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.
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.
What Makes ShipStation UPS Rates so Good?
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.
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.
Unlike other shipping platforms though, ShipStations UPS rates come with 2 key benefits you can’t find elsewhere.
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.
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.
When Are ShipStation UPS Rates Not the Cheapest?
There are 3 factors that make UPS Rates unfavorable compared to what you might be able to negotiate directly with UPS.
Weight. ShipStations UPS rates get more expensive when shipping heavy items. Typically above 5lbs you’ll start to see fewer discounts in UPS rates.
Size. When dimensional weight gets above 5 lbs (dimensional weight = length x width x height / 166), ShipStation UPS rates get more expensive.
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.
When to Use Your Own UPS Rates vs ShipStation UPS Rates
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.
Or you can use the ShipStation plugin called String that will auto-select the cheapest UPS rate for every shipment.
You can get a free savings analysis from String by requesting a demo at www.meetstring.com
Understanding cubic pricing is one thing. Actuallycapturing those savings on every single shipment is another.
The pitfalls are real: wrong box dimensions, inaccurate weights, automation rules that misfire, and adjustments that quietly eat into your margins. Even
platforms that claim to handle cubic pricing automatically can leave money on the table if your package data isn't dialed in.
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If you're shipping dense, small-to-mid-sized products and you're not 100% confident you're capturing cubic savings on every label, it's worth a
conversation.
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