Core issue: Shopify’s default shipping rates for multiple bulky items only scale by weight and ignore box dimensions and multi-parcel pricing. The official workaround—fulfilling each item separately (effectively separate boxes/orders)—often inflates costs or misquotes customers.
Examples cited:
One box ships for about $44; two boxes under one UPS shipment cost about $66, but Shopify’s workaround would charge roughly $88.
Two units to Australia: Shopify charged the customer $481 total, while the merchant actually paid $411 per package (about $822), creating a loss.
Proposed solution: Use ShipStation. It supports individual box dimensions and weights, connects to UPS/FedEx/USPS accounts, and returns carrier rates across those accounts. Users report it “solved” multi-box/bulky shipping.
Limitations/notes: ShipStation is an extra monthly cost and does not import dimensions from Shopify—merchants must define dimensions in ShipStation or enter them per shipment. Suitability for dropshipping is unclear because creating a shipment immediately prints/charges a label; passing labels to third-party warehouses may be required.
Status: One participant has installed ShipStation and is evaluating, planning to report back. No native Shopify fix identified; discussion remains open.
Summarized with AI on February 19.
AI used: gpt-5.
Has anyone found an app to handle this most basic function? Our product is bulky and heavy. The way Shopify handles shipping is so ridiculous I can not believe that this is still an issue in 20201. If a customer orders more than 1 item, all Shopify does is double the weight of the product, it does not take dimension of your box into account at all. The official Shopify “solution” is to fulfill each item individually. This gets very expensive quickly.
An example is shipping 1 of our boxes is $44, so if a customer ordered shipping for 2 products the Shopify work around would cost $88 in shipping. If I go directly to UPS the first package is around $44 (a little less usually) and for 2 it is $66. And they would be under the same UPS order, so a master tracking number would work for both packages. Shopify has you created a new order for every single box you ship.
We have the same problem. Our product is also bulky and heavy. We just sold 2 units to a customer in Australia. Shopify charged $481 for shipping. We paid $411 for each package. We won’t be in business long if we keep doing this. Can anyone answer Ken D’s question?
Shopify is way behind the times with shipping and will be of no help to you. I did find a solution though through a ton of trial and error. Seriously the apps my shoppify rep recommended were so bad and none of them addressed this issue.
Anyways Shipstaion. It’s magic, solved all our shipping issues and I cannot imagine life without it.
That said it’s another monthly expense for a basic function that Shopify should have, so even though I love Shipstation it still makes me mad that Shopify has not fixed this issue in the platform.
Yes with Shipstation we can do individual boxes of any dimensions and weights. And you can link it to your UPS, FedEx and USPS accounts and when you setup a shipment it will give you the rates for all the accounts you put in, it really is a great program. It just sucks we have to use 3rd party apps like this to do these very basic shipping function.
And don’t even get me started on discount codes and how there is no way to turn them off automatically if something is on sale.
Thank you for the quick response. I downloaded the ShipStation app and am looking at it.
Does the app actually quote the customer based on the dimensions that you put in the Product section in the ShipStation app?
Sorry for so many questions but if this is true, this may actually work. I was really getting to wonder if I needed to jump ship from Shopify altogether.
I should also add, that I am a drop shipper so I don’t even need a label! I just need accurate shipping quotes for different sized items. Really doesn’t seem like it should be this difficult to make happen.
It does not pull in the dimensions from Shopify only the weight. We had to go through all of our products and set them up in Shipstation, and if for some reason it’s a one-off product it is super simple to enter the dimensions in Shipstation.
To be honest I am not sure it would work with dropshipping. As soon as you find the price you want to pay for the shipment it then prints out a label and charges your account. I am not sure how you would get that label to the warehouse you are shipping from.
Then again I am not very familiar with dropshiping so I may be overthinking this.
Thank you, Ken. You have been very helpful. I am researching this all now. I will try to update this link when I figure it out so maybe I can help someone else out.