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Troubleshooting shipping

There are two main shipping-related problems you may face: your shipping methods are not showing up at checkout, or shipping rates are higher or lower than expected. In this article, you will find out how to handle common issues. If you don’t find the solution, feel free to contact us.

A shipping method is unavailable at checkout

If a shipping method doesn’t appear at checkout, check if:

In case there are several products in the order, and product-specific shipping methods are used in your store, products may have conflicting shipping methods. If there is no shipping/delivery method that can be applied to all the products in the order, your store will show a warning urging the customer to split their order.

Incorrect shipping rates at checkout

When you use real-time rates from carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, carriers automatically calculate rates based on order weight and dimensions and origin and destination addresses. These rates are displayed at checkout when a customer makes a purchase.

If you think that you get incorrect rates at checkout, check:

  • If the weight of your products is correct.
  • Whether the product has product-specific shipping. Go to Catalog → Products and choose a product you want to troubleshoot. Click on the Shipping & Pickup tab and check shipping settings.
  • Whether you’ve added a shipping markup.
  • If the correct shipping origin is specified in your Ecwid admin.
  • If you’ve connected your store to your own account with a carrier for negotiated automatic rates or if you use our default account with the carrier and receive standard rates.

Free shipping is offered for international shipping

Generally, you can offer free shipping store-wide or for certain products only. If you set up both, product-specific shipping will overwrite your global shipping settings and will be applied to all customer locations.

To check your global shipping settings, go to Shipping & Pickup. Open a method with free shipping rates and check what regions you ship to. If the No limitations option is selected, it means you offer free shipping worldwide.

To check if you set individual product shipping, go to Catalog → Products, click on a product for which you receive unexpected shipping cost at checkout, and go to the Shipping & Pickup tab in the product editing page, then check your settings in the Shipping Rates section. If the Free shipping option is selected, then the product is shipped charge-free worldwide.

If you want to offer free shipping to certain countries and for certain products, add a global shipping method with a $0 rate for your free-shipping destination zone and assign this method to certain products only.

Instead of Flat rate per order a Free shipping method appears at checkout

Product-specific shipping options overwrite global shipping rates. So make sure you haven’t specified free shipping in the product settings. To do so, go to Catalog → Products in your Ecwid admin, click on a product, and go to the Shipping & Pickup tab.

Note that the Fixed rate per item set to $0 and the Free Shipping options in the Shipping & Pickup tab are practically the same. They both will be displayed as Free Shipping at checkout. If you don’t want to use "Fixed rate per item" for a product, you should switch to the "Use your store’s shipping methods" shipping option in the Shipping & Pickup tab of the product editing page.

Instead of Flat rate per order a Flat rate per item appears at checkout

Product-specific shipping options overwrite global shipping rates. So if you set up a fixed per-item fee for a product, it will replace your global shipping settings. In particular, Flat rate per order.

To solve the issue, go to Catalog → Products, select the product and open the Shipping & Pickup tab. Switch from the Fixed rate per item to the Use your store’s shipping methods option there and save the changes.

As a result, your customers will be charged a flat rate per order instead of individual shipping rates.

A free "Shipping & Delivery" method appears at checkout

If you use a shipping app from the Ecwid App Market, a technical issue might occur. For example, an app doesn't return shipping rates. In that case, your Ecwid store will show a free of charge "Shipping & Delivery" shipping method so that your customer can proceed with checkout.

If you see the free "Shipping & Delivery" option in an order's details on the Orders page, contact the buyer to arrange delivery payment before fulfilling the order. You can send a PayPal invoice to the buyer for the sum that covers the shipping costs.

Still have an issue with shipping

If you've checked the shipping settings in your Ecwid admin and still have issues with shipping, send us the following information for troubleshooting:

  1. Origin and destination address.
  2. What shipping rates do you get at checkout?
  3. What rates do you expect to get? Why? What rates do you get in online calculators at your carrier site:
    UPS rates: https://wwwapps.ups.com/calTimeCost
    USPS rates: https://postcalc.usps.com/
    FedEx: https://www.fedex.com/ratefinder/home
    Canada Post: https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1
    Australia Post: https://auspost.com.au/parcels-mail/calculate-postage-delivery-times/#/
  4. What products do you get rates for? Please send links to them.
    Also, any screenshot or step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce the issue would be helpful. We will investigate the issue.
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