Volumetric weight (also called dimensional weight or volumetric mass) is a calculated measurement used in shipping and logistics to determine the billable weight of a package. It is based on the package's volume and a divisor provided by the shipping carriers.
Volumetric weight is used when a package is relatively light compared to its size, ensuring shipping costs are calculated fairly based on the space it occupies.
Gather Shipping Information
Before setting up volumetric weight, you will need the following details from your supplier or shipping partner:
How your shipping partner calculates volumetric weight.
The parcel dimensions for your signs (length, width, and height).
Any additional space required for packaging (e.g. foam inserts or protective wrapping).
Configure the App Settings
Step 1: Create a New Pricing
Go to the Sign Customiser Admin:
Universal subscribers: Go to Home in your account.
Shopify users: Navigate to Shopify admin → Apps and select Sign Customiser.
Click on Customisers in the menu.
Select the customiser you want to edit.
From the left-hand menu, go to Pricing.
In the Pricing section, click Add new pricing or edit an existing pricing condition.
Enter a Label for your pricing condition (for internal use only).
Step 2: Choose Your Letter Pricing
In the Letter Pricing section, select how you want to price the letters in a sign:
Step 3: Choose Your Sign Dimension Pricing
In the Sign Dimension Pricing section, select the CM³ - Volumetric Parcel option.
Check or uncheck the Add weight to product instead of calculating price option, depending on how you use weight to calculate shipping prices:
Unchecked: Shipping cost is added directly to the product price (see Size Boundaries).
Checked: Volumetric weight is added to the generated Shopify product, and Shopify calculates shipping at checkout (see Configure Shopify Shipping).
Enter your Volumetric divisor number provided by your shipping partner.
Volumetric divisor
Volumetric weight is calculated by multiplying the length, width, and height of a package and then dividing by a volumetric divisor. A volumetric divisor is a numerical value set by shipping companies, and represents the amount of space one unit of weight occupies in their containers. e.g couriers such as UPS and FedEx commonly use a divisor of 5000.
Step 4: Define Your Size Boundaries
Size boundaries let you set different prices based on sign dimensions (small, medium, large). This ensures pricing reflects the actual materials and labour required.
Learn more about how to set up Size Boundaries.
For each size boundary, assign a cost per kilogram to accurately calculate shipping for that size range.
Configure Shopify Shipping
Instead of having the Sign Customiser app calculate the shipping costs, you can have Shopify calculate them. To do this, make sure the Add weight to product instead of calculating price option is checked (see Configure the App Settings: step 3).
Step 1: Set up Shipping in Shopify
In your Shopify Dashboard, go to Settings → Shipping and Delivery.
Edit the General Shipping Profile. Here is where you can add Shipping Zones and Shipping Rates for your products.
Note:
All products generated by the Sign Customiser app are added here.
Custom profiles cannot be used for this purpose.
Step 2: Create Shipping Zones
If you ship to multiple countries or regions, you need to create shipping zones.
For detailed setup instructions, see Setting up shipping zones.
Step 3: Add Shipping Rates
For each zone, add a rate for each weight range listed in your supplier's shipping table.
For detailed setup instructions, see Setting up flat shipping rates.