UPS Prices v Reality - Endicia / PirateShip

[talerco]

Hello;
We do a lot of shipping via UPS - but not near enough to have our stated rates discounted to what Endicia and PirateShip offer.
That means that the UPS rates shown at checkout are much higher than what we actually pay - and we are sure many potential customers are turned off.
We have modified the UPS rates to be shown with a percentage reduction but while this can help get closer generally it is still way high for some orders and way low for others depending on weight and location. It seems the way low orders are completed while the way high are not - meaning lost business - except when we lose money on shipping. ;)
Is there any way to get Endicia or PirateShip real time rates to show in MIVA?
Thanks, David
SunOrganic Farm

[lesliekirk]

Hello;
We do a lot of shipping via UPS - but not near enough to have our stated rates discounted to what Endicia and PirateShip offer.
That means that the UPS rates shown at checkout are much higher than what we actually pay - and we are sure many potential customers are turned off.
We have modified the UPS rates to be shown with a percentage reduction but while this can help get closer generally it is still way high for some orders and way low for others depending on weight and location. It seems the way low orders are completed while the way high are not - meaning lost business - except when we lose money on shipping. ;)
Is there any way to get Endicia or PirateShip real time rates to show in MIVA?
Thanks, David
SunOrganic Farm

Hi David,

I have had other store owners ask about getting PirateShip into Miva but I can't seem to get any answers for them too. Perhaps since they are MM10 stores we may need to move our request there or better yet, to the "Dream Features" forum.

Leslie

[Rick Wilson]

I can tell you us doing a Pirate Ship integration in the next few months is not going to happen. I'm not sure if Advanced Shipping Manager is a workaround to get them? If ASM isn't an option, the only other near term option would be PirateShip to build an integration to us.

And yes the Dream Features forum is the right location, but again this won't make the 2023 roadmap.

[delcorsets]

As a ShipStation user I would mention that they too offer really good UPS and DHL rates and there's already a Miva integration. I did some comparisons with a friend who's business uses PirateShip and the rates are pretty much identical with ShipStation's rates.

Even with an integration however I'm not sure that it would be possible for Miva to pull the shipping softwares's discounted shipping rate. That's being selected manually and then calculated in ShipStation/PirateShip (or other,) after shipper chooses shipping method, correct?...

[talerco]

When we print a label through MIVA / Endicia we get a rate that is virtually identical to PirateShip. However, this is significantly lower that our UPS rates that show at checkout. Is there a way to integrate the Endicia rates to be seen at checkout?
Thanks

[Rick Wilson]

No getting live rates during checkout is a totally different set of API's then when you go print a label.

Natively we can pull rates from UPS, USPS, FedEx and Canada Post, there's also an app called Advanced Shipping Manager that can do more with rate displays.

Your options here would be to see if there's a consistent percentage discount, then you could apply it via the shipping rules and keep an eye on it. Second you could see if Advanced Shipping Manager can help. Finally a custom shipping rate module.

[Kent Multer]

If anyone is interested in a custom module for this, you're welcome to contact me for a quote.

[lesliekirk]

I can see that getting anything for Pirate Ship is not going anywhere. I have a storeowner who is getting eaten alive by the native USPS module. The latest was a $12 difference in the rates. She's a small business that needs to save wherever she can. Come on now!

[Rick Wilson]

Are you comparing UPS prices (as the title says) or USPS? And are you talking about rates on the shopping interface or the price of an actual label?

I can definitely say we're not even thinking about adding a new label generation feature or partner in the next 12 - 18 months, which therefore precludes us at Miva building a Pirate Ship integration during that time. Susan or Bruce or others certainly could do one if there's demand.

There are multiple ways to print packages, natively with Endicia, UPS, FedEx and CanadaPost but there's also native integrations with UPS WorldShip, ShipWorks, ShipStation, etc... There's even import and export files if they want to use Pirate Ship for labels.

Ultimately it's a trade off. Should we worry about more label providers for postage? Or work on using AI to help our merchants maximize profit? I know where our strategic focus is and it's not on saving a couple dollars on postage when they already can.

[ids]

Oye, Matey! Here's the Rubb...

Doesn't look like Pirate Ship offers an API. So, I don't think there's a way, at least an obvious way, to integrate with Miva right now. There may be some outside the box ideas I have to work around the issue of shipping rates.

Scott

[Rick Wilson]

For rates you likely shouldn't be using them (Pirate Ship) to display rates. Find a way with the myriad of native tools to display the rates you want. Labels you can do anything, just need to figure out the workflow you want.

[lesliekirk]

Pirate Ship (who has been around since 2014) offers both USPS® & UPS® shipping. My client is currently using it for all of her sales other than Miva. They offer her pre-negotiated rates, which are much lower than the USPS and UPS rates that are available through the Miva modules that connect to both. They offer rates for these methods:

UPS® Ground
UPS Ground Saver®
UPS 3 Day Select®
UPS 2nd Day Air®
UPS Next Day Air®
UPS Standard®
UPS Worldwide Expedited®
UPS Worldwide Saver®
UPS Worldwide Express®
USPS Priority Mail®
USPS Priority Mail Cubic®
USPS Priority Mail® Flat Rate
USPS Ground Advantage™
USPS Media Mail®
USPS Priority Mail Express®
USPS First Class Package Intl.®
USPS Priority Mail Intl.®
USPS Priority Mail Express Intl.®

They currently integrate with 12 other ecommerce platforms. I can try to get further details once I can regain access to my Shopify demo store (that I so rarely access). I'm curious as to how it interacts (does it pull rates to allow the customer to choose from?). If it does more than just shipping labels but offers the rates my client brags about it might be worth finding someone who can "build a bridge". Keep in mind, most Pirate Ship users are small business owners trying to save money.

[Rick Wilson]

Miva isn't going to build that anytime soon, but perhaps Scott, etc...

I am still not clear if you want Rating (which is what shows when someone is shopping and I'd recommend against because if they go down your site is down) or labels. Printing labels via Pirate Ship could definitely be done today using the Import/Export tools in Miva.

[ids]

My concept of building a connector, as I have with other services, is currently a dead deal with Pirate Ship. I got an official response from them that there is no API or developer portal to be able to talk directly via REST or whatever. What if there are potential workarounds to explore. I mean, that Pirate Ship doesn't have a treasure map, so what's the treasure we're looking for?

Scott

[lesliekirk]

So I've done some digging and playing around with how the Pirate Ship app integrates. LOL, then I decided to read the help docs.

Pirate Ship doesn't display live rates to your customers

• Charge what you want for shipping: Pirate Ship never displays live rates to your customers. What you charge for shipping is up to you

So, yeah, as others have asked me, I need to ask my store owner what she's trying to accomplish other than having an easier way to print shipping labels with a cheaper rate.