UPS Shipping Guide

Category : Knowledge Share

The WooCommerce UPS shipping plugin allows for client sites to use UPS shipping options for delivering their products to customers. Below are brief steps on how to set up and use the UPS options on a client site checkout. In the resources section, you can find the full How-To Guide linked for your convenience!

The first thing you need to do is ensure that you have the WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin installed. Once installed, click “settings” to edit the settings. You can also reach this screen by following the path WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > UPS.

Next, you need to request an API access key. Once in the settings for the UPS Shipping Plugin, you will need to request API credentials by going to the “API Settings” heading under “UPS”. Click “via their website”. This will redirect you to the UPS developer kit. If you do not have a UPS account, follow the steps under “How to get started” to create your UPS account. You will need tax and payment info! If you have a UPS account created already, you can skip to their 4th step to request the key immediately.

Follow the provided steps on the UPS site to create the Access Key. Most of your information will be saved after you have created an account. You will need your UPS Shipping Account number. After following the 4 steps an Access Key will be presented. Return to WooCommerce UPS Settings. Enter your Access Key as well as your Shipping Account, and log in info.

Next, turn on the US as the shipping zone. Under the Shipping tab, you can go to the Shipping Zones button. Where it says United States, hit edit. Select add a Shipping Zone, and the connected UPS account will show. Select this account and add it to the shipping zone. Then make sure this is turned on. After you turn on the shipping zone, you can select edit. Make sure that your origin information is updated. You can edit other options here such as UPS Simple Rate Calculations, Negotiated Rate Calculations, Signature Requirement, and return rates.

Below this you can edit a group of shipping options such as next day air, 3 day, standard, and more. For each method you can increase the price by a $ amount or a % amount as well as provide discounted shipping rates for select methods. Each method can be added or removed here as well.

Parcel Packing Method is next. You have two options, one is to pack each item individually, the other is to pack into boxes with custom weights and dimensions. As shown, the default is to pack items individually. So, if customers have multiple products it will cost more. That is why the recommended option is to pack into custom boxes. With this, you will need to create box dimensions, and the max height, weight, and length that they can fit.

To utilize custom boxes, products will have to have updated dimensions. This can be found in the products tab. Under shipping, add the correct height, weight, and length. Then, UPS will calculate based on the dimensions of each products how many boxes will be needed to ship all of your products. If you do not set custom dimensions for your products, WooCommerce will automatically make the dimensions the exact size of your boxes. You must set the product dimensions.

That’s a lot of steps! Don’t worry – the guide linked below also has lots of images to help you navigate these settings.

2021 UPS Shipping Guide