Pirate Ship is not a shopping cart plugin. We're simply the cheapest way to buy a shipping label after you have a completed order. We don’t display shipping costs on your website to your potential customers; we’re more of a backend app 😉
If you’d like to display shipping rates to your customers, here are some options you may find useful:
Option 1: Purchase a Weight-Based Shipping Calculator Plugin
Shopping Cart Plugins: Every eCommerce platform has an app store where you can purchase a weight-based shipping calculator (except for marketplaces like eBay and Etsy). Your customers will then see these rates and pay for them when they check out.
These plugins typically display higher shipping rates than you’ll see on Pirate Ship, since we offer the deepest discounts on the seven seas! You can pocket the difference, or use the extra booty to cover operational costs like packaging 😎
Option 2: Offer "Free" Shipping
Free Shipping for Higher Conversions: As small business owners ourselves, we saw higher conversion rates if we offered "free" shipping.
You can offer free shipping by calculating the average cost for shipping an item and adding a fixed shipping cost based on that average.
Option 3: Manually Set Up a Rates and Zone-Based Shipping Calculator
Setting Up a Calculator (Not Recommended): The third option to display your exact shipping costs to your users is to set up a rate and zone-based shipping calculator. We don’t recommend this option, because of the time it takes to set up and maintain.
USPS and UPS change their prices every year, and you would need to implement these changes to continue displaying accurate rates every time they change.
That said, if you’re up to the task, setting up a rate and zone-based calculator is the best way to have the most control over your customer’s shipping costs 👍
Helpful Resources: If you plan on setting up a calculator, you can find the most up-to-date USPS Commercial Pricing rates here. We’ve also included some resources that might point you in the right direction for the following integrations:
Spreadsheets & Integrations: When you're ready to ship, you can easily export orders from your eCommerce site and drag and drop a spreadsheet into Pirate Ship, or use one of our awesome integrations!
Chat with us if you need help getting sailing!
Waters feeling a bit murky, Matey? No problem at all - click the blue icon to chat with ARRrrr Support Crew if you have any more questions 😃