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How To Troubleshoot When Shipping Rates Do Not Appear

This guide is for those using the New version of Intuitive Shipping. If you’re using the Legacy version of the app, go here.

Not sure which version you’re using? Find out here.

If rates are not being calculated or displayed by Intuitive Shipping, here are some things you can do to troubleshoot.

Check For Errors

It’s possible that rates are not being calculated or displayed because of an error. Errors can be caused by oversized or overweight packages, missing product weight or dimensions, invalid shipping addresses, or carrier rate services that are unavailable based on the cart conditions.

To see if recent shipping calculations are resulting in errors, check the Activity Page for Warnings & Errors.

1) Click Activity on the sidebar menu.

2) Select Unsuccessful requests only from the ‘requests’ filter. This will update the list and display all Activities that did not return a rate.

3) Click View beside the activity you want to check.

4) In the Details section of the activity, click View log beside ‘Warnings & errors’.

5) Review the errors, if any, which may indicate why rates were not displayed at checkout.

If there are no error messages, continue to the next troubleshooting step.

If an error is displayed and you are unsure why, or you’re not sure what it means, please contact us or submit a technical support request from the Support page in the app. If you have an active billing plan, you can also book a live, one-on-one technical support appointment with one of our support team members from the Support page.

Access the Support page by clicking your store name in the top right corner of the app or by clicking Support at the very bottom of the Intuitive Shipping sidebar menu.

Check Status Settings

Intuitive Shipping lets your control the visibility of your entire setup as well as the visibility of individual Scenarios, shipping methods, and other features using status settings.

Check General Status

Once you’ve activated a billing plan, Intuitive Shipping lets you change the status of the app. By default, the status is set to On. That means shipping rates from Intuitive Shipping will be displayed at checkout.

You have the option to change the status to Test, which means rates can only be displayed when you use ‘Intuitive’ as either the customer’s first or last name a checkout.

You also have the option to change the status to Off, which means rates from Intuitive Shipping cannot be displayed at checkout, even using ‘test’ credentials. A yellow banner is displayed at the top of certain Intuitive Shipping pages, including the Activity page, indicating that Intuitive Shipping is turned off.

Changing the general status to ‘Off’ does not disable billing. It simply prevents rates from Intuitive Shipping from being displayed at checkout.

1) Click the Settings button on the yellow banner to change the status to Test or On, as needed.

Learn about updating General Settings.

Check Scenario Status

The General status controls visibility of Intuitive Shipping as a whole. Each Scenario has its own status setting. Similar to the general setting, when a Scenario is set to Off, rates from that Scenario will not be displayed at checkout, even with ‘test’ credentials. Unlike the general setting, a warning banner will not be displayed, since the Scenario status only controls the visibility of that one Scenario.

1) Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.

2) Check to see if any of your Scenarios are set to Off. The status is displayed below the Scenario title.

3) If a Scenario is set to Off, click Edit beside the Scenario, then update the status as needed.

Learn about general settings for Scenarios.

Check Shipping Method Status

The shipping method status works the same way as the Scenario status, except that it only applies to a single shipping method. If your Scenario has more than one shipping method, any that are set to Off will not be displayed at checkout, even if the Scenario status is set to On or Test.

1) Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.

2) Click Edit beside a Scenario that may contain a shipping method that has been turned off.

3) Scroll down to the Shipping rates and services section, then check to see if any of your shipping methods are set to Off. The status is displayed below the shipping method title.

4) If a shipping method is set to Off, click Edit beside the shipping method, then update the status as needed.

Learn about general settings for shipping methods.

5) After saving changes to your shipping method status, repeat Steps 1 to 4 for any other shipping methods set to Off.

Check Zone Status

The zone status works the same way as the shipping method status, except that it only applies to a single zone. If your Scenario has more than one zone, any that are set to Off will prevent shipping methods assigned to that zone from being displayed at checkout, even if the Scenario status and shipping method status are set to On or Test.

1) Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Zones from the drop-down list.

2) Check to see if any of your Zones are set to Off. The status is displayed below the Scenario title.

3) If a zone is set to Off, click Edit beside the zone, then update the status as needed.

Learn about general settings for zones.

Check Shopify Settings

Shopify automatically adds Intuitive Shipping as a carrier service to your General Profile when you install the app. If Intuitive Shipping was removed from your general profile you will need to add Intuitive Shipping again through your Shopify Settings.

1) Click Settings at the bottom of the Shopify admin sidebar.

2) Click Shipping and delivery.

3) In the Shipping section, click Manage rates.

4) Confirm that all of your Shopify shipping zones have Intuitive Shipping listed as a rate provider.

Learn how Intuitive Shipping zones interact with Shopify shipping zones.

If all of your Shopify shipping zones do have Intuitive Shipping as a rate provider, you can also check to ensure that Future Services is enabled. To do this, skip ahead to Check Future Services.

If there are any zones that do not have Intuitive Shipping listed as a rates provider, continue to Step 4.

5) Click the Add rate button below any zone that does not have Intuitive Shipping listed as a rates provider.

6) Select Use carrier or app to calculate rates.

7) Select Intuitive Shipping (Rates provided by app) from the drop-down list.

8) Make sure that the Future services box is checked. This is required in order to ensure rates from Intuitive Shipping calculate properly.

If this box is not checked, Intuitive Shipping will still calculate rates, and they will appear in the Activity Dashboard, but they will not be displayed to your customers at checkout.

There may also be check boxes in the Services section (above ‘Future Services’). If so, make sure all boxes are checked. Enabling Services will not influence how Intuitive Shipping calculates rates – you still control everything from the app – but, not checking them will prevent rates from being displayed.

9) Click the Done button to save your settings.

10) Repeat Steps 5 to 9 for any other zones that are missing Intuitive Shipping as a rates provider.

11) Click the Save button to save your Shopify shipping zone settings.

Check Future Services

1) Click the ellipsis (three dots) beside ‘Intuitive Shipping (Rates provided by app)’.

2) Click Edit rate on the drop-down list.

3) Make sure that the Future services box is checked. This is required in order to ensure rates from Intuitive Shipping calculate properly.

If this box is not checked, Intuitive Shipping will still calculate rates, and they will appear in the Activity Dashboard, but they will not be displayed to your customers at checkout.

There may also be check boxes in the Services section (above ‘Future Services’). If so, make sure all boxes are checked. Enabling Services will not influence how Intuitive Shipping calculates rates – you still control everything from the app – but, not checking them will prevent rates from being displayed.

4) Click the Done button to save any changes made to your ‘Services’ settings.

5) Repeat Steps 1 to 4 for any other zones to ensure ‘Future Services’ is selected in each one.

6) If you had to make changes, click the Save button to save your Shopify shipping zone settings.

Enable Shopify Third-party Carrier-calculated Shipping

Shopify requires their third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates feature to be enabled on your Shopify store when using any third-party shipping calculation app, including Intuitive Shipping – even if you’re not using live rates from a carrier, like Fed Ex or USP. If you have not enabled the third-party shipping rates feature on your Shopify account, a red warning banner will be displayed at the top of the Activity page and other select pages in Intuitive Shipping.

1) Click Activity on the sidebar menu.

2) Check to see if the red warning banner is displayed at the top of the page.

3) If the banner is displayed, click Install carrier service. You will need to enable the feature in order for Intuitive Shipping to calculate shipping rates at checkout, even in Sandbox mode.

The third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates feature is not required to complete your setup. It is required for testing rate calculations after setup, and for displaying rates to customers.

Check Third-party Carrier-calculated Shipping Rates In Shopify

In certain cases, the red banner will not appear even when the carrier-calculated shipping rates feature is not enabled. This sometimes happens if the feature was previously enabled, but has been inadvertently disabled. 

To confirm the status of carrier-calculated shipping rates:

1) Click on your store name at the far right of the app header, then select Shopify admin from the drop-down list. This will open your Shopify admin page in a new browser tab.

2) Click Settings at the bottom of the Shopify admin sidebar.

3) Click Shipping and delivery.

4) Scroll down to the Carrier accounts section. If you are prompted to Update your plan, the feature has not yet been enabled.

If you are prompted to Connect a carrier, the feature is enabled.

Enabling third-party carrier-calculated rates at checkout is a Shopify requirement if you are using any third-party rate calculator, including Intuitive Shipping, even if you’re not planning to connect Intuitive Shipping to a live rate carrier like FedEx, UPS.

If you are on the ‘Lite’, ‘Starter’ or ‘Basic’ plans, Shopify no longer offers this feature as an add-on beginning January 1, 2023. If you are on one of these plans, you will need to upgrade to a higher tier plan to use Intuitive Shipping, or any third-party rate calculator.

If you are on the ‘Shopify’ plan, the third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates feature is $20.00 USD per month. If you change your Shopify subscription to annual billing, Shopify will add the feature at no additional cost – plus, they will discount your subscription by 10%.

Changing your Shopify subscription to an annual billing does not automatically enable the feature. You must still contact Shopify to request to have it enabled.

If you are on the ‘Advanced’ plan or higher, third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates is already included and enabled. No further action is required.

Learn more about Shopify’s carrier-calculated shipping rates feature.

Check BigCommerce Settings

Coming soon…

Learn how to do more with Intuitive Shipping or check out our FAQ.

Updated on July 14, 2023

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