Live shipping rates with Shippo

A flat shipping price is either too high for a buyer next door or too low for one abroad. With Shippo, buyers give their address in the cart and see the carriers’ real prices for each seller’s parcel, then pick the one they want. Sellers stop guessing their shipping costs.

Shippo is a shipping service that works with many carriers. Your site uses your own Shippo account to ask for rates. It only asks for rates: no labels are bought, and sellers send their parcels as usual.

Live shipping rates work in the shopping cart, with one-payment checkout through Stripe Connect, so they’re part of the Marketplace plan with the Nova theme. They’re off until you switch them on.

Switch live rates on

1. Create a Shippo account and copy your API token from Shippo’s settings (it starts with shippo_live_, or shippo_test_ for a test token).
2. In your admin panel, open the Commission on sales page (in Make money, click Manage on the Take a commission on sales card).
3. With Shopping cart on, switch on Live shipping rates (Shippo).
4. Paste your token into Shippo API token.
5. Click Save.

The token is kept hidden once saved; type a new one to change it, or tick Remove the saved token. Live rates only run while both the switch and a token are there. If the switch says Set by Yclas support for your site, ask us through Support to change it.

Try it with a Shippo test token first, and check the rates you get before you use your live token.

What sellers set up

Sellers who want live rates open Shipping origin in their account menu and fill in:

Section	What it’s for
Ship from	Name, Street, City, State or province, Postcode, Country and Phone (optional): where their parcels leave from.
Your usual parcel	Length, Width and Height in cm, and Weight per item in kg.
Listings with their own weight	A different weight for a heavier or lighter listing. Left empty, it uses the weight above.

They click Save. Sellers who don’t fill it in keep their shipping profile or each listing’s own shipping cost, as before.

What buyers see

1. In the cart, a Ship to box asks for the buyer’s Street, Postcode, City, State or province and Country.
2. The buyer clicks Get shipping rates.
3. For each seller with a shipping origin, the cart lists the carriers’ rates and picks the cheapest. The buyer can choose another one and click Use this shipping.

The chosen rate becomes that seller’s shipping in the cart and at checkout. All of a seller’s items in the cart go as one parcel, weighing each item’s weight times its quantity. Only rates in the cart’s currency are offered. Rates are kept for two hours; after that, or when the buyer changes the cart or the address (Update rates), the cart asks Shippo again.

When Shippo has no rate for an address, the cart says No live shipping rate for your address: the seller’s own shipping price applies.

After the sale

The seller sees the buyer’s address under Ship to in My sales, and it’s in the sale email too, so they know where to send the parcel. They buy postage with their carrier and mark the sale as shipped as usual.

Good to know

• Your commission covers the shipping too, unless you set Commission is taken on to The items only, not the shipping on the same page.
• Items paid with Pay for this item (each item on its own checkout) and Buy Now keep the listing’s own shipping cost.

Related guides

• Shopping cart — the cart live rates work in.
• Shipping profiles — a seller’s own shipping prices, by country and with free shipping.
• Shipping costs and pickup — a shipping cost on each listing.
• Commission and service fees — what you keep from each sale.
• Sale prices and bundles — promotions for shops that sell through the cart.