Billing and Fees
General Billing and Fees:
ShippingTree aims to be the most transparent fulfillment company in the industry – not only when it comes to your orders and inventory – but in respects to billing as well. Below are some common costs and fees associated with your ShippingTree account:
Shipping Costs:
ShippingTree uses a pre-paid running balance to bill customers. Thus, we require a working credit card on file for all accounts prior to shipping.
To start, our system will draw a pre-determined amount from your card which will be applied as a credit to your account. As shipping activity begins, the credit will be debited accordingly and we will draw again from your card once your balance runs below a determined threshold.
You can set up your recharge amounts by reading this article.
Customer’s can also select to pay via ACH or bank transfer – subject to approval.
Standard Fees:
Our standard fulfillment fees can be found on our pricing page.
Promotional Items:
Promotional items are marketing inserts, stickers or custom packaging items that are included in your orders to help improve the unboxing experience and boost your brand loyalty.
ShippingTree charges $0.25 per promotional item included in each order.
Custom Packaging:
Custom packaging is treated like a promotional item with respects to processing fees and each unit included in an order will be charged a $0.10 fee.
Receiving:
Receiving is free as long as the incoming shipment complies with our requirements.
Your account will only be billed during the receiving process if your shipment is non-compliant. ShippingTree bills for the time it takes to make the incoming shipment compliant, not the time to actually receive and put away the product. ShippingTree charges $45.00 per hour for ensuring compliance.
For example, if product arrives without barcodes, then your account will be billed for the time it takes us to apply barcodes.
You can find a comprehensive guide to ensuring compliance here.
Storage:
Standard items:
You’ll be billed for storage on the first of each month for all inventory that is in the warehouse on that date.
We charge $0.85 per cubic foot, however, the first hundred items of each SKU are billed at 4x the actual volume to account for inventory optimization at our pick-able locations. Long term storage (inventory over 271 days old) billed at $1.45 per cubic foot
Custom Packaging:
Custom branded packaging will be billed at $0.85 per cubic foot per month.
We determine the volume of these items by taking measurements of the flat dimensions of the box, mailer, etc. (not the built out dimensions of the packaging item).
Value Added Services:
These will be used in situations where you request projects such as kitting, relabeling, pre-packing, quality assurance, etc.
Projects are billed at $45.00 per man hour.
Returns and Exchanges:
Returns are processed at the same rate as the outbound order. This means you’ll be charged a processing fee for the first item and corresponding “pick” fees for the remaining items.
Additional packaging materials may be needed in order to properly return product to the shelf. Your account will be billed accordingly.
Monthly Minimum:
Your account will be billed a minimum of $250 per month. You will be charged for any difference between actual billing activity (excluding postage) and the $250 minimum.
Advanced Order Status Changes:
Your account will be billed $5.00 for any changes made to orders which have already been batched.
You can make as many changes to your orders as you’d like, for free, as long as the order isn’t batched in our system. Making a change once an order is batched will result in a $5.00 charge to your account.
Container Unloading:
The below charges only apply if the container arrives ‘floor loaded.’ If it arrives palletized, the below charges do not apply:
$275 per 20’ container
$475 per 40’ container