How will the new USPS Ground Advantage rate affect low-weight parcel pricing?

[Janet_Story]

I see that USPS is going to institute a new "Ground Advantage" rate NEXT WEEK that will combine various rates for low-weight parcels. Most of what I sell goes out as First Class Parcel (which I offer for free).

Two questions:

1. What will the rates be? (I know it's going to be zoned, but what's the range of prices? I might have to either raise prices on some items or simply take them down.)

2. Will there be a bulk-editing tool for migrating listings using First Class Parcel (and the other services that are being folded into this new one) to Ground Advantage?

[JCW308]

Ground Advantage is here. It's more expensive and slower. Thanks USPS. Sticking it to small business owners as usual. And of course to Shopify, it's like Ground Advantage doesn't even exist (as of July 9th 2023 at least). So bad all around.

[Sandrah]

I am wondering the same thing, I printed out 3 labels for Monday and they all say "First Class" instead of ground advantage on them. Will Shopify update this by Monday? I'm wondering if I need to print new labels tomorrow. Or will usps still accept them??

Thanks 

[JCW308]

USPS says there is a grace period. First Class is still OK. I noticed that ShipStation already has everything updated, however Shopify is totally behind on this and I don’t know if or when they will catch up.

[Sandrah]

Okay. Thank you for the reply! 🙂

[Janet_Story]

I sold an item yesterday and went to ship it, had some trouble with odd results as a first class parcel so went to PayPal and got the ground advantage rate through ShipStation. I'll probably be shipping via PayPal until this is resolved.

[Sandrah]

You can also use Pirate Ship thru shopify. They are updated to the Ground Advantage. 

[Vonda_Youngkin]

Pirate Ship is the bomb!

[Kate_Rachel_Loz]

I only use Pirate Ship, and they are up-to-date!

[EMA21]

USPS will accept them through September 30, but I tried to schedule a pickup for a First Class Package today and it won't let me for free anymore. I guess until Shopify fixes this I'll be forced to go to the Post Office to send my packages

[Vonda_Youngkin]

We're using Pirate Ship, and Ground Advantage CUBIC is overall cheaper than the previous Parcel Select.  We use Shopify to ship UPS 1/2/3 Day Service, but Pirate Ship for everything else, as they continue to negotiate for lower rates with USPS & UPS.

I'd probably use Shopify for labels *IF* they offered ability to pass CUBIC rates onto my customers.  Instead, I pay a Third Party App Developer $15/mo to do that, and give Pirate Ship the business since they're free to use and offer the best possible rates for USPS.

Although I used to charge a small surcharge to Western State customers who selected PARCEL SELECT, I now cannot differentiate them from FIRST CLASS from GROUND ADVANTAGE (PKA Parcel Select).

[Janet_Story]

I'll look into Pirate Ship -- hadn't known about this app (have been
shipping through either Shopify or PayPal depending on how customer pays).

[MarcusK]

It depends what size and weight you're shipping.  I've been saving $1-2 with this new USPS option compared to UPS ground, and my friend is saving $2 on average per package.   We ship medium sized boxes in the 4-8lbs range.  So far, many of my USPS G.A. shipments have been delivered much faster than I expected (air shipped, for some reason), so I'm happy for now.  

I asked Shopify support today (7/25) about their ETA for supporting Ground Advantage, and they said:  "USPS Ground Advantage will not be implemented in Shopify until later in 2023."

So I'm using Pirate Ship for now, thanks to the recommendations in this thread.

[Janet_Story]

I sell vintage costume jewelry and my packages normally weigh a few
ounces. Shipping with PayPal until Shopify gets their act together.

Later in 2023? I wonder how much lead time the USPS gave shipping
services to implement this -- sounds like Shopify was asleep at the switch.

[MarcusK]

Great question... I looked it up and USPS has a press release announcing Ground Advantage on Feb 10, 2023, and Shippo even had a blog post about it Feb 2, 2023, so at least some companies were paying attention and received early notice.  Based on how long it took Shopify to finally add a delivery status column (3+ years of requests on the forum), I'm not holding my breath for Shopify to implement this one quickly.

[starchaser888]

No change in 80z and under or in 12oz and under just slower service WTH why'd they say oh it will be cheaper. Always lies

[JCW308]

USPS are total liars.

[limborocks]

***EDIT***  Problem fixed.  It was not Shopify's fault, but an app Boxify, which had a checkmark in a box to activate "New services when they become available"....Once turned off, this was fixed.

[starchaser888]

So I have sendle and used them because Shopify not being ready and also my being charged 131.67 in those adjustments. So Sendle had the right price but then on their billing instead of 6.44 the charges were 39.00 - 44.00 for 8 of them!!! Now I get to fight them too.

[Boxifysupport]

The "problem" you are referring to was that USPS Ground Advantage rates appeared at checkout unexpectedly--is that not right? This would be normal behavior if a merchant checks the checkbox marked, "Automatically show new shipping services to customers when they become available." After all, USPS Ground Advantage is a new service, so when it became available it would automatically be shown to customers at checkout by Shopify, which follows whatever settings the merchant has set with those checkboxes. In the documentation for how to set up our app, we advise merchants _not_ to check that future-services checkbox (to avoid just such surprises).

[limborocks]

You are correct "Boxify Support".  I found that to be the issue, unchecked the box, (Do we know if by default that box is checked upon installation?)  All the same, no matter how it was checked, it isn't now and it resolved my issue anyway.   Thanks Dave.  (I'm guessing that is)  Steve

[ajoyforever]

Also notice that when you enter in tracking (if using an outside postage service) it defaults to DHL instead of USPS like it used to. Obviously Ground Advantage number protocols were not changed in Shopify's back-end. Seems like these are easy things to anticipate/revise for such a large company...

[Janet_Story]

I did notice that it gave me a DHL number when I tried to buy the label
-- I backed out of the Shopify fulfillment and bought my label on PayPal
instead. But if they're defaulting to DHL numbers then something is very
buggy on Shopify's end.

[pinsonmain]

The whole thing is a confusing mess. Everything I've shipped this month on my Shopify has been First Class. But if you go to the USPS website and look at the tracking numbers, under the Product Information they all say they're Ground Advantage and insured. So on Shopify's end it's FC but on USPS's it's GA??

[Janet_Story]

USPS is now automatically mapping First Class Parcel to Ground
Advantage, so that's what you're getting. But Shopify Shipping is still
giving the old information. There's really very little excuse for them
being so late off the mark, especially since they've been a lot more
prompt about USPS changes in the past, and the silence from management
is irritating. In the past, we've had announcements about changes in
postal service. I'd like to see one from them now, along with an APOLOGY
for the slow response and long silence. Other people are using
third-party postage providers (most are recommending an app called
Pirate Ship; I use PayPal, which goes through Shipstation.

What concerns me is that /buyers/ are going to assume they're getting
First Class Parcel (which had a slightly faster transit time).

[MarcusK · Accepted solution]

I just noticed today that Shopify seems to have finally integrated the USPS Ground Advantage option.  It might have happened a day or two ago, but I just noticed it today (Aug 3, 2023) when buying labels to fulfill orders.  

[Janet_Story]

Okay... haven't sold anything since the new rate kicked in, but I'll
check my shipping in the morning.

[Agreeableagony]

They have implemented ground advantage...but at the old Parcel Select Cubic pricing...so worse pricing than Shippo, Pirateship, Shipblink, etc. 

[MarcusK]

Ugh, I think you're right.  I didn't look closely when I first noticed the rates appear yesterday.  But I just compared pricing today, and USPS Ground Advantage through Pirate Ship is cheaper than the USPS Ground Advantage prices Shopify is showing me for the identical shipments.  I'll re-open the support case I had with Shopify to try to get a response on this.

[MarcusK]

I have some more info on my experience with the pricing discrepancy.  About 90% of the time Shopify shows a higher discounted price for Ground Advantage compared to the 3rd parties I check (Pirate Ship & Shipping Easy, which are always identical to each other).  In one case Shopify's price was $2 higher ($15 vs $13).  Usually it is < $0.50 higher for my situation.  About 10% of the time, Shopify actually shows a slightly lower price. 

But they always show the identical full retail price as the others, so that should mean they are calculating the new Ground Advantage retail price correctly, at least in my case (7lbs, < 1cu.ft.).  

I have been in frequent contact with Shopify Support to show several examples, and so far their response is that they must just have a different calculation for their discount vs. the rest of the common alternatives.  They say they are looking into this, since they have had other complaints, and they want to offer more competitive rates. 

I would expect better rates, especially for the more expensive Shopify plans, which claim higher discounts on shipping as a benefit of upgrading.  Not a good look when a free alternative (Pirate Ship) is often cheaper.  We'll see.

[Matt_Beaudoin]

we had to disable Ground Advantage. Shopify internally gets the shipping costs VERY VERY wrong.  We lost over $75 in shipping undercharges in one day.  I tripled the weight on our products and it still didn't correct.  at 5x the product weight, we got Ground Advantage right, but then the cost for UPS comes out at 2x the actual price, so using the weight to fix the issue didn't help.

We have Shopify close on USPS and UPS, except Ground Advantage, but we finally had to give up not know if I should be asking Ship Station, Shopify, or USPS where the chaos is coming from.

For clarity, we sell mostly small, light things, but a few of our things are relatively light but large.  The single box option, we think, is messing with the cubic side of the calculation.  Obviously the weight part adds properly..

[cindwood]

Is ground advantage working for you yet? We have it marked to be available on our website, but currently our under 1 lb boxes are all being charged priority. not sure how to fix it. Wondering if others are having the same problem

[Sandrah]

I have been using PirateShip integrated with my shopify orders since usps ground took place of first class. You can add the app to your shopify store. When you open an order, at the top right where it says "more actions" the drop down will include the option to purchase thru Pirate Ship for that order. It will open the page to print the shipping label. 

I find this pretty easy to do. You can also select where you want the shipping fee to come from. You can use a credit card or if you have a Balance account in shopify you can use that card and have it come directly from your current balance. 🙂

[MarcusK]

I'm still mostly seeing worse pricing through Shopify for USPS Ground Advantage compared to 3rd party shipping solutions.  Previously it seemed that Shopify at least calculated the correct full retail price, but today I just checked one, and their claimed retail price is $3.50 higher than both USPS website retail and Pirate Ship's calculated retail.  I occasionally (~10% of the time) see Shopify offer a bigger discount than Pirate Ship on some orders, but it seems that could just be dumb luck based on Shopify's faulty retail and/or discount calculations.  I'm opening another support case now.

[Matt_Beaudoin]

I disabled Ground Advantage because I was getting the inverse issue.  Shopify was charged $10-15 LESS than what Shipstation calculated.  If I use Shopify's inbuilt shipping, their default box size causing improper shipping would likely result in returned orders for insufficient postage.   

I suspect it's the cubic based shipping and the insane decision on Shopify's behalf to not bother working with product or box sizes in the decade plus history of box size being more of a factor in shipping costs than weight.

I am weighing the solutions of 3rd party apps adding the basic function that exists on every other platform I've tried.  I think I've settled on Boxify, though I'm not confident Shopify will let their app properly solve the issue.  (I also don't know what a 'calculation' is.. is that different than a finalized order)

What apps do the rest of you use to solve the simple issue of getting size/weight based shipping in the largest online website platform on the planet 😉

[MarcusK]

Hi Matt, since I offer free shipping, 99% of the time I'm the one buying the label on the back-end, so I don't really monitor the prices shown to customers (I would assume they have the same issue though).  As you probably know, in the upper right on the admin order page, Shopify will show the supposed retail price for the label and then their discounted price (after you click on a selected shipping option at the bottom).  So I assume they should be using USPS's formula to calculate retail, but that seems to be wrong sometimes, based on the example I checked today.  I think they have issues with both weight and cubic packages, since my shipments are mostly by weight, but I've seen both show inconsistent pricing compared to 3rd parties.  I'm using Pirate Ship for USPS until Shopify hopefully solves this.  

[Janet_Story]

Haven't had to use it yet. Gave my last order - a fairly large one for
me - a free upgrade to Priority so bypassed the issue. And like one of
the other people who replied, I don't charge shipping except on a few
heavier items.

So I don't know if it works now or not. If it doesn't, I just hop over
to PayPal and get my postage there.