Product/package weights and shipping calculation

[Rowantree]

Hello! I am new to shopify and am still building my first store. I am struggling to try and find the answer to this simple question so I thought that I would reach out and ask. 

Maybe I am over thinking this as I tend to do, but let me explain. At first I was just putting my product into a box with the packing material and then adding that weight to the "product weight" section on the product page for each item. But then as I was browsing in settings I ran across the packaging section with options to add different boxes, dimensions and weights. That sections seems to make it clear that it is just asking for the dimensions and weight of the box or package itself empty without the product inside. So then am I adding the wrong weight to my products? Should the product weight JUST be the product itself? 

At checkout when calculating shipping does the shop automatically combine the weight of the product with the weight of the selected package? And how do I set different packages for different products? 

Thanks for any help! 

[Oliver]

Hi, @Rowantree !

Great question. You'll want to use only the product's weight when adding weights on your products and then the weight for your box/package in your shipping settings. The system will automatically calculate the weight of the product(s) plus the default packages weight when calculating your shipping rates. You can learn more about packages and shipment weights from the Shopify Help Center here.

Packages can't be explicitly assigned to specific products as it is the default package size that is used to calculate shipping rates. You'll still be able to add different package sizes to use for fulfillment and to purchase proper shipping labels. If this is something that your shop needs, Apps from the Shopify App Store allow you to have more flexibility outside of the one default package. A couple of apps on the Shopify app store that you can have a look at are:

• Advanced Shipping Rules
• Intuitive shipping

Warm regards!

[Rowantree]

Thank you so much that is exactly what I needed to know. 

[saivismitha]

Hi @Rowantree,

 The product weight is the weight value of the product only. And the package weight is Box’s weight. Both the weights are different, but when it comes to packaging the dimensions like height x breadth x width of the box are measured based on accuracy, and the accurate dimensional values will play a crucial role in calculating shipping rates.

At the checkout shipping costs were displayed by a carrier service based on the package weight, package dimensions, and shipping destination.

You can create custom boxes for each product, with the help of the Multi-Carrier Shipping Label app. The box-packing method in the app allows you to create any number of boxes with different dimensions. The app automatically chooses the right box for the products placed in the order to ship accordingly.