Shipping & Packaging for Online Shops: Dimensional Weight, Zone Rate Cards, Box Selection, Surcharges & Carrier Mix

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Turn each parcel's size into a dimensional weight, take the larger of actual and dimensional weight as the billable weight, round it up to the carrier's 0.5 kg step and measure how many parcels are billed for their size rather than their weight.
• Read each parcel's rate from a zone × weight-band rate card with a two-way INDEX/MATCH that uses an approximate match for the weight, compare shipping with the order value, work out the cost per billable kg by zone and flag the parcels that eat more than 15% of the order.
• Test every product against every box with padding, pick the smallest box that fits with INDEX/MATCH, measure how much dimensional weight that saves compared with the one-size box Tomas uses today and total the saving per week.
• Turn bulk pack prices into a cost per unit, price three order profiles with SUMPRODUCT, weight them by the order mix and work out the packaging spend per month.
• Add the residential and remote-area surcharges to every parcel, put the fuel percentage on top of base rate and surcharges, total the all-in cost and measure how much of the shipping spend is surcharges.
• Compare three ways of charging for shipping across a month's basket sizes: contribution per order in each band, monthly contribution weighted by orders and an order-volume assumption, and the strategy that keeps the most.
• Price last month's parcels with a second carrier's rate card, route each parcel with a rule that weighs price against on-time delivery, take the routed cost and measure what the carrier mix saves.
• Build Tomas's shipping dashboard: shipping and packaging cost as a percentage of revenue and per order for six months, December's cost per parcel by zone, a trend chart and a flag for the months above the 12% target.