A Shopify client asked for help to connect her FedEx account to her store. What was supposed to be easy (so I thought) resulted in extra hours looking for answers and eventually calling FedEx Support out of frustration. This tutorial is for those in Canada. The Shopify documentation has website links that redirect (because I’m in Canada) to the US sites which led to a longer path to connect this account.
It’s actually simple! This guide is only on how to connect your FedEx account. There is another step after this to connect that FedEx account to shipping rates. Shopify’s guide is pretty much all you need. Please visit their guide ‘Create Calculated Shipping Rates.’
Now let’s get started!
First, why do I need to connect my Shopify Store to a FedEx account?
Answer- so your Shopify store gets real-time shipping rates from FedEx called Carrier-Calculated Shipping Rates. This used to be exclusive to Shopify Advanced plan but now even if you are on the Basic Plan you can have this feature added to your eCommerce store if you pay your Shopify store’s fees annually instead of monthly. Shopify throws in the Carrier-Calculated Shipping Rates feature and gives you 2 extra months free!
TIP: If after using this feature you decide this is not for your store, you can switch your plan back to monthly. You don’t lose anything! Another way is to pay an extra $20 per month over your Basic Plan. If you contact Shopify Support they can enable this option for your store and give you more info. I feel I should get a commission for promoting this but I do love Shopify so if this helps you, my work here is done. 🙂
Now where is this setting in my store?
Login to your Shopify store then go to Settings > Shipping and Delivery > Carrier Accounts. If your Shopify plan does have Carrier-Calculated Shipping Rates enabled, you will see a button ‘Connect to Carrier Account.’ If you don’t see it, remember what I mentioned above.
Read the Shopify Guide First
Shopify made create a guide but it needs an update as of the date this tutorial was written (June 23, 2021). Please read Activate Shipping with Fedex from their documentation.
Register for a FedEx Account
You need to register for two accounts with FedEx. The main FedEx account and a Developer Account. Now this is very important. During your account setup, please make note of your account number and billing address. You will need this later.
Register an Account at FedEx Developer Resource Center
This is the second account I mentioned above, the Developer Account. This is the step where I tripped up. I’m in Canada and the link on the Shopify documentation redirects to the main FedEx US home page. Nope! That’s the wrong one. Please go to this web page https://www.fedex.com/en-us/developer.html to register.
This account is really for developers creating apps with FedEx integration. You will get an email with your test account information. The email will look like this.
Don’t be scared! You don’t need any of that. FedEx places your developer account in testing environment by default. You will need to immediately switch your account to Move to Production. This video from PluginHive ‘How to Integrate FedEx with Shopify’ was what helped me figure this out .
After switching your account to production you will get your Production Key (you need to enter this on your store) on the confirmation page. Make sure to copy this and save it somewhere.
Finally! It’s time to connect your account
You should also have received an email confirming your account is ready for production. You need the following info to complete this step.
- Production meter number – from the email
- Authentication Key – from the confirmation page
- Production Password – from the email
- Account number – from the email
Login to your Shopify store then go to Settings > Shipping and Delivery > Carrier Accounts. Select FedEx, enter the info above then click Save. Yes the hard work is done!
Last Step
You need one more step before you’re done. Once the account is connected, you have to set this up and create the shipping rates. Until you do this last step, your customers will not see the FedEx option during checkout. For this step, Shopify’s guide is pretty much all you need. Please read ‘Create Calculated Shipping Rates‘ documentation.
Remember to save these login credentials somewhere so you can easily reconnect the account if someone accidentally disconnects it. Trust me it has happened to someone I know.
Hope this tutorial helps!