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How do shipping methods and charges work on Crowdship?
How do shipping methods and charges work on Crowdship?

Discover how to configure shipping so you can minimize your shipping costs with Crowdship

Updated over a week ago

Shipping is a bit of a complex issue when it comes to drop shipping, maybe the most complex.

The Problem

The issue is that when your Customer is checking out on your website, by default, the shipping options that are presented for them to select from come from your shop. The issue with this is that your shop does not know what shipping vendors and methods the Supplier of any given Crowdship product offers.

Additionally, this disconnection is further exacerbated by the fact that both your shop (the Retailer's shop) and the Supplier's shop may have different names even for the same shipping methods (eg, you might call it "USPS Priority" while they may have it titled as "Standard Shipping - 1-3 days").

So, when an order from your store comes in to Crowdship, without any configuration, Crowdship doesn't necessarily know what shipping method to buy from the Supplier of the product sin your order, to match the price and speed of shipping method you sold to your Customer.

The Solution

For this problem, we have two solutions. One is still in progress, but should be ready in a few weeks.

Solution 1: Shipping Method Mapping

The Shipping Method Mapping screen looks like this:

To use it, simply

  1. Set up your Shopify shipping methods

  2. Click the "Add carrier service" button, so that a empty, new input field for a shipping method appears as pictured in the screenshot

  3. Copy/paste the name of the method into the empty input box

  4. In the selection drop down menu on the right, select the vendor and shipping service from the drop down menu

  5. Do this for all the services you offer, and you're done!

Now, when Crowdship receives an order from you, it will purchase a shipping service from the Supplier(s) that is similar in price and speed to the service you sold to your Customer.

Pros of this solution:

  • free

  • more economic than static, fixed rates

Cons of this solution:

  • rates and time estimates shown to your Checkout are calculated from your address to your Customer's address, while the service you'll pay for will be calculated from your Customer's address to the Supplier's address - this means shipping will usually different in the price you collect from your Customer to the cost you'll pay to the Supplier

  • configuration may break if vendor changes name of service

  • no way to automatically set names as Shopify does not allow access to shipping methods

  • cost of shipping is similar to the price you sold shipping to your customer, but not the exact; cost may be higher or lower than what your customer paid

Solution 2: Automatic Calculated Shipping Rates at Checkout

NOTE: This second solution is not yet ready, but it is in progress.

This solution uses Shopify's CarrierService to automatically provide live, calculated rates from the Supplier's address to your Customer's address, ensuring that you pay exactly what your customer pays for shipping, and ensuring that your customer gets exactly the service they paid for and expect to receive.

Pros of this solution:

  • you pay exactly what your customer pays

  • your customer gets exactly the vendor and shipping service they paid for

  • automatic, no setup or maintenance required

Cons of this solution:

  • Only available if your shop meets one of three Shopify requirements - your shop must meet one of these following Shopify requirements:

    • be on the Advanced plan or higher,

    • prepay Shopify subscription annually,

    • pay Shopify $20 extra on top of your plan.

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