UPS SurePost is not the most popular UPS service. Therefore, when looking for UPS integration with WooCommerce, it’s also worth noting if it has UPS SurePost support. In this article, I will show you how to make integrate UPS SurePost with WooCommerce using a free plugin.
UPS SurePost is an economy service for residential shipments of low value. UPS makes the shipment pick-up, and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) makes the final delivery. UPS SurePost services are available only for U. S. territories, and they don’t extend to international destinations. It means that both — the shop’s origin as well as the shipping destination address entered by the customer in the cart or checkout, need to be located in the United States in order for UPS SurePost services to be available.
The SurePost shipping rates are calculated based on the shipper’s location and package characteristics which include weight, size, and volume of the package. Each package offered for UPS SurePost will have a minimum and maximum weight restriction. These packages should be a minimum of 4 inches high, 6 inches long and a minimum thickness of 0.75 inches. Basically, no individual dimension should exceed 60 inches in length, which means that the maximum dimension (length + girth) combined will have to be limited to 130 inches.
Additionally, SurePost has a maximum weight limit of 70 lbs.
Available UPS SurePost Services:
You can check the current rates of each service on the official UPS SurePost page.
As promised in the header, I will show you how to integrate UPS SurePost with WooCommerce using a free plugin. The plugin that I can recommend is WooCommerce UPS Shipping – Live Rates and Access Points. It is currently used by over 9,000 WooCommerce stores worldwide. It allows you to automatically calculate shipping costs based on the products in your cart using the UPS API directly. You can read more about this in the article How to enable UPS shipping live calculations in your WooCommerce store.
Offer UPS Access Points support and live shipping rates in WooCommerce.
Download for free or Go to WordPress.orgWhat’s most important, the plugin has support for UPS SurePost, allowing you to add a customizable UPS SurePost shipping method.
If you have the UPS WooCommerce Live Rates and Access Points plugin installed and active, let’s move on. I will try to walk you through the process step by step.
Before you can add the UPS SurePost shipping method in WooCommerce, you must properly configure the plugin. In the case of WooCommerce UPS Shipping – Live Rates and Access Points plugin, it is effortless. You have to provide your UPS API credentials. To reach the plugin General settings, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Shipping → UPS Live Rates. To connect your WooCommerce store with the UPS API, you have to enter UPS User ID, UPS Password, UPS Access Key, and UPS Account Number in the appropriate fields.
Once you have completed all fields, save your changes. If all the entered data is correct, you will get the message OK in the API connection status field, as shown in the image above.
In your WooCommerce admin page, go to the Shipping Zone that contains the USA or any State that you want to ship to using UPS SurePost and click on Add new shipping method button. In the popup menu, choose UPS SurePost Live Rates and confirm using Add shipping method button.
When you have your new shipping method added, edit it. You’ll see the following settings options for that shipping method.
You can change the shipping method’s name, enable free shipping over amount and set the available services. Please mind that the UPS SurePost services are not available for UPS accounts by default and probably wouldn’t be available to new / low volume shippers (not until enough volume is determined by UPS). Each of the UPS SurePost services needs to be activated first, what can be achieved by contacting UPS and filling out additional applications.
Configure the shipping method based on your needs and Save changes. The method should already be active and available on the WooCommerce checkout page. Shipping cost will be automatically calculated based on the cart using UPS API.
If you want to not only display live rates to your customers, you can also use an additional plugin for UPS SurePost fulfillment in WooCommerce. UPS WooCommerce Labels and Tracking plugin allows you to create the shipments, generate the printable UPS shipping labels for the placed orders and track the parcels directly from your WooCommerce shop. It’s fully compatible with Live Rates and UPS SurePost services. I described the possibilities of the plugin in the article on How to create and print UPS Shipping Labels in WooCommerce.
As you can see, adding the UPS SurePost shipping method in WooCommerce is not complicated. And with the right plugin, you can do it for free! If you need more advanced calculations or want to print labels, you can choose additional premium plugins adapted to your needs.
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