Determining the shipping costs for your online listings can seem like a complicated process, but many resources available through Pirate Ship help make things much more smooth-sailing!

In this scenario, we'll use an example shipment to illustrate how to determine what to charge your customers when shipping with USPS!
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First, you should start by finding the best USPS shipping service that works for your package. Our handy Rates Calculator is a quick and easy tool that helps you see a full list of service options and rates for packages of all types and sizes, including international shipments 👍

The Rates Calculator does require a ZIP code to get a quote (or just the country name, if shipping internationally). If you don't know where you're shipping to yet, you can enter any ZIP code, just to see what kind of service options are available.

In the example below, we're shipping a 6x5x5" box weighing 12 ounces, so we randomly chose ZIP codes for Los Angeles and New York:

Next, we'll click on the See shipping rates button to see our eligible services:

It looks like USPS Ground Advantage® is the cheapest way to send this particular shipment...but that's the cost to ship it all the way across the country! Of course, your business may be shipping off different-sized packages here, there, and everywhere in between 😉

In cases of sending a single package, the best way to determine what to charge your customers is to use our Rates Calculator to get an accurate quote for your shipment.

If you're sending batches of the same package, you can head over to Pirate Ship's master document of all USPS shipping rates. Once you find the shipping service you'd like to use, click on the "View Rates" link next to the service's name.

When determining what to charge for shipping, we recommend going off of the yellow National Averages column! This will give you a reasonable rate to charge your customers, and these costs will even out the more you ship all over the country.

After that, if you'd like to figure out the rates for different packages, simply follow the same steps above for each type of package you plan to ship.

UPS doesn't publish a master rates spreadsheet the same way USPS does, so there isn't any documentation you can rely on to set your own shipping prices with UPS 🙈

That said, we suggest relying on our easy Rates Calculator! You can try plugging in a few different destinations for your packages, so you can see what kind of prices UPS returns for you. You should be able to come up with a ballpark figure from there...but if you'd still like an additional hook, we're always here to help 😎

Hitting rough waters? Be sure to chat with us if you have any more questions!