Activating calculated shipping with Canada Post

You can connect your Canada Post account to your Shopify admin. After you connect your account, you can display shipping rates in your checkout that are calculated by Canada Post and buy Canada Post shipping labels directly in your Shopify admin. You can use discounted shipping rates that you negotiate with Canada Post directly.

Requirements for activating calculated shipping with Canada Post

To activate calculated shipping with Canada Post, you need to meet the following requirements:

  • You need to have your own Canada Post account.
  • Your store needs to be on the Advanced Shopify or Plus plan. If you're on the Shopify plan, then you can add this feature for a monthly fee or switch from monthly to yearly billing. For more information, contact Shopify Support.
  • Your store needs to have a fulfillment location based in Canada.

Step 1: Connect your Canada Post account

To activate calculated shipping with Canada Post, you need to connect your Canada Post account to your Shopify admin.

Steps:

  1. Log in to the Canada Post website using the username and password for your Canada Post account. If you don't have an account yet, then click Register now instead.
  2. On the Welcome page, copy the username and password that display in the Production section of the API Keys table. These are included in the Key Number. The Key Number includes two parts, which are separated by a :. The first part is your username, and the second part is your password. Make sure that you don't include the : character when you copy your username and password.
  3. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
  4. In the Carrier accounts section, add Canada Post as a shipping carrier:
    • If you don't have any shipping carrier accounts added, then click Connect carrier account, and then click Connect account next to Canada Post.
    • If you already have a shipping carrier account added, then click Manage carriers, and then click Connect account next to Canada Post.
  5. In the Connect Canada Post dialog, enter your account information (including the username and password that you copied from your Canada Post account):

    • Customer Number: The customer number of your Canada Post account.
    • Production Password: The password that's included in your Key Number. You can find this in the API Keys table in your Canada Post account.
    • Production Username: The username that's included in your Key Number. You can find this in the API Keys table in your Canada Post account.
    • Contract Number: The number for your contract shipping account.
  6. Click Save.

If your store processes a high volume of orders, then you might need to request an API rate limit increase from Canada Post. By default, the Canada Post API provides quotes for up to 20 shipping rates per minute. If Canada Post approves your request for an API rate limit increase, then your account can retrieve up to 400 shipping rates per minute.

Step 2: Test your carrier-calculated shipping rates

After you connect your third-party shipping carrier to your Shopify admin, you can test your account integration and preview calculated shipping rates for specific package types, sizes, and destinations within the Shopify admin.

The shipping rates that are displayed during testing are sample rates and might be different from the shipping rates displayed to your customers at checkout.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.

  2. In the Carrier accounts section, click Test account next to the carrier that you want to test.

  3. Select the package type, and then enter the size and weight.

  4. Adjust your origin and destination addresses. The Ship From and Ship To fields use your default location information.

  5. Click Test rates to view sample rates.

  6. Optional: Click the Details tab to enter different package details.

  7. Click Close.

Step 3: Set up carrier-calculated shipping rates

Set up your shipping rates calculated by Canada Post to display them to your customers at checkout.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.

  2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to add carrier-calculated rates to.

  3. Next to the zone where you want to add a rate, click Add rate.

  4. Select Use carrier or app to calculate rates.

  5. In the drop-down menu, choose the shipping service that you want to add calculated rates for.

  6. In the SERVICES section, select the shipping methods from that shipping service that you want to provide as options for your customers at checkout.

  7. Optional: In the FUTURE SERVICES section, choose whether to automatically offer any new services that the shipping service makes available.

  8. Optional: In the HANDLING FEE section, add any handling fee that you'd like to be added to the calculated rate.

  9. Click Done, and then click Save.

Canada Post shipping manifests

If you have a contract account with Canada Post, and when you connect your account and purchase labels using your own contract-based account, then you're required to provide a manifest to Canada Post.

Creating a manifest means that when you drop off your shipments, Canada Post can scan a single barcode on your manifest to accept your shipments, instead of scanning each shipment individually.

Each shipping label in the manifest must have the same shipping origin address and the same Shipping date.

If you can't add a shipping label with a past shipping date, then you need to void that shipping label and buy a new label with the correct shipping date.

Create a manifest

You can create a manifest directly from the Orders page or using the Shipping Manifests app.

When you create a manifest, labels that meet the following conditions are added:

  • tracking is included in the label
  • the Shipping date is the same day that you’re creating the manifest
  • the label hasn’t been added to another manifest

To avoid issues with multiple manifests, it's best to create your manifest at the end of the day before you go to Canada Post.

Steps:

  1. Create a new manifest using one of the following options:
    • From the Shipping Manifests app:
      1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Shipping Manifests.
      2. Click Create manifest.
    • From the Orders page:
      1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
      2. Click More actions > Create manifests.
  2. Select the fulfillment location. All available shipping labels from the fulfillment location will be added to the manifest.
  3. Click Create manifest.
  4. Click Print manifest.

Reprint a manifest

You can reprint a manifest up to 6 months after you create the manifest.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps > Shipping Manifests.
  2. Click the manifest that you want to reprint.
  3. Click Print manifest.

Deactivate Canada Post calculated shipping

If you no longer want to use calculated shipping by Canada Post, then you can disconnect your carrier account from your Shopify admin.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.

  2. In the Carrier accounts section, click Manage carriers.

  3. Next to Canada Post, click Disconnect account.

  4. In the dialog, click Disconnect account to confirm the deactivation.

Getting support

If you're having issues with your Canada Post account setup, then you can visit the Canada Post Support page to contact Canada Post.

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