Questions about default packaging size and shipping rates?

[chloevdb]

Hi there! I have 3 different sized boxes I use for shipping; small box for 1 item, medium box for 2-4 items, and large box for 5+ items. These boxes are all different sizes so that's important for shipping rates! I noticed I've been undercharging for shipping on orders with medium or large boxes because my default box was the smaller size and I want to be able to fix that!

Is there any app or anyway to set it up so that if someone orders x amount of items, they get a certain size box automatically? 

Thank you so much in advance!

[MoondanceMagik]

The fact that you have the PAID Boxify app that I can use in order to be able to customize shipping size for each product I list tells me that Shopify knows how to fix this, but greed is preventing it from getting done. You can't charge for the app if you include this easy fix for listing a product. I can lose business by making my default package the largest one I carry (no one will want to pay the shipping for a box that large when they are buying one of my products that is 6" long) or I can overpay immensely myself for large packages going abroad when the customer only had to pay for a small package. This is a HUGE turnoff for me. I can only be as successful as my hosting company allows me to be, so I will sadly have to look for better support elsewhere.

[Alleyman]

For years, Shopify ignores the needs of customers!

[MsJYP]

July 2022 and still no solution to this.

[diversegraphx]

Yeah, a continuing issue for shopify. I have expressed my concerns with them several times via phone on this same issue. Seems they just don't care, I am considering other platforms.

[IgnacioGuerrero]

Chiming in here a solid 3+ years after this issue was first raised.  Flabbergasted that shopify still only allows one default package size to calculate shipping costs at check out.  Unbelievable...  Obviously they don't care, we're all still using Shopify... I guess the problem is hard to fix?

[Joce2]

Bump! The sizes of our products range from tiny to 4' long. We need a solution!

[thesquirrelsden]

@Joce2 I totally agree. What frustrates me the most is they promote how easy and affordable everything is to use, however, they forget to mention all of the add ons you will need to purchase just to make it work. Me personally, I am a very small at home business and don't have the kind of funds to keep adding these types of things on. I recently just signed up for a space at our local farmers market and installed POS Lite...it is almost $1000 just for the equipment and you have to use what they have listed. So...bottom line is if you have a small business or sell online with items of many different sizes, try another platform. I wish I would have known more before I started using them. I am now kind of stuck. 

[Shane-404]

It's 2024 and this is still an issue 4 years later! It is ridiculous that you need an app to do this. Shopify provides a calculator to get the cost of shipping with dimensions and weight with Sendle. I was told by support that the calculator isn't 100% accurate. Well it is a lot closer than the $20 dollar discrepancy on shipping for large and bulky items which was calculated with the default small box at checkout!
If I could just add a tag on a product for a shipping profile that automatically adds the product with the correct tag. Then I could just charge flat rates for different brackets of parcel sizes, but I can't even do that. This functionality already exists in shopify collections, why can't you just have collections for the shipping profiles?
If Sendle is Shopify's preferred shipping partner, than support it correctly.

[TSB-Shoppe]

I agree with all. Its completely ridiculous that something so fundamental to ecommerce and shipping is not built into Shopify. I sell products that each have drastically different dimensions and weights, so a single default size makes zero sense. I know their solution is a third party app, and everyone has been complaining for years. its now 5 years since the start of this thread and here is WHY THEY WILL NEVER CHANGE THAT....you have to upgrade to use a third party app for it. Why would they include something, when they can make you upgrade to almost $400 per month, just so you can pay for another app to actually perform the function. Its too lucrative for them to change that.  

I have been looking at other platforms to rebuild on, so far it seems all others would require a 3rd party app which is not a problem. And can do so at a significantly lower cost.

Any recommendations on a different platform? Considering Wix. 

[CBDesignsGlass]

Is there a solution to this issue yet? Very frustrating I just spent weeks building my site and I can't even launch it because shipping prices don’t make any sense for most of my products

[thesquirrelsden]

Unfortunately Shopify does not care. I've actually stopped pushing my
website as much and took alot of products off because the shipping is so
far off. I do a much better business on eBay and their system is super
accurate.

The only work around is to increase the weight of the product, but even
that is not always going to help of its a larger item that is really light.

[diversegraphx]

This has been an issue for years. Only fix is an add on app that will cost
you more. It’s fairly obvious Shopify will never support this feature as
this topic is ongoing for several years. Best of luck

Thank you,
Diverse Graphx
John Price
diversegraphx@gmail.com
https://diversegraphx.com
https://Facebook.com/diversegraphx

[Erich3]

I've spent months and paid out thousands of dollars making my website only to find out that the shipping calculators basically don't work right at all.  I was using the free Magento program for the past 10 years and this is how simple it is:

Magento lets you set up to calculate shipping based on weight or dimensions.  I picked weight because we sell lots of different products and use nearly 30 different boxes sizes depending on what the customer buys and what fits in a box.  We have no specific package size for a specific product because that doesn't make too much sense for most companies selling 1000's of small products.

On the back end my Magento site simply lets you put in what the max package weight will be.  I put in 49 pounds.  If someone orders 62 pounds worth of products Magento assumes one box will weigh he max 49 pounds and the other will weigh 13 pounds.  It ties into the FedEx calculator and spits out a fairly close shipping cost for two packages and those weights.  It's within a few dollars anyway, but incredibly simple for Shopify to add for free if they wanted to.

I'm highly disappointed in how Shopify has handled this and feel like they took a couple thousand dollars from me by not having this incredibly simple shipping thing figured out.  And I've lost months of sales trying to figure it out myself.  What a huge let down for a company like Shopify.

[thesquirrelsden]

I absolutely agree with you. Ididn't spend thousands of dollars but like
you invested so much time and effort into this only to find out one of the
simplest things does not exist. As you see this post was from 2020 or so
and they've done nothing. I really consider it false advertising.

[Maxine86]

Their response is always to use an add on app.

We've resorted to creating a default package and adding 10-15%. 97% of the
time we don't lose money on shipping. There was not way I was adding
another app for $49-$100.

[thesquirrelsden]

Is a shame there's no way to push this harder somehow. I'm just a tiny
business but it's still frustrating.

[electroarcade]

Find a workaround, app or move to another platform before your site grows as moving will become near impossible.

[thesquirrelsden]

Honestly I stopped pushing my online store through Shopify. I do so much
more business on eBay that I've been focusing my attention there.

[jefftbusz]

We are new to Shopify, having moved our store over from other sites.  We are starting to regret moving over.  Seeing that this has been an unresolved question since 2020 is simply shocking.  The only answers we see come from Shopify Partners to buy the Boxify app.  Sure that does not seem like a big deal, but when you have to buy this app, and that app, and the other app, and this package, that adds up for a small business.  We are really disappointed with Shopify and regret the mistake of moving to it.

[thesquirrelsden]

Yes and the way they advertise makes it sound like this is the best
platform to use. How can you not have one of the most important components
working?
Shows you how much they care about small businesses.

[mhmedia]

Hi,

As a Shopify Expert, I have used Boxify for my clients that had this issue and it helped solve this issue.

https://apps.shopify.com/boxify

[thesquirrelsden]

If you read the thread that is the issue. As a small business owner I can't
afford to keep adding these apps. If this would have been disclosed
initially I would never would have used Shopify.