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USPS Changing 1st Class to Zoned Pricing in 2019 - Need API

DadsAfolDadsAfol
edited December 2018 in Closed Suggestions Vote Up3Vote Down
@Lawrence , I think i asked for this a couple years ago but it only applied to Priority Mail, which was ~10% of the order volume. Now USPS will be applying zone pricing for all first class packages starting January 27th. https://blog.stamps.com/2018/10/19/usps-announces-postage-rate-increase-starts-january-27-2019/

We urgently need the ability to connect a USPS API calculator, as 100% of all US orders shipped will have postage depend on the zone calculations (from zip XXXXX to Zip YYYYY), along with weight. Can you please revisit this topic and see if this is feasible?

Thanks. -Jason

Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    We've implemented zoned pricing for people to try out, we mentioned it in this thread here https://www.brickowl.com/forum#/discussion/6971/zip-range-for-shipping

    Would you be able to try it out and provide some feedback?
  • GrahamGraham
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Lawrence
    Seems to work, but as mentioned in other thread, would be very handy to be able to add insurance in the method, at the moment have to create multiple duplicates of same method to add insurance incrementally.
  • CalibrickCalibrick
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    +1
  • DadsAfolDadsAfol
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Lawrence I'm not trying to be argumentative, but why can't you use one of the commonly available USPS APIs? There are literally thousands of cells of data that update every January (I will email you the file). This would be hours of work for every US seller, and the risk that no data entry errors are made.

    Also, USPS Priority International has 17 zones, not 9, so if you stick with this manual setup method, you'll have to figure out how to scroll or scrunch the screen.

    An extra benefit of using the API is that you can suggest to the buyer to fix a bad address before they finalize their order. Currently they can type in a garbage address (usually unintentional typos, transposed digits, misspelled street names, etc.). This would ensure that every address is actually a 'mailable' address.
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    My understanding was that the system implemented would work for the majority of sellers with the "normal" methods they use. Unfortunately I only have information from a few sellers and don't have a good contextual overview of how different sellers use USPS. Is this not the case?

    Although it would certainly be beneficial to have the shipping methods pre-inputted from an API, unfortunately we don't have the time to dedicate to this before the end of the year. Hopefully someone will input some of the main methods and mark them as shared so they can be adjusted by others.
  • CalibrickCalibrick
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    I will definitely input these and share the base tables, though each seller WILL have to research their own rates as each seller will have a different zip code.

    Zone-based shipping means what it costs for me to ship to a Zone 3 is NOT the same as what it will cost someone else to ship to Zone 3, as those actual locations will be different based on our source zip code.

    Also, some of us will be using commercial rates (e.g., if you ship via PayPal, stamps.com), while others will be using retail rates (e.g., direct from USPS).

    It's a PITA but WELL worth the effort IMHO.
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