Assigning different package sizes to products

[Earthy]

Could Shopify add a feature to allow merchants to assign each product to a different package size? (We can already create different package sizes in Shopify, but it seems that only one--the default--can be used to calculate shipping rates. We have products that each require a different box size. We would like to be able to use USPS cubic pricing, so pricing to one default box size and then by weight is not going to allow us to be able to show accurate calculated shipping rates at checkout. Either we will way over charge or way undercharge for shipping. It seems like this would be a very easy addition to basic Shopify. And something that one would expect as a core feature in any ecommerce platform.  We would very much prefer not to have to seek out an app or hire a developer to get this functionality. Thanks 

[PluginHive]

This had been an issue with Shopify over the past years and as you may have seen, there are many posts regarding the same requirement. The only workaround for this issue as of now, is to use an app. If you would be looking into an app to do this anytime, the Multi Carrier Shipping Label app can be of your help. 

With the box packing method in the app, you can set up different packages for your products based on the weight & dimensions.

So, whenever your customer places an order, the app automatically chooses the right box and calculates the rates accordingly. Also, with the app, you can handle the complete USPS shipping as well. 

[Earthy]

Thanks for the reply, HariKrishna. That seems like an excellent app. I would certainly consider it as our store grows in the future--for all of its various shipping features. But we are just starting up and paying more for an app than for our basic Shopify doesn't make good business sense for us. For Shopify, an ecommerce platform that stakes their reputation on being a platform that makes it easy for merchants to ship, this seems like it ought to be a core capability. Merchants on the platform shouldn't be limited to having calculated shipping tied to a single default box size. It seems like a fairly significant capability development flaw/oversight and it I suspect the majority of Shopify merchants would benefit from this fix. For any Shopify experts perusing this thread, could you roll in and provide some insight on this one? 

[KBTravelDeeper]

I have been having this issue and am very new to shopify (3 months). I keep undercharging for shipping for an irregular size box, even though I followed all the instructions to set up a different shipping rate for the product. 

Please help! 

[gigimoreno]

Yesss, it can be so frustrating. 

[Tay-Pri]

I second this! $29.00/month for 1,000 orders when it seems like a basic feature that should have been implemented through Shopify from the start?! No way. I've resorted to informing customers that purchase larger items that they'll more than likely need to be invoiced for additional shipping charges post purchase. Luckily, our customers have been okay with it but I have no idea how many orders we've lost because of it!

[BubbleMailer]

Have you tried calculating the DIM Weight of every product and assigning the higher one (between actual weight and dim weight) to the product weight?  This should give you a better shipping estimate, right?

[gigimoreno]

It would be great to simply have the option to chose a package size when you are creating a product. Hope this is a possibility!

[Calic415]

Do you guys work on other platforms like Wix, too? I'm thinking about leaving Shopify because they refuse to simply add a way to imput box dimensions in while we pay a premium annual price for the "shipping benefits" they stated. 🙄

[kcbrickstore]

+1 for this request.  As stated by others, being able to ship multiple different size and types of packages is a basic ecommerce feature.  Stores don't have a one-size-fits-all box, and shipping rates shouldn't be calculated as such.  There are a lot of good things about Shopify, but I have been disappointed with how many advertised "features" are actually filled by paid app subscriptions rather than being natively supported by shopify.

[Big-Dawg]

This is extremely disappointing.

[bfento]

Sure is. I've been using Multi Carrier Shipping Label (MCSL) app as someone else suggested, which does a great job of handling the assignment of appropriately-sized packages for each order. However, my shipping rates are just not competitive (almost twice that of my competitors), so I looked into Chit Chats and Stallion Express, which slash my shipping costs in half, but neither integrate with MCSL, so I'm back to square one with the default package size to rule them all. 

Just soooo frustrating.