Generating paperless (electronic) invoices for UPS shipping?

[mpietrek]

We occasionally ship our products internationally (from the US) using the standard built-in Shopify shipping capabilities - no add-ins for more advanced shipping capabilities.

Every shipping carrier *OTHER* than UPS transmits the invoice with customs codes electronically. No need for us to print and attach paper documents to the package. 

Natually, UPS constantly "loses" our forms causing extra time waste on our part.

Everything I see says that UPS supports paperless invoices/forms. However, Shopify's shipping requires us to print out the forms, rather than using electronic transmission.

What's up with this? Why doesn't Shopify support paperless invoice generation for UPS international shipping?

[MarcusK]

I'm trying to figure this out too for UPS international with Shopify-purchased labels.  I've had several recent Express shipments from US to Canada that have been delivered 1-3 days late.  The delays seem to be related to their inefficiency with having to deal with paper forms.  I've gotten promptly refunded for those late deliveries, so if those refunds happen for enough Shopify merchants, maybe UPS/Shopify will be motivated to get paperless forms worked out.  I don't want to add an app to work around this issue.  I consider this a missing core function in 2022.

[CityRacer]

Right! I'm linked to my own UPS account, which is setup for paperless invoicing. If I fulfill on Shopify, there's seems to be no way to invoke the paperless functionality. This is a major pain for shipping international orders. Each time I have to print out 3 copies of the Commercial Invoice, sign and date. Then a few days later, the idiots at UPS will call me asking to resend the invoice (because they lost it!). This is a critical functionality to have. It works with DHL. Why doesn't it work with UPS?

[Culinart]

Would love if Shopify was more integrated on the shipping aspect of business... We can't even print an 'Invoice' from our store (for customs, since we can't get UPS paperless invoicing) because they only offer 'Packing Slips' without the prices listed. Shipping with Shopify Shipments is proving to be a huge pain.

[MarcusK]

I have started emailing PDF copies of the Commercial Invoice and Packing List to this UPS support address (for US customers): internationaldocs.us@ups.com.  I email those docs as soon as I fulfill UPS international orders in order to try to help the process and to give UPS fewer excuses about late delivery due to customs paperwork issues. 

For an international shipment from the US to Canada last week, UPS replied to my email early the next morning and claimed they already had the docs uploaded for that shipment.  Not sure if that means that Shopify shared them electronically, or if the hardcopies had just been manually scanned when the package reached the UPS origin facility.  Regardless, the email tactic is a workaround to consider for now.