How to Set Up Shipping Costs & Options

Postage Calculation Type

The first step in setting up your postage and shipping options is to select a Postage Calculation Type, which can be done from the Postage Setup Page (Members Area > Selling > Selling Tools > Postage Setup):

HipStamp: https://www.hipstamp.com/members/tools/postage-setup
HipComic: https://www.hipcomic.com/members/tools/postage-setup
HipPostcard: https://www.hippostcard.com/members/tools/postage-setup

The Postage Calculation Type is set globally for your account and applies to all listings. We currently provide the following options:

Item Based

The postage costs will need to be entered for each individual listing.

With this option, you will be able to provide a specific cost to ship each item, as well as a specific cost to ship each item when it is shipping with an additional item (the highest price cost across multiple items will always count as the first item). Additionally, depending on the Postage Zones that you set up, you can specify different costs for different countries or groups of countries. This is the default Postage Calculation Type.

Shipping Carriers

Your users will receive automatic quotes (based on the weights you supply for your items) from the following shipping carriers: USPS, UPS, FedEx

Item Based (Domestic) Shipping Carriers (Everywhere Else)

For domestic shipping, the postage costs will need to be entered for each individual listing. For everywhere else, your users will receive automatic quotes from the following shipping carriers: USPS, UPS, FedEx

Can I use different Postage Calculation Types for different listings?

At this time, the Postage Calculation Type can only be set globally - and one of the above three options must be selected. The main reason that we do not allow a mix of Postage Calculation Types across listings is that this will generally cause issues with combining shipping across multiple items.

Shipping Locations Settings

From within the Postage Setup Page (Members Area > Selling > Selling Tools > Postage Setup), the Shipping Locations Settings allows you to group different countries into specific groups.

By default, two groups are created: "Domestic", which will include your own country, and "Everywhere Else" which includes the special country "Everywhere Else" which represents all other countries not currently specified in another group.

Why would I want to create a custom Location Group?

As an example, if you are in the United States, you may want to create a Location Group for "North America" which includes the countries of Canada and Mexico; or if you are in a country within the European Union, you may want to create a Location Group for "European Union" which includes all European Union countries.

These Location Groups will then be available to you when you create an Item Listing, in the Postage Settings section, allowing you to easily set different costs based on the Location Group the buyer belongs to.

What if I do not want to Ship Internationally?

The country "Everywhere Else" represents all other countries not currently specified in another group. However, you can remove this "country" to only ship to the countries you specify within the specific Location Groups you set.

Default Listing Settings - Shipping

The Default Listing Settings page allows you to set default settings to be automatically filled in for you when you create a new listing. Keep in mind that changing these settings alone would have no effect on any existing listings.

These settings simply represent the default values you will see when you create a new listing in your store (which you can then change per listing). We recommend that you update these default settings as well once you've set up your Postage Calculation Type and Shipping Location Settings.

This page can be accessed from the Default Listings Page (Members Area > Selling > Seller Tools > Default Listing Settings):

HipStamp: https://www.hipstamp.com/members/tools/prefilled-fields
HipComic: https://www.hipcomic.com/members/tools/prefilled-fields
HipPostcard: https://www.hippostcard.com/members/tools/prefilled-fields

From within the "Postage" section, you can add the default Postage options you wish to provide to users for new listings. Each row within the Postage section represents the following:

By Itself - Cost to Ship the item (by itself)
With Another Item - Cost to Ship the item when it is shipping with another item
Shipping Method - A name you assign to the shipping option, ie: "Standard Shipping"
Choose Location - The Location Groups applicable to this option. Note that you can add multiple Location Groups.

Can I offer multiple shipping options in the same Location Groups?

Yes, if for example, you wanted to offer "Standard Shipping'' and "Express Shipping" you can set up a Postage option for each type, and include the same Location Groups. When a buyer checks out, they will be presented with both options.

Free Shipping

In addition to the above options, you can also set up a Free Shipping option to be made available to buyers when they spend a certain amount on an order; for example "Free Shipping When You Spend $35 or More". This option can be set up from the "Free Postage" section of the Postage Setup Page (Members Area > Selling > Selling Tools > Postage Setup):