Shipping Costs Explained

To accommodate the different factors that play into your orders' shipping costs, there are multiple ways these costs can be entered/integrated into Lifetimely. You can:

Integrate ShipStation, ShipBob, or Shopify Shipping accounts that automatically import your shipping costs to Lifetimely.
Set shipping costs equal to Shipping Charged (what your customers pay for shipping).
Integrate a Google Sheet that matches shipping cost to specific Order IDs
Upload a CSV file that matches shipping costs to specific Order IDs.
Set specific shipping rates for individual products.
Set flat shipping rates based on the country you ship to.

This article explains the calculation logic behind how we decide on the shipping costs to apply to your orders.

⚠️ Note: Shipping costs here mean what you paid to your shipping provider. Shopify maintains separate calculations of customer shipping costs, which they label "shipping charged".

💡 Tip: For a step-by-step guide to setting up your shipping costs, check out our Account Setup Walkthrough.

Shipping cost calculation logic

Here's a quick summary of how Lifetimely makes a final determination on shipping costs when one or more settings are applied:

Priority 1: Integrations with Shopify Shipping, ShipStation, or ShipBob
Priority 2: Shipping charged when "Use Shipping Charged" is selected
Priority 3: Imports from Google Sheets and/or CSV files
Priority 4: Product-specific shipping costs entered in the Product Costs tab
Priority 5: Country-level shipping rates

Now let's take a closer look at each of these options with specifics on how calculation logic is applied:

1

If you use Shopify Shipping or you have integrated ShipStation or ShipBob, then we automatically import and apply these shipping costs regardless of any other settings or imports.

Integration with Shopify Shipping is enabled with this check box in the Shipping Costs tab:
Integration with ShipStation is enabled by clicking on the ShipStation icon in the Integrations tab and entering your ShipStation API:
Integration with ShipBob is enabled by clicking on the ShipBob icon in the Integrations tab, clicking "Connect ShipBob", and completing the authentication process in your ShipBob account:

2

If you've selected the option in the Shipping Costs tab to set shipping costs equal to Shipping Charged (in the case that your customers pay 100% of shipping costs), then this value is applied and takes priority over any other imports/calculations below.

3

If you've connected a Google Sheet OR imported a CSV file in the Shipping Costs tab that specifies the exact shipping cost of each of your Order IDs, then this shipping cost is applied, and takes priority over any other imports/calculations below.

4

If you have no external shipping account integrations, your customers don't pay 100% of shipping, and you haven't imported a CSV file of costs, then we look to see whether the order includes any products with shipping costs that have been defined at the product level in the Product Costs tab.

If the order includes multiple products with pre-defined shipping costs, then the highest individual shipping cost is applied (the shipping costs of each product are not summed).
If the order includes only one product with pre-defined shipping costs, then this shipping cost is applied.

5

If none of the above options apply, then the default country-based shipping cost is applied. Country-based shipping rates can be set in the Shipping Costs tab.