Determining the shipping costs for your online listings can seem complicated, but many resources available through Pirate Ship help make things much more smooth-sailing!
Determining how much to charge your customers for shipping
Find the best USPS service: First, 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 👍
Using our Rates Calculator: Our Rates Calculator requires 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.
An example shipment
In this scenario, we'll use an example shipment to illustrate how to determine what to charge your customers when shipping with USPS!
Shipment example: In the example below, we're shipping a 6x5x5" box weighing 12 ounces, and we randomly chose ZIP codes for Los Angeles and New York:
Click the "See shipping rates" button: Next, we'll click the See shipping rates button to see all of our eligible services for this shipment.
Here's how that looks:
Ground Advantage is cheapest: It looks like USPS Ground Advantage® is the cheapest way to send this particular shipment...but that's the cost to ship it across the country!
Charging for shipping: Based on the above example, if you ship with Ground Advantage, it's a good bet to charge your customers $5.80 (or around there) for shipping
Of course, your business may be shipping off different-sized packages here, there, and everywhere in between 😉 Other services may be cheaper, depending on where you're shipping. Our Rates Calculator will always show you all services, including the cheapest one.
Single packages vs. batch shipments
If you're sending a single shipment or multiple packages, we suggest different processes for determining what to charge your customers for shipping.
For single packages: 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.
For batch shipments: 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.
Use the National Averages: When determining what to charge for shipping, we recommend going off 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.
Repeat the process: 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.
What if I ship with UPS®?
UPS doesn't have a master spreadsheet: 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 shipping prices with UPS 🙈
Use our Rates Calculator: To see how much shipping will cost, 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.
After getting a few quotes, you should be able to come up with a ballpark figure...but if you'd still like an additional hook, we're always here to help 😎
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