Do I need to set weight in pounds(lbs) while shipping out of the United States from WooCommerce?

In this small guide, we will tell you if you have to set the weight and dimensions in pounds(lbs) and inches(in) when shipping out of the United States while using the WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin or not. Read more below.

Customer:

I believe that there is an issue in that all of the store products are entered in kilograms and the client is shipping out of California and UPS is returning rates for thousands of dollars for shipping a handful of 0.01 kg items. We have it set for kg vs lbs but even then, in UPS, it complains, ” This measurement system is not valid for the selected country.”

PluginHive Support:

The United States follows the Imperial system of measurement, and the unit used for weight is in pounds(lb). You have to set this in the plugin settings.

In addition, we request you to spare some time in understanding how the rates are fetched from the plugin. The real-time rates are fetched based on weight, dimensions of the product and the origin and destination addresses of the shipment.

Now, the products in an order are packed based on certain calculations done using our plugin. The field to look out for is Parcel Packing.

Here is the concept of box packing used in the process – With options such as ‘Box Packing’ & ‘Pack Items individually’, dimensions & weight will be considered to calculate the shipping cost. Refer the details below:
Parcel Packing: The plugin provides you three options to pack a parcel(s) as given below:

• Pack Items Individually:  In this option, each item in the cart is packed separately. Total Shipping cost is calculated by adding the shipping cost of each item.
  For example, the shipping cost of Item X is $10. If the customer adds two quantities of Item X to the cart,  then the total shipping cost is  $10 x 2, which is $20.
  Note: This is the default option.
• Pack into boxes with weight and dimensions: If packing items individually does not suit your business, you can define required box sizes under Box Dimensions section. All the cart items are packed into custom boxes defined in Box Dimensions settings. The best fit box is auto chosen from the defined boxes. This is the recommended option. You can read through setting up WooCommerce UPS Box Dimensions to understand more in detail.
• Weight-based: In this option, the weight of all the cart item is summed up and passed to UPS API to get rates.

You can know more about the WooCommerce UPS Shipping Plugin features and find the best ways to configure UPS shipping on your WooCommerce store. If you need any more help, feel free to Contact PluginHive Customer Support Team, they will help you out.

Happy selling!