Add shipping buffers

You can add positive and negative buffers to your shipping rates by adding them at the carrier level or on specific service levels/shipping options (shipping costs), which alter the shipping amount displayed and charged at checkout.

Positive shipping buffers 

You may add a positive buffer if you want to collect extra funds to cover costs associated with:

• International shipping risks, e.g. Lost or stolen packages or HS code adjusted by a customs official
• Warehousing costs, e.g. handling and packaging
• Foreign exchange

For reasons like those above, you may add a positive percentage or flat rate buffer such as the ones shown in the following examples:

• $5 carrier or service level buffer that adds $5 to the carrier-calculated shipping cost in order to account for handling and packaging fees - This means that you will charge your customer $5 over what your carrier will charge you to ship the package.
• 5% carrier or service level buffer that adds 5% to the carrier-calculated shipping cost in order to account for theft and lost packages over time - This means that you will charge your customer 5% over what your carrier will charge you to ship the package.

Negative shipping buffers 

You may add a negative buffer if you want to absorb some of the shipping costs yourself, lowering the cost to your customers. Here is an example:

• Subsidizing your negotiated shipping rates to be more competitive

For this [or another] reason, you may add a negative percentage or flat rate buffer such as the following:

• 50% carrier or service level buffer that subtracts 50% from the carrier-calculated shipping costs - This reduces the cost of shipping offered to your customers at checkout.

Next steps 

• Set up shipping zones - Use shipping zones to manage shipping profiles, rules, and rates by country.
• Enable service levels - Activate specific service levels in the shipping zones of your choice.
• Custom shipping rules- Set up custom shipping options where you set the price for shipping.