ShipStation offers deeply discounted UPS rates to users.  These rates are lower than what you might get directly through UPS if you have a small to medium-sized business. 

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What’s even more impressive is that the UPS rates ShipStation offers users can often be cheaper than what a large company can negotiate with UPS. 

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What Makes ShipStation UPS Rates so Good?

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ShipStation UPS rates are the best when shipping small and light packages. If you’re shipping packages under 5 lbs, you’re almost always going to get the best UPS rates through ShipStation.

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ShipStation uses the DAP (Digital Access Program) to offer negotiated rates to their users. This program lets platforms like ShipStation pass on their discount to users of their platform.

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Unlike other shipping platforms though, ShipStations UPS rates come with 2 key benefits you can’t find elsewhere. 

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1. ShipStations UPS rates give you access to a service called UPS Ground Saver. This is a rebranded version of SurePost that typically only high volume shippers have access to. These rates can often be as much as 30%+ cheaper than UPS Ground. 

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2. ShipStation has a deeper negotiated discount with UPS than most other platforms do. You can get rates as much as 82% discounted off of daily rates. 

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When Are ShipStation UPS Rates Not the Cheapest?

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There are 3 factors that make UPS Rates unfavorable compared to what you might be able to negotiate directly with UPS. 

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1. Weight. ShipStations UPS rates get more expensive when shipping heavy items. Typically above 5lbs you’ll start to see fewer discounts in UPS rates. 

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2. Size. When dimensional weight gets above 5 lbs (dimensional weight = length x width x height / 166), ShipStation UPS rates get more expensive. 

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3. Delivery Area Surcharges. You can read more about the DAS (Delivery areas surcharge) here.  You can typically negotiate these down more than what you’ll get with ShipStation UPS rates.

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When to Use Your Own UPS Rates vs ShipStation UPS Rates

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It can be a challenge to determine when it’s better to use your own UPS rates vs ShipStations. You can try creating automation rules by following this guide. 

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Or you can use the ShipStation plugin called String that will auto-select the cheapest UPS rate for every shipment. 

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You can get a free savings analysis from String by requesting a demo at www.meetstring.com 

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