Shopify has access to heavily discounted shipping rates through their carrier partners. Depending on the carrier, your Shopify plan and whether the shipment is domestic or international, you can see savings of up to almost 80%. That’s a significant discount to pass along to your customers, and a good way to mitigate the risk of cart abandonment because of shipping costs.
Shopify does not make its carrier account credentials available to third-party developers, so Intuitive Shipping is unable to access Shopify’s discounted rates. If your shipping strategy has exceeded the limits of Shopify’s native shipping features and you’ve made Intuitive Shipping part of your shipping strategy, you can still take advantage of Shopify’s shipping discounts at fulfillment and use Intuitive Shipping to simulate the discounts your customers have been enjoying at checkout.
If you would like to simulate Shopify shipping discounts using existing Scenarios and Shipping Methods, skip ahead to Add A Discount To An Existing Live Rate Shipping Method.
To learn how to add a new Live Rate Shipping Method that simulates Shopify’s discounts, continue reading.
We recommend that you understand how to create a Shipping Scenario and a live rate Shipping Method before setting up your discounted rates.
Add A Live Rate Shipping Method With A Discount
Shopify’s carrier discount percentage can vary depending on whether the shipment is Domestic or International, so you may need to set up discounted Shipping Methods in both your domestic and international shipping zones.
Discounts can also vary by carrier. If you plan to offer live rates from multiple discounted carriers, we recommend creating separate Shipping Methods for each carrier and shipping type – e.g. UPS Domestic, UPS International, Canada Post Domestic, Canada Post International, etc.
1) Click Shipping on the main menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.
2) Click Edit beside an existing Shipping Scenario or add a new one.
3) Set Visibility to On.
When Visibility is set to Off, Shipping Methods from this Scenario will only be visible when you use the customer name ‘Intuitive Shipping’ at checkout. Learn more about Visibility settings here.
4) Add or adjust any existing Conditions as needed.
Learn about assigning Conditions here.
Add A Discounted Shipping Method
1) In the Shipping Methods section, click Add Shipping Method beside a Shipping Zone that qualifies for discounted shipping rates.
Shipping Zones are created in your Shopify Settings and synced with Intuitive Shipping. To learn how to adjust your Shipping Zones, click here.
2) Enter a Title for your shipping method – e.g. UPS Domestic.
3) Check the box ‘Use The Carrier Delivery Method Title‘ below the Title field. This is especially important if you plan to offer more than one carrier Delivery Method – e.g. Ground, 2nd Day Air, Next Day Air, etc.
4) If desired, complete the optional Display Settings – Service Code, Delivery Time and Description.
Select The Shipping Calculation Method
1) In the Calculate Shipping Based On section, choose one of Shopify’s discounted rates partners from the Live Rates section of the drop-down list – e.g. UPS.
For a list of all Shipping Carriers supported by Intuitive Shipping, click here. Intuitive Shipping has integrations with all of Shopify’s discounted carrier partners.
Enter the Shipping Origin Address
1) In the Ship From Location section, select whether you want the shipping origin location to be your default Shopify location or a unique location.
2) If you selected Define a custom ship from location in Step 1, the Custom Ship From Location section will appear on the screen. Complete this section as required.
Select the Delivery Method
1) In the Delivery Methods section, choose how the Delivery Methods you select will be returned.
Learn more about the returned Delivery Methods setting here.
2) Check the box beside each carrier Delivery Method you would like returned at checkout.
Select either the Domestic Delivery or Cross-Border Delivery that you would like to be offered to customers at checkout. We recommend creating separate Shipping Methods for Domestic and International customers for this setup, since the amount of discount Shopify offers may be different.
The section headings for the Delivery service types may vary depending on the carrier you selected earlier.
3) If desired, add a Carrier Service Fallback Rate (Optional).
Learn more about how the Fallback Rate works here.
Enter Package Details
1) In the Packages section, select how you would like your packages to be split.
Learn more about how Split Packages settings work here.
Carrier Settings (Optional)
1) If you have set up your own account with the carrier, add your Carrier Account Details. This will link your account, allowing Intuitive Shipping to access and return your negotiated rates.
For example, if you selected UPS, obtain your account credentials from your UPS account, then copy and paste your User ID, API password, UPS Account number and XML Access Key into Intuitive Shipping.
Carrier account credential requirements vary by carrier. Settings fields will be different depending on which carrier you selected.
For most carriers – including those with whom Shopify offers discounted shipping rates – an account is not required to use Intuitive Shipping. If you do not have a carrier account, leave the Account Details blank. Returned shipping rates (before discount) will be based on the carrier’s standard, retail rates.
Set The Discount
1) In the Adjust Final Shipping Cost section, add a Mark Down as a negative percentage – e.g. if the discount is 26%, add ’-26%’ to the ‘Mark Up/ Mark Down’ field.
Learn more about Shopify’s discounted shipping rates and see examples of their discounts here.
Shopify’s discounts are based on the carrier’s standard Retail rates.
That means, if they indicate the discount is up to 15%, their shipping rate is up to 15% lower than the carrier’s standard rate. You may need to adjust the discount depending on your Shopify plan and other factors.
2) If desired, make other cost adjustments.
Learn more about adjusting the final shipping cost here.
Other Optional Settings
1) If desired, set a Free Shipping threshold for your discounted Shipping Method. Learn more about this setting here.
2) If any of your products have custom Shipping Charges, select how Per Product Custom Shipping Charges will be blended with your discounted Shipping Method. Learn more about this setting here.
3) If your discounted Shipping Method will be part of a Live Rate Combined Shipping Method, add a Shipping Tag. Learn more about this setting here.
Save Your Settings
Click the Save button!
Add More Shipping Methods
1) Repeat all of the steps above for each additional discounted Shipping Method.
Add A Discount To An Existing Live Rate Shipping Method
Shopify’s carrier discount percentage can vary depending on whether the shipment is Domestic or International, so you may need to set up discounts in existing Shipping Methods in both your domestic and international shipping zones.
Discounts can also vary by carrier. If you plan to offer live rates from multiple discounted carriers, we recommend adding additional, separate Shipping Methods for each carrier and shipping type – e.g. UPS Domestic, UPS International, Canada Post Domestic, Canada Post International, etc.
If you need to set up new discounted Shipping Methods after adding the discount to an existing Shipping Method, return to the top of this guide and follow the steps.
1) Click Shipping on the main menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.
2) Click Edit beside an existing Shipping Scenario.
3) Scroll down to the Shipping Methods section.
4) Click Edit beside the existing Live Rate Shipping Method you want to discount.
5) Scroll down to the Adjust Final Shipping Cost (Optional) section.
6) Under Mark Up/ Mark Down, add a mark down as a negative percentage – e.g. if the discount is 26%, add ’-26%’ to the ‘Mark Up/ Mark Down’ field.
Learn more about Shopify’s discounted shipping rates and see examples of their discounts here.
Shopify’s discounts are based on the carrier’s standard Retail rates.
That means, if they indicate the discount is up to 15%, their shipping rate is up to 15% lower than the carrier’s standard rate. You may need to adjust the discount depending on your Shopify plan and other factors.
Save Your Settings
Click the Save button!
Edit More Shipping Methods
1) Repeat all of the steps to Add A Discount To An Existing Live Rate Shipping Method for each additional Shipping Method you want to have a discount.
Adjust Discounts
If you find the discounts don’t closely match what you are seeing at fulfillment when you print your labels, edit the Shipping Method by adjusting the discount percentage entered in Step 1 of Set The Discount.