Anyone hear of XPS Ship option?

This is not a promotional post so please read. I recently worked on a new clients site that was using Prestashop (please don't cringe, lol). Anyway their shipping options are not very good compared to Zen Cart and that is putting it nicely. However, there is a company called XPS Ship (XPSShip.com) that built a free plugin module for Prestashop, Wordpress and a few other carts.

They claim to have a deal brokered with USPS, UPS, FedEX and DHL and have the lowest rates (I really didn't believe this). They give the module for free, and it connects to the store, no other charges. The customer service is very good as well. You pay them directly for shipping which is still lower than anywhere else. When your orders come into your store, the module pulls your orders from your store (name, address, etc) into their website, then you select weight and box size and you can ship via any carrier you wish and get the lowest price and print shipping labels directly from their site. They have a batch module so you can add weight to many orders at once and do large bulk shipping in minutes.

What I noticed was they claim to be much cheaper than any Stamps.com or UPS account period. And I did a few tests on some of their orders and I did see low prices. One UPS shipment from Ohio to California was $23 instead of $34 on UPS.com direct website. All in all, I did 5 tests and all were cheaper on their site so their claims SEEM to be at least somewhat accurate. Also once you pull up a rate it shows all other companies rates and prices you can select the lowest or any option you want and pay and print the label. No stamps.com account required so you save on that monthly fee as well.

The reason I am bringing this up as a Zen cart user, I see the huge advantage any store owner to be able streamline their shipping options to one place. Since they don't charge anything but a few more cents on each order (they told me 40 cents or so) you get to choose from the lowest carrier each order, and its still cheaper why not. In talking with their developers they were very interested in getting something together for Zen Cart but don't know our system.

Two things to note:

1. Their website is where you ship. So you log into your account and all your orders automatically pull into their site where shipping and printing labels is quick and easy.
2. Their system does not pull rates on the front-end before the order is taken. It only gives you the option to ship at the lowest rate after the fact. So what I had to do was install UPS for shipping calculations to get rate quote and charge on the front end (I renamed it overnight, next day, etc instead of UPS). Then you are going to get lower rates when you ship. So there is a price difference between what you charge and what you pay. You are likely going to make a profit off each shipment since you can't pull rates from their site to your cart. Just wanted to mention.

I am not a module writer far from it, but I think if anyone takes a look at this system they will be as impressed as I am. They do have a lot of integrations with other carts but not Zen Cart. And I was very reluctant going in, in that if its too good to be true its not. Perhaps someone else will see what I see and work with them to write a module. I think this would be a great addition to all Zen Cart users. Once again i have no affiliation or friends in/with this company but I see huge advantages for my clients in using it. I am hopeful someone from Zen cart might see the benefits and write a module. If anyone is interested their developers will gladly work with you and make it easy, they told me so when I mentioned Zen Cart. Of course they would like all the Zen cart users, but their service was great before I mentioned this.

Just wanted to point this out for others. I think if others look around there they are going to be impressed with what is offered and with no set-up or additional fees other than paying them for your shipping. That's all. I would love to be using this on all my Zen Cart installations in the future. Its that good.

I have requested an API from them and we will see what they deliver

Thank you Kobra. I am keeping my fingers crossed that someone this comes about. I just think it will be a great resource for our users if it happens. Assuming it will work properly with the platform.

XPS ship has now released a Zen Cart plugin (https://xpsship.com/partners/zencart-shipping-software/). This plugin is supposed to take orders out of your Zen Cart admin panel and import them directly into XPS ship for direct shipping. One year later they finally got the message.

This functionality is brand new and I only found out about it because my client informed me of this. Anyway, I called XPS and they confirmed. Within a few weeks, I will be testing this plugin myself out on a clients Zen Cart site to see how it works.

Again I don't work for, know of, or profit in any way from this mention. I surely wouldn't waste my time to promote their business for nothing in return. Personally I decided to use XPS to ship personal packages as its always cheaper and its quick compared to all the alternatives (much cheaper than eBay shipping).

If you want to try this service you have to call them and talk to them. I suppose a phone call to them would answer this question. They will set up an account for you and then you can see how it works. They charge nothing to do this, and there is no monthly fee. Plus their customer service is stellar. So far every client I have sent over raves about this company and I now feel the same. This is a US company so I am not sure if/how it might work with countries overseas.

Maybe we can get them to release the download so someone can put it in the modules area. Either way, they have the module and it supposedly is tested on this platform. There is nothing like this for Zen Cart so, I hope some people check it out and pipe in. See for yourself.

I never hear for that :D

I do not like the fact that they require your zencart admin name and password to conduct business with their service. Ebay and Amazon use an API method.

They require A username & password, not yours. This is kinda nice if you think about it. It has to be changed every 90 days and the software access can be revoked without logging in to XPS if needed. I have many clients as well as myself using them. The service has been excellent and they keep the Zen Cart plugin up to date.

~Melanie