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Shipping Carriers ​

Carriers decide where your shipping rates come from. Out of the box, FluentCart uses the zone-based methods you define yourself. With the Shipping For FluentCart add-on, you can also connect Shippo to show live carrier rates at checkout, buy shipping labels from the order screen, and keep tracking up to date automatically.

This guide shows you where carriers live in your settings and how to install the add-on. Connecting your Shippo account is covered in Connecting Shippo.

What Shippo Adds to FluentCart ​

Shipping For FluentCart adds the Shippo carrier to FluentCart. Once it is connected, you can:

  • Show live rates at checkout: Customers see real Shippo rates alongside your zone-based shipping methods.
  • Buy labels from the order screen: Quote the available services for an order, buy a label, and download it without leaving FluentCart.
  • Void labels: Deleting a shipment voids its Shippo label, and the carrier refunds it if it is eligible.
  • Track shipments: Refresh tracking from the order, and let Shippo push tracking updates to your store through a webhook.

INFO

Shippo works in two modes. Test mode uses your Shippo test token, so you can try the full flow with free labels that are never shipped. Live mode uses your live token, and labels are real and billed.

Requirements ​

Before you start, make sure you have:

  • A Shippo account and an API token.
  • Your store address completed in Store Settings. Shippo ships from this address, so rates and labels fail until the street address, city, postal code, and country are filled in.

Installing Shipping For FluentCart ​

The add-on is available from the Features & addon screen in FluentCart.

  1. Go to FluentCart Pro > Settings in your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Click Features & addon in the left-hand menu.
  3. Scroll to the Plugin Addons list and find Shipping For FluentCart.
  4. Click Install & Activate. If FluentCart Pro is not active on your site, this button reads Download instead. It does not install anything: it opens the FluentCart add-ons page in a new tab, and you install the plugin yourself.

Once the add-on is active, a Shippo (Beta) row appears on the Carriers page under Settings > Shipping, and the card gets a settings icon that opens it.

Understanding the Carriers Page ​

Go to FluentCart Pro > Settings > Shipping to open the Carriers page. Clicking Shipping in the settings menu opens it directly, and Carriers is the first item under it. Each carrier has a status badge (Enabled or Disabled) and a Manage button.

The Carriers page is part of FluentCart's shipping settings, so it is always there. Without the add-on it lists only Manual / Other. With the add-on installed, two carriers are listed:

  • Manual / Other: The zone-based shipping rates you define yourself. This is the shipping system FluentCart has always had, and it is now where your shipping zones live.
  • Shippo (Beta): Live rates, label generation, and tracking through the Shippo API. It stays Disabled until you connect it.

If a carrier is enabled but something stops it from working, such as a missing token or an incomplete store address, its row also shows a Needs attention badge.

Carrier settings contain API tokens, so only users who can manage sensitive store settings can open the Carriers page.

The Shipping menu also contains Shipping Zones, Shipping Classes, and Packages. Shipping classes and packages work as before and are covered in their own guides.

Saving Carrier Settings ​

Each carrier's settings page is split into section cards. As soon as you change a field, an Unsaved Changes bar appears with Discard and Save buttons, and the Discard and Save settings buttons at the bottom of the page become active. You can also press ⌘S (or Ctrl+S). Until you save or discard, FluentCart keeps you on the page, so you cannot lose your edits by clicking another menu item.

Manual / Other ​

Click Manage next to Manual / Other to open its settings. This page holds your shipping zones.

  • Enable Manual Shipping: When this toggle is on, your zone-based shipping methods appear at checkout. Turn it off to remove them from checkout, then click Save settings.

Below the toggle, the Shipping Zones list shows the general zones that apply to all products, with each zone's name, country, and number of shipping methods. You can search by zone name, add a zone with Add Shipping Zone, or use the edit and delete icons in the Actions column. See Configuring Shipping Zones for the full walkthrough.

INFO

Turning Enable Manual Shipping off removes your zone-based methods from checkout. Leave it on if you want customers to see your own zone methods next to the live Shippo rates.

Where Did Shipping Zones Go? ​

Shipping zones used to have their own page under Settings > Shipping > Shipping Zones. They are now part of the Manual / Other carrier. The Shipping Zones menu item is still there for old bookmarks, but it now shows a Shipping zones have moved notice with the new path. Click Go to Manual carrier to open your zones.

Links elsewhere in FluentCart, such as Add Shipping on a product or the "no shipping methods" link on an order, now take you to the Manual / Other page as well.

Fulfilling Orders with a Carrier ​

When you create a shipment for an order, the Ship with dropdown lets you choose between Manual / Other and Shippo (Beta). Choosing Shippo lets you buy the label directly. See Shippo Rates, Labels and Tracking for the complete flow.

Your add-on is installed. Next, connect your Shippo account so FluentCart can start quoting rates.