• What your customer sees.
• What you see.
• Updating products with the Import CSV utility.
• Shipping with FreightDesk Online

You must have the Third-party calculated shipping rates feature on your Shopify plan to have live carrier quotes displayed in the checkout process. It is standard on the Shopify Advanced plan and can be added to other Shopify plans by calling Shopify Customer Service at 888-746-7439. (Learn more)

Navigate to the Settings>Shipping page. Click on the Manage rates link for the General shipping rates in the Rates at checkout section.

In the General shipping profile, locate the shipping origin from which you want the app to provide quotes.

If the only shipping zone you have is Rest of world, click on the Create shipping zone link and then enter a zone name (i.e. “Domestic”).

Locate the shipping zone for which you want to app to provide quotes. Click the Add rate button.

Select the option Use carrier or app to calculate rates.

It may take a moment for Shopify to retrieve the list of apps capable of providing shipping quotes for your store. After it has, the appearance of the Add rate page will be similar to the image below. Perform the following actions:

1. Select the app from the drop down list.
2. Enable the Services are selected in the app preferences setting. If this setting isn’t available to enable, don’t be concerned. Click the Done button at the bottom of the page and continue on to the next step.
3. Click the Done button at the bottom of the page.

Repeat the steps above to enable the app for any other shipping zone. You should only enable the app in shipping zones that the app is capable of returning quotes for. Unishippers originates service in the United States only. Keep this in mind when you identify your warehouse and drop ship locations in Step 4 of these instructions.

Begin by selecting Apps from the Shopify menu. Locate the entry for the Unishippers Small Package Quotes app and click on the app name to access the app preferences.

The Plans page is used to confirm the plan you are currently subscribed to, see the features offered on each plan, and to perform upgrades or downgrades according to your needs. The plan you’re currently subscribed to will have This is your current plan above the monthly subscription rate. To change plans, click on the desired plan’s monthly subscription rate. You must be signed into Shopify with the Store Owner credentials to change plans.

Note: Unishippers originates service in the United States only. If you have warehouse or drop ship locations located in other countries, you need to also install one of our apps that supports service from that country.

You can choose to use the app’s warehouse and drop ship functionality, or Shopify’s Locations feature to determine the shipment origins for orders placed on your store. Make your selection using the drop-down field labeled, How will your shipment origins be identified?

If you ship from only one location, it doesn’t matter which option you choose. However, your decision will matter if you ship from more than one location.

The app’s functionality assumes than an unlimited amount of inventory is available from each stocking location. The app has two types of stocking locations: warehouses and drop ship locations. If multiple warehouses exist, the one closest to the ship-to address is used as the ship-from location. This approach minimizes the estimated shipping costs and, if you have the setting enabled, presents your shopper with quicker estimated delivery dates. When an item is assigned to a drop ship location, it always ships from there.

Shopify Locations introduces the ability to do inventory tracking at multiple locations. Shopify Locations may be a good option for you if:

Be aware that Shopify’s selection of the ship-from location isn’t influenced by its proximity to the ship-to address. Instead, you’ll list your locations in the order in which you want Shopify to look for available inventory. Once Shopify finds it, that location (or locations) becomes the ship-from address even if the next one on your list is across the street from the ship-to address and has enough inventory to fulfill the order. To get a better understanding of how Shopify Locations identifies the ship-from location, look over the example in Shopify’s Help Center.

If you choose to use Shopify Locations, you’ll lose visibility to how the app built the shipping quote when Shopify determines that more than one location is needed to fulfill the order. This occurs because Shopify makes individual shipping rate requests for each location and doesn’t provide enough information to relate each of them back to the same order. The section in this document titled, What you see, has examples of the information normally captured with an order. This information will be missing when Shopify Locations is used, and more than one location is used to fulfill the order.

Click the Add button in the appropriate sections to add warehouse and drop ship locations. Warehouses should have a complete inventory of all products not otherwise assigned to a drop ship location. If you have more than one warehouse defined, the warehouse closest to the shopper will be used to retrieve shipping rate estimates.

Drop ship locations usually represent vendors that supply items that you don’t inventory. These items are shipped directly to your customer on your behalf. An item can be assigned to only one drop ship location. Items not assigned to a drop ship location are assumed to ship from your warehouse(s).

When an order will ship from more than one stocking location (e.g. warehouse and drop ship locations or more than one drop ship location) a single figure will display for the shipping rate estimate labeled “Shipping”. The amount of the quote will be equal to the sum of the cheapest shipping option for each location.

A best practice is to define at least one warehouse, even if all your products are drop shipped. If all your products are drop shipped (you have no warehouses), make the highest volume drop ship location a warehouse. This ensures that shipping rate estimates will still be returned in the event a product was added to your catalog and its drop ship location wasn’t identified.

The locations you identified in Shopify will be displayed on the page when you select Shopify Locations from the How will your shipment origins be identified? drop down. Any changes to your locations will need to be made in Shopify. If you are on the app’s ADVANCED plan you can use the Edit link to enable and manage your in-store pickup and local delivery settings.

The Advanced Plan is required to use this feature. If you aren’t on the Advanced Plan the words Advanced plan required will appear adjacent to the settings header, and the fields associated with the feature will be inaccessible.

Click on the text Advanced plan required to upgrade your plan and gain access to the feature. You must be signed into Shopify with the Store Owner credentials to perform the upgrade.

In-store pick up can be offered as an option in the checkout process based the shopper’s postal code or proximity. It will only be offered if the feature is enabled and only one stocking location (warehouse or drop ship location) is involved in providing a quote. The settings for In-store pick up are visible on the page used to add or edit a warehouse or drop ship location.

The Advanced Plan is required to use this feature. If you aren’t on the Advanced Plan the words Advanced plan required will appear adjacent to the settings header, and the fields associated with the feature will be inaccessible.

Click on the text Advanced plan required to upgrade your plan and gain access to the feature. You must be signed into Shopify with the Store Owner credentials to perform the upgrade.

Local delivery can be offered as an option in the checkout process based the shopper’s postal code or proximity. It will only be offered if the feature is enabled and only one stocking location (warehouse or drop ship location) is involved in providing a quote. Local delivery can display as a free option or have a charge associated with it. Other shipping options provided by the app can be suppressed when local delivery is to be offered. The settings for Local delivery are visible on the page used to add or edit a warehouse or drop ship location.

On this page you’ll choose the settings that will affect every Small Package Quote your shopper sees. Enter the information prompted for, and then click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the page. This will conclude the application setup. Next you’ll identify which of your products will ship small package (parcel) and enter the corresponding shipment parameters.

The Box Sizes tab allows you to identify your standard box sizes you use. They are used to calculate a packaging solution that mirrors what should occur during order fulfillment. Enabling this feature will result in a charge of 3 cents per calculation. We highly recommend this feature if your operation uses standard box sizes. Identifying your box sizes ensures that your customers will receive the most accurate rates possible. The packaging solution is saved with the order so it can be viewed while the order is being packed.

Example of packaging solution graphic
The packaging solution is accessed from the Order Details page. It provides an illustration of the final solution, and step by step illustrations on how each item should be oriented and placed in the box.

If you decide not to use this feature the app will use a free proprietary algorithm that assumes that an infinite number of box sizes are available and identifies what can be thought of as an optimal packaging solution. This is a suitable alternative for companies that don’t inventory standard box sizes, aren’t participating in the FedEx One Rate program, and can still be subject to dimensional weight rules. If you will be relying on the optimal packaging solution algorithm you can skip to the next section of the user’s guide.

To add a box that you inventory for shipping purposes, click on the Add Box button on the Box Sizes tab. You’ll be presented with a form to to use to define the box.

If you also have one of Eniture Technology’s LTL Freight Quotes apps installed, it will use the Freight Class and Weight entered on the Product Shipping Parameters page when an LTL freight quote will be returned. However, if the Freight Class is set to Density Based (and the Item ships as multiple packages setting is enabled), then a freight class for the item will be calculated using the weight and dimensions of the boxes entered here.

Now that the application settings have been established, it’s time enter the product settings. Repeat these instructions for every product that you want the app to provide shipping rate estimates for. Select Products from the Shopify menu. Locate the product on the list and choose it by clicking on it. You’ll be delivered to the product’s details page. Click on the More actions button located at the top right hand corner of the page and select the app.

You’ll be delivered to a page on which you’ll enter the product’s weight and dimensions. Enter the information prompted for, and then click the Save & Return button at the bottom of the page to return to the product’s Shopify product details page.

The image above and the instructions below are for a single product. If you have product variants, each variant will have its own settings. When product variants are present, copy buttons will appear. Use the buttons to copy the settings of the first product variant to the remaining product variants. Afterwards the product variant settings may still be edited. The copy buttons are provided to eliminate the entry of redundant data.

Once you’ve completed the preceding steps, your Shopify store is ready to begin displaying shipping rate estimates to your shoppers. To ensure the best possible outcome, it’s highly recommended that weight and dimensions be entered for every product you sell.The exact presentation of the rates in the checkout process will depend on the options selected in the Quote Settings. The illustration below shows an example with multiple service options enabled.

The app populates shipping related information in the Additional details widget on the Order Details page. The content varies on whether or not the optional Standard Box Sizes feature is enabled. Content falls into two categories: 1) Shipment Origin & Services; and 2) Shipment Content.

Shipment Origin & Services

This information block will identify the shipment origin, the selected carrier service and a list of any additional services (such as residential delivery) associated with the shipment. A separate Shipment Origin & Services information block will appear for each shipping location that will participate in fulfilling the order. This is particularly useful for stores with multiple warehouses and drop ship locations.

Shipment Content

A Shipment Content information block is presented beneath each Shipment Origin & Services information block. It identifies the products that will ship from that location.

If the optional Standard Box Sizes feature is enabled, a separate Shipment Content information block will be present for each box in the shipment. Each information block will identify the box’s nickname, its dimensions and its contents. This information is available graphically by clicking on the More Actions button at the top of the Order Detail page and selecting the Packaging Solution option.

A graphic will be presented illustrating the packaging solution. Each box will have an illustration of it fully packed and step by step illustrations on how each item should be placed in the box.

1. How capture the cost of shipping on orders placed online.
2. How to ship the order, including how to create the shipping label (or Bill Of Lading in the case of LTL freight), schedule the carrier to pick up the shipment, and update the customer with the tracking number.

Quoting apps, like this one, provide a solution for the first challenge. What are your options for the second challenge?

Option 1 – The carrier’s website: You can log into the carrier’s website and manually enter all of the relevant information. Carrier websites are free to use since the carrier makes money when you use them to deliver an order. However, if you have more than a handful of orders each day this approach is time consuming and ripe for data entry errors which can be costly to correct.

Option 2 – Shopify Shipping: Shopify Shipping offers pretty competitive rates for postal companies like the US postal service, and parcel companies like UPS, and DHL. But if you ship with another provider or have more than a low-to-moderate number of daily orders, you’ll find Shopify Shipping clunky and woefully inefficient.

Option 3 – Cloud-based Shipping Platforms: The next step up in capability are cloud-based shipping systems that will connect to your online store and retrieve the details of your orders, thereby eliminating the need for much of the manual data entry. Many of these shipping systems have arrangements with postal and parcel carriers that are on par if not better than the options available through Shopify Shipping. Where these systems excel is in the efficiency of the fulfillment process. That translates in to a much higher volume of shipments per unit of time. These systems are relatively inexpensive and the reduction in the amount of labor and time it takes to ship your orders will pay dividends.

Option 4 – FreightDesk Online: FreightDesk Online (freightdesk.online) is also a cloud-based shipping system. It enjoys all of the benefits of other cloud-based offerings but expands the solution in two ways:

1. It makes use of the detailed information collected by Eniture Technology’s quoting apps (like this one) such as the packaging solution and the additional services included in the shipping option chosen when the order was placed.
2. It provideds merchants access to more than two dozen LTL freight providers in addition to the typical postal and parcel integrations offered by other cloud-based solutions.

These expanded capabilities deliver you closer to true “click-and-ship” shipping than any other alternative, whether you’re shipping with a postal carrier, a parcel carrier, or an LTL freight provider.

First, if you don’t already have one, register for a FreightDesk Online account (https://freightdesk.online/register). You can connect multiple online stores to FreightDesk Online, so you don’t have to create separate accounts for each one.

The pricing for FreightDesk Online is á la carte. You’ll be able to pick a separate plan for parcel (and postal) shipments, and for LTL freight shipments based on the anticipated volume for each type of shipping. Your monthly subscription rate will be comprised of these two selections. You can begin a 30-day trial of both types of shipping by selecting Trial in the corresponding dropdown fields on the registration form.

After you complete the registration process, log into FreightDesk Online. Click on your avatar located in the top right-hand corner of the browser window. Copy your FreightDesk Online ID which will be located below your company name.

Return to the app preferences and click on the FreightDesk Online tab. Enter your FreightDesk Online ID and click the Connect button.

Complete the connection by granting the permissions that Shopify prompts you for.

Now that you’ve connected FreightDesk Online, unfulfilled orders will automatically appear in FreightDesk Online. To view them, log into FreightDesk Online and click on Orders in the navigation menu. You’ll need to connect your shipping providers before you can start shipping. You can find a quick start guide in FreightDesk Online by navigating to Help > Getting Started.