buyers a better customer experience — they can clearly understand when to expect to receive their order, resulting in a higher number of successful sales.
Showing an approximate delivery date at checkout
To display the approximate delivery date next to delivery options at checkout:
- Enable Show approximate delivery date at checkout toggle.
- In the Order preparation time 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 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 have different sizes and weights, you can specify their dimensional weight to receive more accurate real-time rates from the carriers at checkout.
To add the product dimensions:
- From your Ecwid 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 used to calculate 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 Ecwid 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 dimensions.
- 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 may want to slightly increase shipping rates to be compensated for the postage or any other expenses related to order fulfillment. You can adjust the automatic rates of carrier-calculated shipping methods with the help of the Shipping markup option. The fee will be included in the shipping rate provided by the carrier company.
To add a markup to a carrier-calculated shipping method:
- From your Ecwid 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 the location from where you ship your orders. It is used by integrated carriers as a ship-from address for calculating real-time shipping rates to deliver orders to buyers’ locations. Shipping origin is automatically created from the Company Address specified in the Settings → General → Store Profile section in your Ecwid admin at the initial store set up. Make sure that the right address is entered there.
If you are shipping products from another place, specify that address as your shipping origin to receive precise shipping quotes from the carrier enabled in your store.
To edit the Shipping Origin address (if it is different from your company address):
- From your Ecwid admin, go to Shipping & Pickup.
- Under the Settings block find the Shipping Origin section.
- Click Change Address.
- Select the option I ship orders from a warehouse or another location and edit the address.
- Click Submit to save the changes.
Integration with other carriers
Some shipping services are integrated with Ecwid in the form of apps in the Ecwid app market:
- Sendle (Australia)
- Boxberry
- DHL Express
- Correos (Chile)
- Droppa (South Africa)
You can also get the rates from your carrier's website and set up a table with your carrier rates in your Ecwid 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 Ecwid yet, you can opt for a custom integration, based on the Ecwid Shipping API (access to the Ecwid API is available on all paid Ecwid plans). This functionality will work in the form of an application installed into your Ecwid admin that will connect your store to the new shipping company to provide the real-time shipping methods and rates at checkout.
Related articles:
Sorting delivery options at checkout
Shipping labels
Tracking numbers