Shipping services are missing at checkout

[lulani_faucet]

We set up shipping zones with several service options available, however, not all of the options appear for customers at checkout. For example, the below "California Shipping Zone" should have 4 services available (UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS 3 Day Select, UPS Next Day Air, and UPS Ground):

We're finding that only UPS 2nd Air and UPS 3 Day Select are appearing as options for customers to select at checkout, though. How do we fix this?

[Summer]

Hey, @lulani_faucet!

Different shipping services have specific and unique requirements. Whenever a shipping service doesn't appear as an option at the checkout, it likely means the characteristics of your package or shipment don't meet the conditions of the shipping service (e.g. the weight of your packaging and product may exceed the weight limit or the packaging dimensions may exceed their size limit).

I suggest familiarizing yourself with the shipping service requirements so you can adjust your package dimensions and shipment weights accordingly. You may refer to the UPS website or reach out to their support team for information on their services and their requirements. To adjust your packaging or product weight, the following guides will help:

• Packages and shipment weights
• Setting up your packages
• Adding and updating products (adjusting product weight)

Speaking of shipping, I hope you've already created your shipping policy. This is an important page to have on your website as visitors and customers tend to have a lot of questions about shipping. To reduce the steps of finding these answers and making the buying experience better for customers, make sure you don't forget to add a shipping policy to your store. We have a guide on how to create one on this page.

[lulani_faucet]

Hi Summer,

I have double-checked all of the shipping requirements for the services we have selected and the package dimensions and product weights are all set up correctly per UPS's website. All 4 of these services allow for shipments that can be up to 150 lbs and up to 108” long. Our default box size is 14" x 9" x 4" at 0 lbs and the heaviest item that we carry is 11.2 lbs. All 4 of these services should be available at checkout but Shopify is only displaying certain ones.

We offer free shipping on orders over $100. The items that would require paid shipping are all small products under around 1 lb and $30, which would qualify for the UPS services we have selected.

What else could be limiting the shipping options available to our customers?

[Summer]

Thanks for getting back to me, @lulani_faucet!

I've taken some time to dig deeper into this and I just found the reason why these shipping services aren't appearing.

Essentially, if a package can be sent faster and cheaper using UPS Ground compared to the other shipping services, UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS 3 Day Select will not appear at the checkout and will not be offered to your customers.

UPS Ground has a variable time in transit, which means its delivery time is calculated based on the origin and destination zip codes. Because it doesn't have a fixed delivery time frame like UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS 3 Day Select, UPS Ground will always be the cheapest service. UPS filters out services which are more expensive than Ground, but have the same or slower delivery time. An example of this is when a shipment is sent from New York to New York. This can be fulfilled through UPS Ground in 3 days. UPS 3 Day Select will not appear in this case because it’s a service more expensive than UPS Ground, but has the same delivery time. The same thing applies to UPS 2nd Day Air.

This is a behavior designed by UPS so it's important to always enable UPS Ground to ensure your customers are offered a shipping service at the checkout when it's the cheapest option for them.

[dev22]

Thank you so much for your detailed response! I found it so helpful

I am experiencing an issue similar to this one, and I would appreciate your input, because your answer does not hold true in my case.

I have set up 4 UPS services for shipping: UPS 2nd day air, 3 day select, next day air saver, and next day air.

Based on what you wrote, if I ship from NY to NY (really close), UPS should filter out the pricier options, and give me just UPS 2nd day air and 3 day select to choose from.

However, the opposite is true. UPS actually filtered out the cheaper options, and the customer can only select the next day air saver or next day air.

Would you know why that is? And how can I change that? Or, how can I have all 4 display? 

Thank you!

[Summer]

My pleasure, @Dev22! 

Whenever only the UPS Air Services are visible at the checkout, you may have Express packaging set as your default packaging. UPS offers a selection of Express packaging and the Express envelopes and boxes only ship with UPS Next Day Air, UPS 2nd Day Air, and international services. Other UPS services will not be available when using these packages as the default package.

Could you please head over to Settings > Shipping and delivery > Saved packages to check your default package? If you need to change it, you can refer to this guide. 

Let me know if this resolves the problem. If it doesn't, I'll be happy to help you further!

[dev22]

@Summer Thank you for your response

I actually did not yet set any default package, so that can't be the case.

I figured I would try to add a default package to see if that would help. I added a random package, it did not help (just made the already existing options disappear) and now I can't remove it unless I add another default, which I really do not want to do. So now a stuck situation just got more stuck, and I am really upset

Can you please help me remove this default, and bring all my options to visibility?

[Summer]

Thanks for checking and testing the default package, @Dev22. Since it doesn't appear to be affecting the way UPS shipping services show up at the checkout, from here it's best for us to share your store with our shipping team so they can investigate why certain UPS services are not appearing. In order for us to do this, we'll need to access your account which isn't available on Shopify Community at this time. Our support team will continue helping you out as they can securely access your information and work with our shipping team to get this resolved. Please feel free to follow the steps below to create a support ticket.

1. Visit our Help Center.
2. Chat with the AI assistant and enter "account concern."
3. Click Chat with a Support Advisor as shown on this screenshot.

That should connect you with one of our support advisors. If you encounter any difficulties reaching our support team, let me know and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and assist you further!