The Courier Service Price Estimator helps you quickly calculate shipping costs for an order before it's dispatched. This is useful for quoting customers, validating shipping costs, or testing your courier pricing configuration.
Prerequisites
Before using the Courier Service Price Estimator, you must have courier service prices configured.
Important: Without configured prices, the estimator will return "Unable to Calculate Courier Service Price."
To configure courier service prices:
Click Shipping Management then Couriers.
Next, click ManageCourierServices against the Courier you want to add pricing for.
Find the service you want to edit then click ManagePrices.
Click Edit and configure at least one price record with:
Weight range (minimum and maximum weight per parcel).
Parcel costs.
Country or Shipping Zone assignment.
How to Access the Estimator
The Courier Service Price Estimator can be accessed in two ways:
Dashboard Widget: Add the Shipping Estimator widget to your dashboard for quick access.
Shipping Management Menu: Click Shipping Management then Extras then Courier Service Price Estimator.
How to Use the Estimator
Navigate to the Courier Service Price Estimator using one of the access methods above.
Populate the following fields:
Warehouse (required): The warehouse fulfilling the order. Affects pricing if warehouse-specific prices are configured.
Client (3PL only): Select a specific client for 3PL operations. Leave as default for warehouse operations. Client-specific prices take priority over general prices.
Courier Service (required): The shipping service to estimate pricing for (such as Royal Mail 24 or DPD Next Day).
Country (required): Destination country. Used for country-based pricing and zone matching.
Channel (optional): Sales channel (such as Amazon or Shopify). Some prices may be channel-specific.
Total Weight - KG (required): Total shipment weight in kilograms. Must fall within a configured weight range to return a price.
Number Of Parcels (required): How many parcels or boxes are in the shipment. Affects total cost calculation.
PostCode (optional): Destination postcode. Used for zone-based pricing (particularly important for UK domestic shipping with multiple pricing zones).
Click Get Price.
The estimator will return the courier service price based on the data entered.
How Pricing is Calculated
The system uses a priority-based matching system to find the most specific price for your criteria.
Price Matching Priority
The estimator searches for prices in this order (most specific to most general):
Most specific: Postcode zone, client, warehouse, and country.
Less specific: Postcode zone, client, and warehouse.
Less specific: Postcode zone, client, and country.
And so on (16 levels of specificity).
Most general: No specific client, warehouse, country, or postcode requirements.
How it works:
The system starts with the most specific match possible.
If no match is found, it progressively relaxes criteria.
If multiple prices match at the same specificity level, the lowest client price is used.
For postcode zones (UK), the longest postcode prefix match wins (such as SW1A beats SW1).
Multi-Parcel Calculation
For orders with multiple parcels:
First parcel: Charged at the Parcel Cost rate.
Additional parcels: Charged at the Additional Parcel Cost rate.
Example: Three parcels with £5.00 parcel cost and £2.00 additional equals £5.00, plus two multiplied by £2.00, which equals £9.00.
Per-Kilo Rate (Alternative Pricing Model)
Some courier services use per-kilogram pricing instead of fixed parcel rates:
Calculation: Base cost, plus weight in kilograms multiplied by per-kilo rate.
Example: £3.00 base, plus 2.55 kilograms multiplied by £0.50 per kilogram, equals £4.275.
Understanding the Results
The estimator returns the client cost for the specified shipment, which includes:
Base parcel cost for the first parcel.
Additional parcel costs (if multiple parcels).
Fuel surcharge (if configured for the courier service).
VAT calculation (unless the service is VAT-exempt).
Example Result:
Courier Service: Royal Mail 24.
Country: United Kingdom.
Number Of Parcels: Two.
Total Weight: 1.5.
Total Cost: £7.45.
If you see Unable to Calculate Courier Service Price, this means no matching price was found. See Troubleshooting below.
Troubleshooting
"Unable to Calculate Courier Service Price"
This error occurs when no configured price matches your criteria. Common causes:
Weight Out of Range
Problem: The total weight (or weight per parcel) doesn't fall within any configured weight range.
Solution: Check your courier service prices and ensure weight ranges cover your shipment weight. For two parcels at 1.5 kilograms total equals 0.75 kilograms per parcel. Ensure a price exists with MinWeight less than or equal to 0.75 kilograms and MaxWeight greater than or equal to 0.75 kilograms.
No Price for Country or Zone
Problem: No price configured for the destination country or the postcode doesn't match any zone.
Solution: Check if a price exists for the specific country. For zone-based pricing, verify the postcode is included in a zone. Consider adding a general All Countries or World Zone price as a fallback.
Client or Warehouse Filtering
Problem: All available prices are restricted to specific clients or warehouses that don't match your selection.
Solution: Add a price with Client equals All and Warehouse equals All as a general fallback.
No Prices Configured
Problem: The selected courier service has no prices configured at all.
Solution:
Click Shipping Management then Couriers.
Next, click ManageCourierServices against the Courier you want to add pricing for.
Find the service you want to edit then click ManagePrices and add at least one price record.