How to Charge for Shipping with Thryft Ship Payments
The easiest ways to charge shipping with Thryft Ship + Stripe — including flat rate, tiered shipping, and how manual payments work (plus why one checkout saves fees).
In this article
The Recommended Approach: Flat-Rate or Tiered Shipping ✅
If you’re using Thryft Ship Payments (powered by Stripe), the easiest way to charge shipping is to use a flat-rate or tiered shipping policy.
Why we recommend this:
- It’s faster at checkout (less typing, less confusion)
- It reduces back-and-forth with customers
- It keeps payouts and bookkeeping clean
- It helps minimize payment processing fees (more on that below)
Flat rate
Example: $8 shipping on all orders
Best for sellers who want the simplest option possible.
Tiered
Example: $7 for 1 item, then +$1 per extra item, capped at $10
Best for encouraging bundles while keeping shipping fair.
Tiered Shipping Example: $7 + $1 per Additional Item (Max $10)
Here’s a tiered shipping setup we love because it’s simple, predictable, and encourages multi-item purchases:
Recommended tiered shipping policy
- $7 for the first item
- +$1 for every additional item
- Max shipping cost: $10
| Items | Shipping Charged | Why it’s nice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 item | $7 | Simple One number to remember |
| 2 items | $8 | Fair Shipping scales with order size |
| 3 items | $9 | Fair Shipping scales with order size |
| 4+ items | $10 (cap) | Bundle-friendly Customers feel rewarded |
Tip: You can mention your shipping policy in your post captions, pinned highlights, or saved replies so customers know what to expect.
Why One Checkout Is Better (Fees Matter 💸)
Whenever possible, we recommend charging items + shipping in one checkout. It’s easier for your customer, and it saves money.
Why this matters:
- Multiple checkouts = multiple payment processing fees
- One combined payment keeps totals clean and reduces “did they pay shipping yet?” confusion
- It also saves you (and your customer) time and money over time
If you ever need to charge exact shipping, you still can — but we recommend doing it as a single combined total whenever possible.
How Manual Payments Work (If You Charge Exact Shipping)
Prefer to charge exact shipping? Totally fine. Here’s the cleanest way:
- Package the order and calculate exact shipping (example: $8.00)
- Enter the amount your customer should pay on the Thryft Ship dashboard by clicking on their order (or creating one) and entering in the shipping cost
-
Thryft Ship automatically calculates the final amount charged to the customer to account for:
- Stripe payment processing
- From your subtotal, Thryft Ship takes a 2% platform fee.
Example:
If your customer needs to pay $8.00, you can enter $8.16 (8 x 1.02) to account for our platform fee. We’ll automatically calculate what to charge at checkout for processing — and then Thryft Ship takes 2% of your subtotal.
In other words: you don’t have to do fee math manually for payment processing, but if you do want to charge exact shipping, you will currently need to calculate how much to add to account for our 2% platform fee.
Best practice:
If you’re charging exact shipping, try to include it in the same checkout as the item(s) whenever you can. Fewer checkouts = fewer processing fees.
Why We Don’t Recommend Separate Shipping Payments
You can send a second payment link just for shipping — but it usually creates more friction than it’s worth.
Downsides of separate shipping payments:
- Customers pay more in payment processing fees
- You and your customer have to do more work
- More steps = higher chance of confusion or missed payments
Whenever possible, one order = one checkout is the smoothest experience for everyone.
TL;DR Recommendation
- Best Use flat-rate or tiered shipping
- Best Charge items + shipping in one payment
- Only if needed Use manual “exact shipping” when required
- Avoid Separate shipping-only payments when you can
Want the full “how customers pay” walkthrough too?
This article pairs well with our Payments overview, especially if you’re new to Thryft Ship Payments.
If you want help choosing a shipping policy for your specific sales style (drops, claims, live sales, etc.), just message us.
Note: Processing fees and payouts are handled through Stripe. Thryft Ship’s platform fee is 2% of your subtotal. If your fee structure changes in the future, we’ll update this article.
