Set up shipping before you sell Set up shipping before you sell
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Set up shipping before you sell

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Before you sell on Whatnot, take a few minutes to review your shipping setup.

Your shipping setup helps determine what buyers pay at checkout, how orders bundle together, and which shipping labels are generated after a sale. 

When you take time to review your shipping setup: 

  • Buyers see accurate shipping costs
  • Labels generate correctly
  • Orders bundle as expected
  • You avoid unexpected shipping adjustments and additional postage costs 

Tip: Review your shipping setup before you go live, and anytime your products, packaging, or shipping preferences change, to make sure shipping works the way you expect.

In this article:

How shipping settings are applied

Shipping settings work differently depending on the sales channel.

For orders during live shows

Shipping is based on:

Together, these control:

  • Who pays for shipping (buyers pay by default, but you can cover shipping)
  • Available shipping services 
  • How items bundle during the show
  • Whether Free Pickup (local pickup) is offered

Note: Some shipping services are only available for show orders and may depend on the item’s category or shipping profile. In the U.S., examples include First-Class Mail Letter and Media Mail. 

 

Learn about the shipping carriers and services available in your country. 

For orders placed outside of shows

Orders placed outside of shows don’t use your Seller Hub shipping settings.

Instead, shipping is based on:

  • Your product's shipping profile
  • The most cost-effective eligible shipping service 

If you’re selling outside of shows, the weight selected when listing products is the most important factor that affects shipping. 

Review your shipping setup before you sell

You can think of your shipping setup as three layers:

  1. Shipping profiles for your products
  2. Default shipping settings in Seller Hub
  3. Shipping settings for individual shows

Reviewing each one ahead of time helps buyers see accurate shipping costs and makes fulfillment easier to manage.

1. Shipping profiles for your products

Whenever you create a listing, you’ll select a shipping profile or enter the item’s packed weight and size, when applicable.

Shipping profiles help determine:

  • Shipping costs at checkout
  • Which shipping service is used
  • How items bundle together

As you create listings, Whatnot may suggest a shipping profile based on the item category or weight. 

You can also create custom shipping profiles for items that need special handling or specific bundling behavior.

Tip: Include the item and all packaging materials when calculating packed weight. If the weight or dimensions are too low, your shipping label may be underpaid and require additional postage later. If they’re too high, buyers may see higher shipping costs than expected.

👉 How to choose or create shipping profiles for your products. 

2. Default shipping settings in Seller Hub

Your Seller Hub shipping settings act as the default shipping setup for future Shows.

From Seller Hub, you can manage:

These settings apply automatically to new shows unless you customize them for a specific show.

👉 How to set your default shipping settings in Seller Hub. 

3. Shipping settings for individual shows

Each new show uses your Seller Hub defaults automatically, but you can customize shipping settings for individual shows.

For example, you might:

These changes apply only to that show and future instances if the show is recurring.

👉 How to change your shipping settings for a specific show.

If you need to edit a shipment after a sale

If shipment details need to be corrected after an order is placed, you can edit the shipment before handing it to the carrier.

This updates, or voids and replaces, the shipping label with the correct information.

While changes to a shipment can be made after a sale, reviewing your setup ahead of time is the easiest way to avoid adjustments and additional shipping costs you may need to cover.

👉 How to make a shipping adjustment. 

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