USPS.com is the postal service in the USA. They have a API. Also I’m most cases will be the shipping option of choice when orders are simi local. Ups and FedEx are the two primary package carriers in the USA. They both have API as well. Alot of these new *enhancements* like mentioned before. Should be optional for hubs to turn on of off. This is a vast industry with little in place for standards. So you can’t assume you will be able to make a one size fits all. Your dealing on a global scale which is vast. I can’t speak for other countries, but just in the USA is nearly impossible to make the one size fits all glove your trying to impose on us. Your going in the right direction but if you don’t listen to your hubs your going to land face first in the mud and get trampled before you get it right. We’re pointing out where every pot hole is. So avoid them. Stop digging new potholes to fill in others. I have expressed more than once I’m willing to talk one on one with 3dhubs but never got the a single email and response on Facebook leaves much to be desired.
Hey Jatmn, we’ve only informed the first 10% of our Hubs about the shipping update yesterday, in order to catch any bugs or unclarities. We’ve already got over 100 Hubs updating their shipping within one day and it seems to be working alright, so on Monday we’ll inform the remaining 90% of our Hubs.
We’re also going to investigate further features to handle weight and size in a smart way, so stay tuned for that - we might even be able to include something before the July 1st launch based on your feedback.
I’m sorry that the “free shipping” option is insulting to you, you’re absolutely free not to offer it.
Hi Christophe and others,
Not angry, but frustrated, frustrated that no one at 3D hubs consulted with any of us first before bring on these changes.
I run a hub for profit, it is not a hobby to me.
I have an inpectable reputation with my customers.
I have a profitable hub with many satisfied customers.
I offer a good service and produce excellent 3D printed parts and models.
I try to keep my prices just and fair.
I pay my share of profits to 3D Hubs.
I do all of this with my own hard work.
I will not apologize that I am a frustrated that 3D Hubs is putting a burden on my business with new shipping methods without what I believe, is a full understanding how shipping works where I operate my hub.
The United States and Canada are large countries and trying to determine shipping cost by location is a nightmare.
Most of this is due to the fact that package size, package weight and destination MUST be all determined in order to ship.
The shipping costs could vary greatly because something might weight an ounce more, or the package is a ½ inch wider or even if a package is going to a different zip code within the same city.
It is so difficult to calculate shipping costs that even most APIs used in eCommerce don’t often get it right. It is one of the largest complaints that online stores have with their shopping cart providers, that real time shipping estimates are either not offered or not accurate. Take Shopify for instance, they only offer real time rates if you pay a premium, however, they don’t include the package size as one of the parameters so it is useless because every rate they quote is incorrect so most Shopify store use a third party API instead.
The other issue is that Americans have become very sensitive about shipping costs. The shipping rates in this country keep on going up and up to the point where smaller stores cannot compete with a company like Amazon with it’s vast resources and customer base because they are able to negotiate lower rates with their shippers such at FedEx, UPS and even the USPS. Also they have their own delivery people in large metro areas.
If real time rates are not available most online merchants will try to come up with an average shipping rate perhaps based on region.
This means that you will be losing money on some shipments and over charging customers on others. Brian has said that you could always adjust the shipping costs afterwards, but again, it has been my experience that if a customer thinks that you are trying to inflate shipping costs they will perceive you as a dishonest merchant and won’t even give you the chance to make the adjustment and shop elsewhere.
And most merchants will agree that Flat Rate Shipping or Shipping by Region is a LAST RESORT.
In fact there have been studies done that say customers would rather pay higher product prices than pay for shipping. This is all well and good but this type of pricing model will not work with the services that we sell on 3D Hubs and keep in mine that what we do sell is a service not products per say.
I envy you that you have a much simpler shipping costs approach and still maintain profitability.
What do you do if a $6.00 printed part could cost anywhere from $1.00 to $12.00 to ship depending on location?
Brian said that perhaps we could offer Free Shipping. Free Shipping would only work if you inflate the prices to the extreme for your services and than only if other the hubs also up their prices. You have to be very careful or all your hard work in the past building up your business could go down the drain very quickly.
3D Hubs was designed for the Euro Market and understandable so.
I understand and respect that.
However, there are now so many hubs in North America that perhaps 3D Hubs should think a North American version of the 3D Hubs more in tune with the way business is done in North America.
Certainly eBay does this, they have different eBays for different parts of the world and there is a reason for this.
After all we don’t have VAT here and 3D hubs has not may it easy for our State by State, County by County, Zip Code by Zip Code Sales Tax system that we have to use. In fact we have to do our own calculations for sales tax and add it to the order as an after thought. And certainly hubs in other parts of the world do not understand and could care less about the U.S sales tax system as I personally do not understand the VAT system.
So I say this to all my friends in the European Market, please have a little apathy for us here in the States.
We fear that our hubs might be in jeopardy due to a change that was never talked about until a few weeks prior to implementation.
We are concerned that we will lose profit and have to abandon our hubs and we do not want to do that.
I am sure that 3D Hubs will do their best to try to accommodate hubs in places where shipping has a vast number of variables like in the U.S. so I will no longer speak about this topic again unless 3D hubs has any questions they might want to ask of me.
If I have cause anyone to feel hurt or insulted then I do sincerely apologize, please this was not my intent, it was just the frustration coming out from the fear of the impact on my hub.
Sincerely,
Peter Zacarelli
Shipping per state does not do anything but make even more headache… I’m not going to sit here and figure out 1000 shipping rates to cover all the region’s of every state…which is still subjective to size and weight. I would advise 3dhubs to not waste the hours paying devs to do this as it’s a waste of even 3dhubs time
We have shipping zones (9-10 of them) adding states is a waste of time. Ours and yours.
Hi Pete,
Just wanted to let you know that we’re working on a fix that will allow you to choose between ‘Flat rate’ and ‘Price per Order’. We’ll try to get it built tomorrow, that should allow us to still launch this early July, and learn from customers and Hubs working with the new service. In this way customers can see what shipping services you offer, without you having to predict the price beforehand.
I would still like to chat with you tomorrow, if you’ve got time as I think we indeed have rushed this shipping feature with too little US focus and learning from your experiences will help us make it better.
Best,
Brian
ps. no harm done on my side, better to speak up and be heard than let a issue linger on… hope we’re on track to fixing it with the above change
Hi Perry,
We’re going to add a 3rd option tomorrow that allow you to “Price per Order”, instead of the flat rate or free shipping. That basically allows all Hubs in the US to keep using the ‘legacy’ shipping but still provide more info about what shipping services/delivery times they offer.
Hope that is helpful, as this thread hopefully shows we do listen (although we should have consulted more US hubs upfront) and will make rapid iterations to the feature before it goes live.
Best,
Brian
Brian, if I were you I would not bother with putting in states or regions, etc.
It does not solve the issues.
Perhaps a warning to the customer that the shipping quote is that, only a estimated quote and the hub may lower or raise the shipping quote based on actual shipping costs.
I sincerely believe this would be the only solution at this time.
Peter
How big can this $6 part be 
The only order I have ever shipped with $20 shipping was going to Canada where 1oz costs $10. My highest shipping cost in the US after more than a hundred shipped orders was $12 for priority mail and that was a $600 order that used an entire spool of filament. I charge $3 for most orders and fanatically track everything and am generally a few cents in the black on shipping costs (postage, padded envelope and thermal label) overall.
One of the big benefits of selling 3D printed parts is that they are light and you can offer low priced shipping to overcome the objections US consumers have to paying for shipping. You are also the manufacturer and can self insure pretty easily. Buy more sizes of padded envelopes, most parts go in the 6x9, but I have two larger sizes for other stuff that does not fit in the smaller one. At 25-35 cents each in low quantities they really cut down your shipping costs compared to boxes unless you are shipping truly massive volumes (You have a 40% or greater UPS discount).
You probably need to look at lower price postage options like first class for $6 prints, you are wasting a lot of money using priority mail for inexpensive items to maybe get it to the customer a single day faster. I can ship you an 8oz part from Seattle to Miami for $3.40, I can’t think of a part under $30 I couldn’t ship in a padded envelope first class.
I would never mail a part in a padded envelope. I use small boxes from uline. Most fit in a 4x4x4 box. Part of my shipping cost is also to pay for the box, bubblewrap, and the label.
Most items can ship first class. But once in a while it needs to be priority or ups due to size of the parts or padding needed.
Don’t be afraid of the padded envelope there is really no safety advantage to the box, in many automated facilities they are treated more harshly. I worked in logistics for almost 10 years and we tracked it, the only reason to use a box if you have a choice is to comply with insurance rules for dead space which a 4x4x4 is not going to meet anyways. Packing boxes is also much more labor intensive.
I have a hub close to me that sells only on price. The prints are not so good, but they sell on price alone. They also do not do the standard 20% infill.
This keeps my pricing low, because I have to be competitive. So I sometimes do parts where my margin is a buck or two.
If I have to eat a half a dollar or a dollar because of a flat rate shipping situation, that hurts. So yeah, I am really not interested in offering a flat price for shipping. It will hurt my profits.
Also, this competitor charges $2.50 for shipping on all items. My average shipping cost is over $3.00.
So with the new proposed model, I am now competing on shipping costs as well as price of the model, further eroding my margins. In countries where shipping is standard pricing, I see how it would work. Or if an API determines the pricing, then yea, it would work.
But, if a prospective customer looks at the price, and now the shipping, in the quote, I am now really getting squeezed. Not only by the bad competitor, but by 3dhubs shipping mechanism.
I just ran some simple tests on stamps.com, which is where I get postage quotes. A change in a few ounces and two zip codes over changes the price of a package sometimes pretty noticeably! Try it out.
Would it be possible to update the customer’s shipping if they select the wrong option? I offer three shipping options listed on my hub page; Standard shipping if the order fits within a 5" x 3" x 3" dimension and under 13 oz, Priority Mail for orders under 13 oz and any dimension, and Priority Mail for orders over 14 oz and any dimension. So shipping prices can vary from $3.80 to $13.45 depending on weight.
Though what 3d Hubs is proposing for shipping profiles is fine by me as I only offer 3 options, my main concern would be updating shipping for the customer if needed. Is this going to be doable on my end or would I have to contact 3dhubs to update the order? Since there is no weight calculation on 3dhubs for the order, how is the customer suppose to know what shipping option of mine to select? What is to stop the customer from automatically choosing my $3.80 option no matter the size and weight for the order? After reviewing a order is when I know the exact weight of the to be printed design(s) as Simplify3d outputs a weight calculation when it slices the design(s). The software has been very accurate about weight of the final printed order and I this is what I use to determine best shipping for customers on and off 3dhubs before printing.
Hey Perry,
Thanks for explaining your process and details of US shipping systems, in response we’ve just released another update to the shipping feature. Which allows you to continue to use the old ‘per order’ pricing in combination with the new options. So we’re no longer requiring you to set Flat Rate shipping.
Let me know what you think of the latest version.
Brian
Yes, this looks perfect. Thanks for listening!!! Now I don’t have to ask the customer every time if they need overnight shipping, and I can charge the customer the exact price, without overcharging the customer or losing margin.
Thanks so much!!!
@Luuk For some reason, I can’t fill in the form. It doesn’t recognise the country
Hey, what country are you trying to list? Some countries we unfortunately cannot ship to/do business with.
Just Belgium,
Its weird, cause i would expect when i enter “B” the posibilities show up.
Hey, i’ve set up a test shipping option that listed Belgium for you. Can you check if it shows for you?
Actually, I can’t see your entry, Also I cannot list other countries and nether in a different browser. Tested chrome,firefox and internet explorer. Weird. I do not have special settings of anything I am aware of that can cause any troubles
Let’s take the discussion offline. I’ll email you.
Hi @JF43FR can you try it again, we just updated a fix for your issue.
Brian