Before introducing your BigCommerce site to the public, it’s important to have proper BigCommerce shipping setups with your business model. And LitExtension, the #1 eCommerce Migration Service is here to show you that.
In this article, we will show a full guide to BigCommerce shipping through the following points:
- An overview of BigCommerce shipping;
- BigCommerce shipping options and methods for you to choose from;
- Steps to establish BigCommerce shipping;
- Highly recommended shipping apps for the BigCommerce store.
Right now, let’s get in!
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A Glance at BigCommerce Shipping
BigCommerce shipping is one of the most important BigCommerce features, allowing you to control order fulfillment effectively. However, to attain the best performance in this concern, it’s necessary to follow BigCommerce shipping rules. Actually, these policies aim to enhance your orders’ safety and make the shipment smoother.
BigCommerce shipping API directly supports you in managing shipping methods, shipping zones, and shipping origins in all situations. Besides that, you can also connect your store with real-time shipping carriers to bring a flexible experience for your customers. Some leading providers can be listed, such as USPS, UPS, or FedEx.
To begin with BigCommerce shipping, you need to have a BigCommerce store. If so, let’s register for a new account and test out this platform with the 15-trial package.
What Are the BigCommerce Shipping Options?
Before going for the BigCommerce shipping methods set up, you must first identify your fulfillment strategy. This refers to the process of how your business will handle and ship orders to the customers. Currently, here are the most 3 common BigCommerce shipping options that you can take into consideration:
#1. Self-shipping
If you're a small business or just starting out, you might choose to fulfill and ship orders yourself. This means you will package and ship orders directly from your own inventory. In this case, using flat-rate shipping or weight-based shipping through BigCommerce shipping manager can be suitable for a more straightforward pricing structure.
Managing your own shipping allows for complete control over the process, but keeping up with orders efficiently can become difficult as your business expands. Additionally, handling your own shipping requires careful inventory management to prevent stockouts.
#2. Third-party integration
Third-party fulfillment service (3PL) providers store your inventory, pack and ship your orders, and even handle returns for you. This frees you up to focus on marketing, sales, and other strategic initiatives. With 3PLs, you can leverage real-time carrier quotes to offer competitive shipping rates based on the 3PL's location and your customer's destination.
BigCommerce supports integration with various 3PL providers, such as ShipBob and ShipStation. These providers, among a wide range of others, are available in the BigCommerce Apps Market.
#3. Hybrid model
You can also adopt a hybrid model, where you fulfill smaller orders yourself and outsource larger or bulkier items to a 3PL. If you are experiencing seasonal fluctuations in your order volume, we highly recommend this BigCommerce shipping option.
How Many Shipping Methods On Bigcommerce?
After identifying the BigCommerce shipping options, you can now choose the proper shipment methods for your store. You can make your own decisions based on the chosen shipping option and business models. Indeed, BigCommerce offers 2 main shipping methods, including:
#1. Static shipping quotes
A static shipping quote is a cost established manually by merchants for a specific shipping zone. On BigCommerce, you have 4 static shipping options: free shipping, flat rate, ship by, and pickup.
#1.1. Free shipping
Free shipping is one of the most powerful incentives you can offer your customers. Indeed, this method can help you increase your store’s conversion rate and sales and effectively reduce your cart abandonment rate.
There are multiple ways to start the free shipping setup to your online shoppers, including:
- Create free Bigcommerce shipping zones for specific regions;
- Set a minimum order amount to qualify for free shipping;
- Add free shipping to other shipping methods.
#1.2. Flat rate
Being one of the simplest ways to charge shipping, a flat rate is highly recommended by a lot of online sellers. With this method, the shipment price is estimated based on the number of items in the order or the order as a whole.
In BigCommerce shipping, you can simply duplicate any existing flat rate method and customize it to create a new quote. Additionally, you can combine this method with real-time quotes to bring various options for your customers.
#1.3. Ship by weight or order volume
With Ship By weight/order quantity, you can use an available table to calculate how much to charge for each order. Although you can find it not necessary to build a preformatted table, it’s really useful in many situations, such as:
- Determine shipping charges as a proportion of the order;
- Support serious heavy shipments;
- Take full control over how much to charge for each zone.
#1.4. Pickup in store
Instead of having shipments to a specific location, the pickup method allows your customers to pick up their orders at your physical store. Of course, there will be no shipping charge in this situation. From our experience, this method is great for welcoming local buyers.
#2. Real-time shipping quotes
A real-time shipping quote (RTS) is one of the most common shipping methods, offering the most accurate shipping rates for each order. This is especially beneficial for both sellers and buyers because it restricts under- and over-charging for shipment, respectively.
With BigCommerce shipping, you can connect with several reliable real-time quote providers, such as USPS, FedEx, UPS, Australia Post, Royal Mail, etc. Basically, be noted that the shipping page only displays supported services through your shipping origin.
For example, if you don’t have an origin address in Australia, you can not set up shipping policies with Australia Post.
How To Set Up BigCommerce Shipping
If you don’t know how to set up BigCommerce shipping fields, don’t miss our detailed guide below. Only with the 4 simple steps can you easily activate the shipping feature for your BigCommerce store.
#Step 1: Open BigCommerce shipping window
In the BigCommerce admin dashboard, click Settings to open the Settings window.
Then, click the Shipping box in the Setup tab to navigate the Shipping window.
#Step 2: Establish shipping origin
Shipping origin is the location where you ship orders to their customers. It is especially important to determine the shipping rates within your customers’ checkout.
To begin with, click the Add shipping address button in the Shipping origin tab to open the Configure shipping address window.
After that, enter the required information and click the Submit button to finish.
*Note: Your shipping origin address will only displayed on the shipping labels, not on your BigCommerce storefront.
#Step 3: Set up shipping zones
BigCommerce shipping zones are the areas where you deliver shipping services. Normally, you can configure these zones as a group of nations, a single country, ZIP/postcodes, or multiple states. After setting up a proper shipping zone, you need to follow the shipping rules in that region or nation.
In the Checkout shipping options tab, click the Add shipping zone button to open a drop-down menu. Then, select one of the 3 options: Add a country zone, Add a custom zone, or Add the rest of the world.
In this case, we tested with “Add a country zone.” In the Add country zone window, select the proper country for your order and click the Submit button to finish.
#Step 4 – Select how to ship your order
First, click the Configure button in the Basic shipping rules box (e.g. United States rule).
Then, you need to enable any option you want for both methods, including:
- Static shipping quotes: Free shipping, flat rate, ship by, and pick up.
- Real-time shipping quotes: FedEx, UPS, and USPS.
Finally, click the Done button to finish.
With these simple steps, we believe you can complete BigCommerce shipping setups successfully.
3 Top BigCommerce Shipping Apps
Currently, BigCommerce provides a vast collection of BigCommerce shipping apps. However, we have just picked up the 3 leading apps that you can’t miss for your BigCommerce store, including:
#1. ShippingEasy
- Ratings: 4/5
- Pricing: $19.99/month
ShippingEasy is a cloud-based shipping BigCommerce app that helps you automatically import orders, export label printing, and send tracking information. Besides, this solution also offers users several powerful marketing tools to gain your store’s SEO values.
Key features
- Offer a lot of discounts for UPS and USPS services;
- Deliver automatical tasks like shipping or order-importing automation;
- Allow users to experience a 30-day free trial;
- Provide a range of marketing tools;
- Outstanding with excellent customer support (e.g. phone, chat, email).
#2. ShipStation
- Ratings: 4/5
- Pricing: $9.99/month
Being one of the most common BigCommerce shipping apps, ShipStation can power the shipping success of all business sizes. Currently, this solution is a reliable partner of over 200 shopping carts, ERP, carriers, marketplaces, and so forth. That’s why you should try ShipStation at least once.
Key features
- Access carrier discounts instantly;
- Offer 50+ worldwide carrier services;
- Deliver an intuitive dashboard;
- Complete the majority of tasks automatically;
- Store information through cloud and mobile platforms.
#3. Advanced Shipping Manager
- Ratings: 5/5
- Pricing: $155/month
Advanced Shipping Manager impresses you with comprehensive control over all of their stores’ shipping methods and rules. Besides that, you can contact Shipping Manager experts for useful tips through email, tickets, live chat, or phone to optimize the shipping performance.
Key features
- Offer a free 14-day trial;
- Connect with over 50 freight and parcel couriers;
- Allow users to customize detailed shipping tables;
- Automatically block shipping methods if necessary (e.g. perishable items or restricted states).
With our suggestions above, you can pick any BigCommerce shipping app you want to get the finest results for your business’ shipping process.
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BigCommerce Shipping: FAQs
How does shipping work with BigCommerce?
After your customer completes the checkout’s final step, a new shipment will be created, together with a clear printing label (provided by ShipStation). Then, all you need to do is ship the order and track the transport updates from BigCommerce shipping.
What carriers are tracking with BigCommerce?
Currently, BigCommerce is a big partner of a wide collection of worldwide carriers. Some outstanding brands can be listed, such as USPS, FedEx, DHL, UPS, TNT, and so forth.
How do I change shipping on BigCommerce?
If you want to change your store’s shipping policy on BigCommerce, let’s check the following steps:
- Step 1: Log in to BigCommerce account to navigate your store.
- Step 2: In BigCommerce admin dashboard, click Settings and select Shipping box.
- Step 3: In Shipping window, opt for Configure or Edit button to start your customizations.
Does BigCommerce integrate with ShipStation?
Definitely yes. BigCommerce has a direct integration with ShipStation to promote your order-importing process effectively. Besides that, ShipStation can offer beautiful shipping labels, as well as update constant notifications about your store’s shipment.
Conclusion
Our blog has just reviewed BigCommerce shipping, as well as instructed how to set up specific shipping fields on BigCommerce. Besides that, let’s consider using additional shipping apps to make your store performance more impressive in the public sight.
LitExtension, the #1 eCommerce Migratio, hopes you have a deeper understanding of BigCommerce shipping. Check out our LitExtension Blog or join our Facebook Community Group for more valuable insights.
