CALCURATES BLOG
Top 5 Shipping Solutions for eCommerce Sellers In 2024
Quality of delivery service is one of the most important components for any e-commerce. However, not every business knows how to make this process efficient and what is the best shipping software for e-commerce. We have prepared an overview of the top 5 best e-commerce shipping solutions that help e-commerce businesses be more effective in 2023:
What is an E-commerce Shipping Solution?
An e-commerce shipping solution is an extension, plugin, or app for your e-commerce platform (Magento, WooCommerce, Shopify, and others) that provides you with the necessary tools to set up and manage the shipping process — from the shipping calculations at the checkout to printing shipping labels. It can also include delivery dates management, shipping rules and restrictions set up, multi-origin shipping calculations, dimensional shipping, in-store pickup, live rates and landed cost from shipping carriers, order tracking, and more.
Why Should You Consider Using a Shipping Solution?
- Control Over Your Shipping StorefrontControl shipping rates and methods at the checkout to achieve cost-effective e-commerce business. The goal is to reduce the gap between what your customers and you as a business owner pay for shipping. Competitive shipping rates significantly affect cart abandonment rate and conversions and therefore sales and profitability.
- Transparency and PredictabilityCustomers want to choose from shipping methods and still be able to track their orders. Display shipping cost clearly at the checkout don't bake it into the product price.
- Efficient Order Management ProcessOrder management ensures that shipping labels are generated properly and that they include correct tracking information. Automate your order management to help you avoid silly human mistakes. Managers can easily avoid bottlenecks, wasted costs and point out inefficiencies.
Top 5 Shipping Solutions
#1 Calcurates
Bratislava, Slovakia
Launched in 2019 by Amasty, a Magento extension builder since 2009
Launched in 2019 by Amasty, a Magento extension builder since 2009
Calcurates is a shipping solution that helps e-commerce to calculate and display the right shipping methods and rates at the checkout with zero coding. It streamlines the shipping process and makes it cost-effective, sales-stimulating, and eco-friendly using its calculation algorithms and powerful features.
Top Standout Features
Shipping Labels and Order Tracking
For now, Calcurates supports shipping label generation and order tracking from all major carriers only for Magento 2 e-commerce. It will be available for other platforms soon.
Inventory Management
Calcurates is not an order management software rather shipping software. Thus, Calcurates does not support any of the following order management functions — low stock alerts, inventory management, and order fulfillment.
Pricing Plans
Calcurates has 3 different subscription-based pricing plans. Calcurates is also offering individual pricing plans upon request.
- Basic plan“Basic" pricing plan is unlimited and free forever.
- Pro plan“Pro" plan is available for $49.00 per month or $499 if paid annually. this plan allows you to use advanced shipping features such as Delivery Dates or International Shipping.
- Pro+Carriers plan“Pro+Carriers" is available for $99.00 per month or $999 if paid annually. In addition to all features available in the “Pro" plan, you may connect your own carrier accounts with this plan.
Free Trial
Calcurates offers a 30-day free trial that is in most cases enough for testing all features. So you will have enough time to check if Calcurates meets your shipping needs.
Calcurates Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Multi-carrier integrations
- Powerful advanced features
- Affordable pricing
- Configuration and migration services
- Developed by Amasty
- Cons
- Shipping labels generation and order tracking are available only for Magento
- LTL carriers are not supported
Turn on cost-effective shipping
Let's check if Calcurates meets your shipping needs!
#2 ShipperHQ
Austin, Texas, United States
Founded in 2013
Founded in 2013
ShipperHQ is a shipping management tool that shows shipping options for your customers at the checkout. ShipperHQ creates a precisely tailored shipping strategy based on your business needs.
Top Standout Features
Live rates from carriers, including LTL
Multi-Origin Shipping
Dimensional Weight Shipping
In-store Pickup
Estimated Delivery Dates
Address Validation
Shipping Rules and Restrictions
Carrier Integration
ShipperHQ integrates with over 50 carriers worldwide including all the major US-based carriers like UPS, FedEx, USPS. To carry out deliveries in Europe ShipperHQ offers DHL and GLS as main carriers. For Australian and Canadian deliveries, you can choose from Australia Post, StartTrack, Canada Post, Sendle, and Purolator.
Shipping Options
The main ShipperHQ's shipping options are Table Rates shipping, Flat Rates shipping, In-store Pickup, and Free shipping. Shipping options can be used in combination with more advanced shipping features like Shipping Rules and Dimensional Packing.
Shipping Labels and Order Tracking
ShipperHQ is not an inventory management tool, thus it does not interfere with any post-order processes. Its main focus is the storefront. With ShipperHQ you can not generate shipping or return labels.
Inventory Management
ShipperHQ does not support any inventory management or warehouse management-related processes. With ShipperHQ you can only receive order details which include information about the carrier, price, shipping method, and expected delivery date and time.
Pricing Plan
The ShipperHQ pricing plans are very straightforward and easy to comprehend. However, all of ShippperHQ's pricing plans might seem a bit expensive for smaller and medium-sized e-commerce stores.
- Essentials planIncludes shipping rates from up to 2 carriers, 1 advanced shipping feature, and 2 Shipping Rules. The plan is available for $45.83 per month.
- Standard planIncludes shipping with up to 4 carriers, unlimited Shipping Rules, and 2 advanced shipping features. Pricing begins at $91.67 per month.
- Advanced planIncludes shipping with up to 8 carriers, unlimited Shipping Rules, and 4 advanced shipping features. The price starts at $275.00 per month. This plan includes phone support and same-day response within the central US time.
Free Trial
ShipperHQ offers a 15-day free trial. You can also request a demo to get introduced to the shipping software logic before starting subscription.
ShipperHQ Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Live rates from LTL carriers
- Powerful advanced features
- Adress validation
- Cons
- Pricing plans are unaffordable for SMB
- Short trial period
- No shipping labels generation
Calcurates Related Features
#3 ShipStation
Austin, Texas, United States
Founded in 2011
Founded in 2011
ShipStation is software with a strong focus on order management. The software helps you streamline and automate your order fulfillment processes and shipping.
Top Standout Features
Rate Shopping
Shipping Labels Generation
Integration with Order Management Software
Carrier Integration
ShipStation integrates with 57 carriers worldwide. Overall, it can be said that ShipStation has good coverage of carriers across the globe. Starting with the US-based FedEx, UPS, USPS to Canadian carriers as Purolator, Canada Post, and Europe’s DHL, Royal Mail, DPD, and much more. For Australia, you can choose from Australia Post, Aramex, or Sendle.
Shipping Options
Since you connect your own carrier business accounts, there are only shipping options offered by your carrier available.
Shipping Labels and Order Tracking
ShipStation helps with tracking orders, including in-transit packages.
Printing shipping labels and return labels are also included. The big benefit is that you can track, and generate labels for your personalized packages, as well. The customers can choose to be notified about their package location through business messaging platforms, SMS, or email. Incorporating bulk sms services can further streamline communication, allowing businesses to efficiently update multiple customers simultaneously about their shipments.
Printing shipping labels and return labels are also included. The big benefit is that you can track, and generate labels for your personalized packages, as well. The customers can choose to be notified about their package location through business messaging platforms, SMS, or email. Incorporating bulk sms services can further streamline communication, allowing businesses to efficiently update multiple customers simultaneously about their shipments.
Inventory Management
ShipStation has advanced inventory management features. These include Inventory alerts when inventory stock falls beyond a certain set level, Allocation and Deallocation Stock functions that help to reserve inventory for orders that are still awaiting shipment. The last features include Viewing Inventory Levels, Management of Inventory, and the Pick & Pack Faster feature which makes order packing and picking easier.
Pricing Plans
ShipStation offers in total 6 pricing plans. The cheapest one, called “Starter" starts at $9 per month, and the most expensive pricing plan, “Enterprise", is $159 per month. The main difference between ShipStation pricing plans is the limited number of shipments per month, the number of allowed users, and whether you need branded or personalized shipping labels for your e-commerce stores. The more orders your sore has the more ShipStation costs you.
Free Trial
ShipStation offers a 30-Day free trial, there is no need to pre-pay for anything.
ShipStation Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Easy to generate and print labels
- Compare shipping rates across multiple carriers
- Strong focus on inventory management
- Cons
- No storefront shipping management
Turn on cost-effective shipping
Let's check if Calcurates meets your shipping needs!
#4 Shippo
San Francisco, California, United States
Founded in 2013
Founded in 2013
What is Shippo? Shippo is a shipping software that offers carriers real-time rates and everything companies need to set up professional shipping. With Shippo, you can obtain discounted shipping rates, create shipping labels and track shipments.
Top Standout Features
Pickup Scheduling
Address Validation (US and Global)
Discounted Shipping Rates
Shipping Labels Generation
Branded Tracking Pages
Carrier Integration
Shippo partners with over 85 carriers worldwide. From carriers, Shippo offers all the major carriers including UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post, Australia Post, and DHL. There are more options for smaller local US-based carriers. So far from all the shipping solutions mentioned in this article, Shippo has the biggest coverage of carriers. They do not support multiple UPS accounts within a single Shippo account.
Shipping Options
Shippo's available shipping options are only the ones that are offered by the carrier you ship with. Shipping services vary from carrier to carrier but the majority of bigger carriers like UPS or DHL offer at least discounted shipping rates. At the moment, Shippo is offering up to 90% off USPS rates.
Shipping Labels and Order Tracking
Shippo offers shipping labels from the majority of known carriers and also more local country-based carriers. Return labels can be requested from major carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL and are for free with Shippo.
Shipments Tracking is available for larger carriers like Aramex, DHL, DPD, New Zealand Post, and for some local carriers.
Shipments Tracking is available for larger carriers like Aramex, DHL, DPD, New Zealand Post, and for some local carriers.
Inventory Management
For inventory management, you will need to select one of Shippo’s partner companies to help you with the necessary. Those fulfillment partners include ShipBob, Wizmo, GrothJet, and more. Shippo itself does not offer any order fulfillment or inventory management tools.
Pricing Plan
The pricing plan is very simple, you pay for the cost of shipping plus 5 cents per shipping label. There are 3 pricing plans to choose from.
- Starter planThe “starter" plan is free, and the user does not pay for shipping labels if Shippo's default carriers are used. These are UPS, USPS and DHL Express. For their own connected carriers, users have to pay an extra 5 cents per shipping label.
- Professional planThe “Professional“ pricing plan is available from $10 per month. For this price, you may generate up to 60 shipping labels. There is no additional per-label fee.
- Premium planThe “Premium" pricing plan offers unlimited shipping labels, the price is available upon the request.
Free Trial
There is an option to sign up for free to try the service.
Shippo Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Multi-carrier integration
- Global address validation
- Supports 85 carriers
- A free pricing plan
- Cons
- No storefront shipping management
Turn on cost-effective shipping
Let's check if Calcurates meets your shipping needs!
#5 Sendcloud
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Founded in 2012
Founded in 2012
Sendcloud is a shipping platform that connects with over 35 carriers. Sendcloud's shipping automation allows you to generate shipping labels, track orders and create shipping rules to avoid manual errors.
Top Standout Features
Carrier Integration
Sendcloud offers a selection of around 35 international and local carriers. The most popular carriers include DPD, DHL, UPS, GLS, and FedEx. Sendcloud mostly operates within Europe, thus some carriers specific for the US like USPS are missing. Other carriers missing are Canada Post, Sendle, and Purolator to cover Canadian territories. Also, Australia Post is missing for deliveries to Australia.
Shipping Options
Sendcloud integrates with e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce or Shopify to offer shipping options to its clients. In this case, it is more important to look at shipping options available for each e-commerce platform rather than Sendcloud itself.
For WooCommerce stores the following shipping options are available: Flat Rate, Free Shipping, and In-store Pickup. For Magento e-commerce websites all four basic shipping options are available: Flat Rate, Table Rates, Free Shipping, and In-store Pickup. For Shopify users, Table Rates is not included.
For WooCommerce stores the following shipping options are available: Flat Rate, Free Shipping, and In-store Pickup. For Magento e-commerce websites all four basic shipping options are available: Flat Rate, Table Rates, Free Shipping, and In-store Pickup. For Shopify users, Table Rates is not included.
Shipping Labels and Order Tracking
Sendcloud can automate a shipping labels generation for all of their 35 available carriers. You can print and ship labels in bulk directly from the dashboard. Use return labels to ensure a smooth return process and handle returns without any hassle.
Inventory Management
Sendcloud does not cover any inventory management-related features. Thus, does not support any order fulfillment, inventory management, or low inventory alert features.
Pricing Plan
There are 4 pricing plans with Sendcloud.
- Free planSupports a maximum of 2 shop integrations, 1 branded tracking email, and Sendcloud's discounted rates.
- Small Shop planSupports 5 shop integrations, includes all branded tracking emails, branded return labels, and up to 5 Shipping Rules. A maximum of 400 shipping labels per month is allowed. The price is billed yearly and costs 40€ per month, which is around 45 USD.
- Large Shop planIncludes an unlimited number of shop integrations, an unlimited number of Shipping Rules, and a Pack & Go scan and print feature. There is a maximum of 1000 shipping labels allowed. The price for a “Large Shop" plan is 89€ per month which is around 100 USD.
- Business planIncludes all the advantages of the “Large Shop" pricing plan, in addition to access to the Customer Success Manager and 2500 shipping labels per month. The price is 179€ per month (roughly 204 USD).
Free Trial
There is no free trial but you are encouraged to start with a free pricing plan to get to know the functionality of the software better. You only pay for pre-negotiated shipping rates as you would for any shipment. If you want to try more features, all paid Sendcloud pricing plans are included with the free plan unpaid period.
Sendcloud Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Bulk shipping labels generation
- A free pricing plan
- Cons
- Some major carriers are missing
- Limited shipping flexibility at the checkout
In this article, we have given you detailed information about the most popular shipping solutions at the moment. We told you about the features, advantages, and disadvantages so if we were looking for the right solution for ourselves.
The choice is up to you, as always, and we hope that this text helped you make it!
The choice is up to you, as always, and we hope that this text helped you make it!
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