How to Set Up UPS Rates in Shopify Advanced Shipping Calculator?
GENERAL
ADVANCED SHIPPING SETTINGS
SHIPPING PROFILE & ZONES
SHIPPING RULE/RATE SETUP
SHIPPING RULE/RATE SETUP USING CARRIER RATES INTEGRATION
SHIPPING RULES IMPORT/EXPORT FUNCTIONALITY
MERGING MULTIPLE SHIPPING RULES
PRODUCT DIMENSIONS SETUP
HISTORY/AUDIT TRAIL
COMMON ISSUES & FAQs
How to Set Up UPS Rates in Shopify Advanced Shipping Calculator?
Requirements to Integrate UPS
- a UPS account (number)
- Client ID
- Client Secret Key
How to Get a UPS Account
If you don’t have a UPS account yet, go to www.ups.com and click the Sign Up link. You will then have to fill out the form and complete the steps to create an account.
How to Get the Client ID and Client Secret Key
Once you have your account created, the next step is to get the Client ID and Client Secret Key. To do this you need to go to https://developer.ups.com. If you are not logged in yet, click the “Log In” button and log in using the same credentials you used to create your UPS account.
Once logged in, click the “Create Application” button then “Add Apps”.
Under “I need API credentials because *”, select “I want to integrate with UPS technology to represent many users” as seen on the screenshot below.
Then under “Choose an account to associate with these credentials. *”, select your UPS account. Make sure to put a checkmark under “I agree…” then click “Next” button.
The next page will ask for primary contact information. Fill out the needed info and hit the “Next” button.
The next page will ask you to fill in the App details. Under App Name*, enter ShopDoctors Shipping. Leave the Callback URL blank.
Under Products Included In This App *, make sure you have added “Authorization (OAuth)” and “Rating”. Authorization (OAuth) is automatically added, however if it’s not added, add it by clicking the + icon on the right side of Authorization (OAuth). On the search box, search for “Rating” API then click the + icon to add it. Once “Authorization (OAuth)” and “Rating” APIs are added, click the “Save” button.
On the next page, you will be presented with your Client ID and Client Secret Key which you will use to integrate your UPS account to our app. To copy your Client ID and Client Secret, you can click the clipboard icon. If you want to see your Client ID/Secret, click the eye icon to unhide them.
How to Integrate UPS account to our App?
Under Advanced Shipping Calculator homepage, click the “Advanced Shipping Settings” button.
Scroll down to the Carrier Service Setup section and click the + icon to expand the section for UPS US. If you are using a UPS account set up in a different country, then select the appropriate country. For example if you have a UPS Canada account, select UPS CA.
Copy the Client ID from UPS and paste it in the Client ID field. Then Copy and paste the Client Secret Key in the Client Secret Key field. Enter your UPS account under the Account Number field. Optionally, you can put a checkmark to enable if you have negotiated rates with UPS or if you want to enable residential address indicator. Lastly, click the “Verify API” button after. If the integration is successful, you will get a message confirming that the validation is successful. You will also see “Active” under “Integration Status”.
If the validation fails, you will see an “Authorization failed” message. Make sure you have followed the steps to get your Client ID/Key and you have entered them correctly.
Create UPS Shipping Rule
The first step is to create a shipping rule in the shipping zone or destination in which you want to set up a carrier rate. In this example, we want to set up UPS carrier rates for US customers. So I head to my US shipping zone and click on the “Add Shipping Rule” button.
Shipping Rule General Section
Next, assign a shipping rate name for this rate. Note that for third-party carrier rates such as UPS, USPS, Fedex and others, we will display the carrier’s service rate name to the customers instead of the assigned shipping rate name in the shipping rule. For this example, I will name the shipping rule UPS. Then fill out the rest of the General section such as the status, internal notes and unit/currency selection. For example, if you will be using cart total weight as your condition and you want to use kg, then you can change the unit under Unit Weight Selected. Or if you are configuring a shipping rule for Europe and you want to enter the amounts in Euro currency, then you can change it in the Currency field. To know more, you can check out our Anatomy of Shipping Rules and Rates article.
Under the General section, you will see the section to set estimated delivery business days and description. You can skip these fields since there is a separate field for setting estimated delivery business days for carrier integration.
Shipping Rule Location Section
The next section is the Location. Here, you can include or exclude specific countries, states, regions, or postal/zip codes. For now, we’ll include All in this shipping rule.
Shipping Rule Conditions Section
Next, you need to set your Conditions. Conditions will determine whether the shipping rule will be displayed to the customer on the cart or checkout page. You can choose to have 1 condition only, or you can add multiple conditions.
To keep it simple, we’ll set the USPS carrier rates to appear when a customer’s cart total before shipping is greater than or equal to $50.
Shipping Rule Shipping Rate Section
Then, in the shipping rate calculation section, under Select Rate Type, choose UPS US.
Under “Services by Carrier, select one of the options below. Depending on the number of services you include in your configuration (UPS Ground, UPS Next Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air etc.), you can either opt to show all those services to customers, or show only the highest or the lowest rate.
Next, select the list of services you want included under Domestic & International Services. In this example, I will only select UPS Ground, UPS Next Day Air and UPS 2nd Day Air.
Optionally, you can also set the estimated delivery days and description for each service by clicking the “Set Estimated Delivery Days & Description” button.
Next, if you want to charge a handling fee, you can do so as a Fixed Amount or Percentage. If you choose Percentage as the Value Format, that means that we will add an x% of the returned rate by the carrier. For example, if you set 5% as the handling fee, if the carrier returned a rate of $20, we will add 5% of the $20 as the handling fee ($1), so the shipping rate that will be displayed to the customer is $21 ($20 carrier rate + $1 handling fee).
Packing Method
The next step is to select your Packing Method. There are 2 methods to choose from:
1.Pack all items in one box/package
2.Pack by cart attributes.
Pack all items in one box/package
As the name suggests, Pack all items in one box/package will pack all items in the order/cart into one box. If you select this option, you will have to provide your box dimensions, and you have the option to set an empty box weight.
Pack by cart attributes
If you select Pack by cart attributes, you can choose how the app will decide to pack the items in the cart either by Cart Quantity, Cart Total, Cart Weight or Cart Volume.
Cart Quantity will find the most optimal box to package the order into based on the customer’s cart quantity.
Let’s take an example where you have a box with max quantity limit of 2, another with max limit of 5 and another with max quantity of 10.
If a customer’s cart has 2-quantity, then we will provide the box size (8x4x4) with the max of 2-items limit to UPS.
If a customer’s cart has 4-quantities, then we will provide the 8x6x4 box size to UPS since it has a max limit of 5.
If a customer’s cart has 11-quantities, this will result in 2 packages/box sizes (8x8x4 and 8x4x4) that will be sent to UPS.
Cart Total functions the same way as Cart Quantity except that we will base it on the cart’s dollar amount and not quantity. Note that Cart Total is before shipping/taxes and any discounts applied.
For example, you have a box with max total limit of $75, another with max limit of $150 and another with max total limit of $300.
If a customer’s cart total is $50, then we will provide the box size (8x4x4) to UPS.
If a customer’s cart total is $200, then we will provide the 8x8x4 box size to UPS.
If a customer’s cart total is $400, this will result in 2 packages/box sizes (8x6x4 and 8x8x4) that will be sent to UPS.
Cart Weight functions the same way as Cart Quantity except that we will base it on the cart’s dollar amount and not quantity. Note that Cart Total is before shipping/taxes and any discounts applied.
Cart Volume on the other hand, uses an algorithm to pack items based on volume. At a high level, the algorithm works by:
- Packing largest (by volume) items first
- Packing vertically up the side of the box
- Packing side-by-side where item under consideration fits alongside the previous item
- If more than 1 box is needed to accommodate all of the items, then aim for boxes of roughly equal weight (e.g. 3 medium size/weight boxes are better than 1 small light box and 2 that are large and heavy)
For Cart Volume, you have the option to reduce the size of the box for padding. In this sample screenshot, we will reduce 0.2 inches on each side (length, width, height) of the box for padding when packing the items.
After configuring your Packing Method, you can optionally configure a Carrier Backup Rate. In cases where the carrier did not return any rate due to some errors like an outage on the carrier’s end, we will display this backup rate to the customer instead.
Shipping Rule Merge Tag
Merging rates are not available in carrier-configured shipping rules. This is because a carrier-configured shipping rule can return two or more rates unlike a tier-based or incremental rate shipping rules which always return just one rate.
Shipping Rule Additional Features
The last section is the Additional Features where you can select to apply this rule to ALL or specific Ship From Locations only. You can also schedule the start and/or end time of your shipping rule.
Once you’re done configuring your shipping rule, click the “Save” button located on the right upper part of the page.
Important Things to Remember
- When creating carrier rates shipping rules, make sure you have added weights and dimensions on each of your products. For instructions on how to add product dimensions, you can refer to our How to add product dimensions (manual and using import tool) article.
- If you set the estimated delivery dates and added description, make sure you have Show Shipping Rate ETA (days) and Show Shipping Rate Description enabled under Cart Summary.
