Getting the Best Prices

Shipping Rates From a Brick-and-Mortar Location Are More Expensive Than Buying a Label Online

The rates generated and displayed on this site are for labels purchased through an online account. The rates you receive when going to a physical shipping location will often differ in significant amounts. You can create your own accounts with carriers to purchase labels online. However, we recommend working with a service like Shippo that allows you to easily access discounted rates from USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and more in one location. Shippo is a software provider that provides thousands of merchants with postage. This shipping volume enables them to negotiate significant discounts, greater than what individuals or small businesses could acquire on their own.

If you’re interested, you can create a Shippo account without any monthly fees and get $10 in shipping credit after you ship two packages with our exclusive promo code: SHIP2GET10NOW.

Purchasing a label from a physical FedEx Office location can be nearly $20 more!. As an example, shipping a package, from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, with a shipping box that is 19" x 15" x 12" and 21 pounds would cost $53.19 if you purchased a label from a FedEx location. On the other hand, if you bought a label through a FedEx.com online account would cost $34.64 for the same package and destination (as of October 2019). You'd have to print your own label, but can still drop the package off at a FedEx location.

Register for Shipping Accounts (Direct Links)

Additionally, you can create your own accounts with carriers directly to purchase labels from their sites. Note that the rates you get from accounts that you create directly from the carriers will, in most cases, be more expensive than what you get from working with a shipping software like Shippo.

Aside from better rates, having a shipping account allows you to charge shipments to the account and receive one weekly bill. Instead of paying per package and having to keep track of individual receipts, you get one nice single invoice that you can pay at once. You'll also have a record of all your tracking numbers online. No more digging through a pile of receipts. Scheduling pickups can also be done quickly and easily online through your account.

Other Things you Might Need

Buying from a physical, brick and mortar UPS, FedEx, or USPS location near you can be convenient if you rarely ship. They will provide a box and pack your shipment for you, but all that comes with extra fees. If you do decide to print shipping labels from home, a scale and measuring tape are good investments. Printing labels can be done on any home printer then taped to the shippping box. For convenience, you can purchase a label printer to use with self adhesive labels. If you find yourself making more frequent shipments, these items will save you time and money by avoiding costly in-store postage purchases.

Note: Rates shown in the above article are examples used for demonstration purposes. The actual shipping rates are updated periodically by carriers, and may not be an accurate representation of actual rates at this current time period.