On 2/24/2022, PayPal switched our online Shipping interface to ShipStation-branded (black and green) pages with slightly nicer workflows.

The UPS labels generated through the new interface no longer show our usual UPS Shipper Number, and instead show a 6-character Shipper Number after "1Z" that presumably belongs to ShipStation.

So far the UPS rates through the new interface are up to half the cost (!) of what we paid a few days ago using our old Shipper Number and negotiated rates.

Unfortunately the real-time UPS rates that visitors see in the cart still use our old Shipper Number, Rate Code and Access Key configured in our UPS Admin page. For for some (but not all) labels this is now wildly overpriced.

To compete with resellers like Amazon it would be a big advantage to show the new, lower real-time rates in the cart.

If anyone has found a way to display real-time PayPal / Shipstation rates in the cart, using the new ShipStation / PayPal generated shipper number, we'd be grateful to know the details.

I've contacted ShipStation through the PayPal / Shipstation help link, but so far there's no response about whether they can provide a permanent Shipper Number, Rate Code and Access Key to configure in the UPS Admin page of our cart.

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Note: when PayPal first switched our shipping interface last week, the change locked us out of PayPal Shipping and several other features. The solution was to login to PayPal using a new web browser (unrecognized by PayPal cookies) which brought up ShipStation setup pages. Once we completed the setup pages PayPal displayed the new features as expected.

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Edited to Add:

After research, it looks like our best way to approximate the new UPS discounts through the PayPal / Shipstation integration is in the UPS Admin to configure "Use Published Rates" (instead of our negotiated rates as we have in the past) and then apply a 47% discount to the published rates using this line in the includes file:

$discountshippingups=-47;

UPS rates calculated in this way are reasonably close to the new lower net fees charged in PayPal, except for international shipments and shipments with large insurance fees, so beware of those cases. We've switched our international shipping back to USPS-only because of this issue.
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Hi Paul, an easy solution might be to lower your rates shown to customer with the following..

https://www.ecommercetemplates.com/help/ecommplus/parameters.asp#discship

Thanks,
David

Dave, thanks for this.

Unfortunately, based on a two-day sample about one-third of the rates using our old shipper number are pretty accurate, while about two-thirds are wildly overpriced.

And, we've seen UPS rates through the new PayPal / Shipstation system that are two-thirds of our old negotiated rate, one-half our old rate, etc.

This doesn't seem to be a function of the ship-to state, and seems pretty random as far as we can tell.

We're hoping to find a solution that will show correct rates to each visitor, using that new PayPal / Shipstation shipper number.

I'm surprised you are getting better rates via the Paypal site.
I doubt they would beat my rates, particularly when you can bet that are marking up the rate they get from UPS so it becomes a profit center when you ship through them.
Have you spoken to a UPS rep about your rates?
Perhaps it's time to discuss your rates and see where you're at.

David

Here is the reply from the ShipStation rep, when we requested a Rate Code and Access Key for the new UPS Shipper Number assigned by PayPal:

At this time, this is not a feature we offer in the shipping center.
. . .
Hope this was helpful!
. . .
Have a great day!


So it seems that PayPal assigned us a new UPS Shipper Number, with no way to charge those rates when customers check out.

Per the chart below, a sample of some orders that shipped yesterday shows an average 40% savings with the new Shipper Number vs. our old Negotiated Rate, but it varied significantly with each shipment.

So it's possible that Dave's suggestion to give everyone a 40% discount (!) off our Negotiated Rate might be our only solution. Not ideal.

I would suggest to find the "average" difference and set that as the discount and over time, it should even out.
But again, I would reach out to UPS about my negotiated rates to see where you're at.
Tell them about the difference and see what they can do.
You might find some new attractive rates and no need to create labels in paypal.

David

Thanks for that, Dave. We'll follow that advice for now.

BTW, it makes me crazy to think Amazon's UPS Negotiated Rate is less than half of ours.

We know this because our shared fulfillment center buys Amazon-generated UPS labels when they ship other manufacturers' products to Amazon warehouses.

Thanks in part to that huge competitive advantage, Amazon can afford to buy all those vans, trucks and cargo jets that could soon put UPS (and the rest of us) out of business.

:-(

quote:

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Thanks in part to that huge competitive advantage, Amazon can afford to buy all those vans, trucks and cargo jets that could soon put UPS (and the rest of us) out of business.

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I buy a lot from Amazon because it's just so convenient but I really think we're creating a monster. Once there is no competition left we're going to regret it I think.

Vince

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