How to Calculate Economy Shipping Rates with an eCommerce Shipping Calculator Tool?

As the name suggests, economy shipping charges are less compared to other shipping options. But, before opting for economy shipping options for your eCommerce business, you have to make sure that the economy shipping options are suitable for your business requirements. In this article, we are going to discuss how to Calculate Economy Shipping Rates with an eCommerce Shipping Calculator Tool.

Since it has comparatively less shipping rates than other shipping options, this shipping option would take more time to ship packages. So, analyze your business requirements and customers’ expectations on the delivery days, and go for economy shipping options if and only if it is ideal for your business requirements.

What is economy shipping?

There are 3 types of shipping in the eCommerce world. They are Economy, Standard, and Expedited.

As you know, expedited shipping is using the fastest shipping services to deliver your packages within the minimum possible number of days. Standard shipping is comparatively faster than economy shipping. 

So, economy shipping is using the minimum shipping cost to send your packages to the customers which are less time-sensitive. Why?

Shipping time and shipping rates are negatively correlated. If you take more time to ship a product, it will have less shipping cost compared to other options. Hence, if your customers do not want to get the products delivered quickly, you can go for economy shipping options of popular shipping carriers than expedited and standard shipping services.

Economy shipping v/s Standard shipping

When it comes to domestic shipping, both shipping options will cost almost similar shipping charges. Because, if you are using economy shipping to ship a package from one location to another in the same state or shipping zone, it will only take  1 – 5 days as well as it will not cost that much for shipping. 

Also, if you choose standard shipping, it will take 2 – 5 days to ship packages domestically. Hence, if you compare economy shipping with standard shipping used for domestic shipments, the rates and delivery days will be almost the same.

But, it can vary based on specific shipping location and shipping zones of destination addresses. If the destination address is in a remote location in your country or state, standard shipping services can ship the items much faster than the economy shipping services.

But, it will be different when it comes to international shipping. When you ship overseas, you will find the real difference between the economy and standard shipping rates. The average delivery day to ship a package using economy shipping is 6 – 15 days. And, it will cost less compared to standard and expedited services. 

Many store owners use economy shipping to ship heavier items. Since the weight and dimensions of a package also influence the shipping cost, you can choose economy shipping to balance the shipping cost while shipping heavy items.

By taking this into consideration, the popular shipping carriers provide a number of economic shipping options to send heavier packages.

Can I track my packages with economy shipping services?

Yes, economy shipping services come with tracking options. But, it would not be in detail as you may get the package shipment status when they scan the package before delivery, or while receiving and sorting from the hub.

This is because of the inconvenience of scanning each and every package at every point in shipment. In order to reduce the shipping costs to a minimum, economy shipping services are used to send bulk shipments together. Since it is inconvenient to scan and update the tracking details of each package, they often scan the package before the delivery.

Popular shipping carrier services which offer economy shipping services for domestic shipping

There are a few economy services available from popular shipping carriers to ship your packages within the US. These services are perfect options to send large and heavier packages in the US. 

USPS Priority Domestic is an affordable and comparatively cheapest shipping option to ship products within the US which weighs below 70 pounds.

UPS Ground is also an economy option to ship your packages within 1 – 5 business days in almost all locations in the US.

FedEx Ground is also an economy shipping service option to ship your products within the US. It will take 1 – 7 days to ship the packages with FedEx Ground.

Now, let us check the economy shipping options for shipping your packages internationally.

Popular shipping carrier services which offer economy shipping services for international shipping

As you know, international shipping services will cost much more than domestic shipping services, so you can choose economy shipping options from major shipping carriers to reduce the cost.

Let us check a few economy shipping services provided by major shipping companies for shipping packages internationally.

USPS Priority Mail International is an economy service that allows you to ship packages to 190 countries and deliver the packages within 6 – 10 days.

With UPS Worldwide Economy, you will be able to ship your packages to more than 210 countries at a comparatively less cost.

FedEx International Economy will help you to ship your products within 2 – 5 days at an economic shipping rate to more than 215 countries.

DHL eCommerce is an economy service from DHL to ship your packages internationally with comparatively minimum cost. You can use this service to ship your packages to around 200 countries from the US which would take 7 – 12 days for shipping.

Well, these are the main economy shipping services of popular shipping carriers. To know the accurate rates and delivery dates of these services based on your destination address, weight, and dimensions of the packages, use an eCommerce shipping calculator.

Which is the best eCommerce shipping calculator to check the shipping rates?

ReachShip shipping calculator is one of the best eCommerce shipping calculator tools in the industry. On this shipping calculator, you can simply enter the source and destination addresses, choose required shipping carriers, and add package dimensions to check the rates.

This eCommerce shipping calculator currently provides shipping services of USPS, FedEx, UPS, and DHL shipping services.

Check an example of finding the economic shipping rates to send a package from San Francisco to Oakland.

Here I have entered the source and destination addresses and chosen the required shipping carriers – FedEx, UPS, DHL, and USPS.

In the next step, you need to add the weight and dimensions of the packages.

This is comparatively a heavier package as it weighs 80 kgs and comes with a dimension of 50*35*35 inches.

After submitting the details, let us check the list of available services and use the sort option to find the cheapest shipping cost to ship the packages.

As you can see, USPS Priority Mail International is the cheapest option to ship the package and it will take 6 -10 business days to deliver the package.

This is how you can find the economy shipping services to ship your packages domestically and internationally.