Set up real-time shipping
About real-time shipping
Real-time shipping (RTS) offers the most accurate shipping rates, and helps avoid under or over charging for shipping in North America. During checkout, carriers will provide dynamic rate estimates based on distance, weight, and the number of boxes needed to ship your items.
Before you begin
Be sure to understand how to create shipping rates. To learn more, check out how to Set up shipping rate profiles.
For RTS, you'll need the following:
Carrier accounts: For sellers based in the US, Square provides pre-negotiated rates with United States Postal Service (USPS) and DHL Express. You can also connect additional carriers such as UPS and FedEx.
Shipping boxes: You’ll also need to set up at least one shipping box for estimating shipping rates. The dimensions, max weight, and item capacity of the boxes are used to determine the total number of boxes needed to ship an order. A default box will be created for you, but you can edit the settings for that box and add additional box sizes as needed.
Item weights: RTS provides rate estimates based on the total weight of the items in an order, so you’ll need to specify a weight for each of your shippable items.
Step 1: Set up shipping carriers
By integrating your Square account with Shippo — a shipping carrier partner — you can create and purchase shipping labels in Square Dashboard for shipment orders created in Square Online, Square Point of Sale, and Square for Retail. Learn how to Set up shipping carriers with Shippo.
Step 2: Set up shipping boxes
The default box setting for RTS is 10” x 10” x 10” with a max weight of 70 lbs. To start creating boxes, check out how to Set up custom shipping boxes.
Once your shipping boxes are set up, assign boxes to your items in your Item Library.
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Items & orders > Items.
Select an existing item or create a new one.
Under Fulfillment, go to “Online fulfillment methods” and click Edit to select the Shipping option. Click Save.
Under Fulfillment, go to “Assign a shipping box” and click Edit so you can choose a shipping box option to assign to the item. Click Save.
Make any additional item edits and click Save when finished.
The default box will be used for items that don’t have a specific box assigned to them. If a customer places an order where more than one box size is needed, RTS will use multiples of the largest box size needed to accommodate the number and weight of items purchased.
For example, say you’re selling handmade pottery in varying sizes and weights, including coffee mugs and large vases. The default box size comfortably fits two of your coffee mugs, so you can set the maximum items to two and the max weight to the same as two coffee mugs. However, you need a much larger box for the vase, so you create a second box that is 18” x 18” x 18” with an item capacity of one vase and a max weight that matches the vase weight. You'd then edit each item and associate them with the corresponding box to ensure that the larger box is used if someone purchases a vase.
Step 3: Add item weights
RTS provides rate estimates based on the total weight of the items in an order. You can set up weights for your items in Square Item Library. Learn how to Create and edit items for details.
Note: If the weight of all items in an order is 0, the weight will automatically default to 0.1 lb/kg. When setting up the RTS rate, you can also add an adjustment fee to account for any packaging & handling costs.
Step 4: Create a real-time shipping rate
Once you've set up the above, you can create your RTS rate:
Sign in to your Square Dashboard and click Account & Settings > Fulfillment > Shipment.
Click Add new profile.
Choose Order as your profile Type from the dropdown menu.
Enter a shipping profile name. This name won't be visible to customers.
Click Add countries to select United States. Click Done.
Click Add rate. Enter the rate name that will be visible to customers at checkout and choose Real-time shipping rates.
Select a carrier and which service levels you want to show at checkout. Click Done.
Click Save when finished.
Note: Rates for RTS have a fallback rate option, which is what applies when the shipping carrier can't supply a shipping rate automatically.
