An In-Depth Look at Paypal Shipping: It's Free, Even for Non-Paypal Orders, But Is It Worth Your Time?

You probably knew that you could use Paypal to ship packages and items that people used Paypal to pay you for. But did you know that you can actually use it for all of your USPS and UPS shipping needs, regardless of where the order came from? For free? It's a little hidden and hard to find unless you know where to look, so let's find out how to access it, and see what it can do, shall we?

SITE

Main account dashboard.

If you’re familiar with the Paypal site, then you should be pretty familiar with how to ship an order that you received via Paypal: Next to the transaction, there is a pulldown menu of available options. Select “ship” and you will be taken to the shipping screen to select your shipping service and to fill out all of the pertinent details. Alternatively, you can also click into the transaction itself, which will present you with a mini-plethora of options about ¾ of the way down, of which “Ship” is one of them (along with “Mark as Shipped”, “Refund”, etc.) The nice thing about these orders, is that the customer information is already filled out for you, making shipping a breeze!

Getting there without an existing Paypal order can be a little tricky, though, considering it’s not mentioned as an amenity anywhere on the site, nor is it publicized anywhere. Even all the help articles and Google search results for Paypal Shipping all assume that you have an order within Paypal that needs shipped; nowhere does it mention how to do it on your own, or that it's even a possibility. It's a rather curious thing considering it's a feature that would bring more people to Paypal, but I'm sure there's some perfectly logical business reasoning behind it. Anyway, don't fret! There is an easy way to access it and all it requires is the ability to load a webpage.

To do so, simply click on the following link: https://www.paypal.com/shiplabel/create/

The shipment info screen.

Make sure you are signed in already, otherwise your browser might take you back to your main Paypal dashboard after signing in. If that's the case, simply click on the link again after signing in. Also make sure that you bookmark it, so that you can easily access it in the future without having to memorize it or look it up every time you need to ship something.

Once you’re in, it will automatically pull up a shipment screen, where you must either hand-key all of the recipient’s information, or you can copy and paste each individual field, which is a first-world pain-in-the-ass. I always end up copying and pasting, just so I don’t have to worry about making a mistake, but going back and forth between the two windows is a rather annoying task.

Once the information is input, you will then be able to select a carrier (USPS and UPS are supported), change your package dimensions, ship date, etc. and see your final shipping cost before committing to buy the label. One thing of note: This service is always consistently slow, with the page taking several seconds to load the price. At first, I thought I just did it on a busy day, only to find it did it all the time. So then I tried it with a different browser, to the same results. Although waiting "several seconds" is certainly a first-world problem, it's enough of an issue that it's pretty much a no-go for volume sellers, but then again most of them probably have a more flexible paid shipping option. Once the price does load, label printing is pretty standard, with default printing on 5 ½” x 8 ½” labels, which are the perfect size for printing on half-sheet inkjet mailing labels from Avery (or much cheaper generic brands, which is what I use).

The main shipping screen.

One big downside is that, unless the person you’re shipping to paid with Paypal, then the shipment is not “linked” to your Paypal account (at least, not that I know of). That means there’s no way to access your manual shipping history from the site, which can be an issue if you’re the type of person that likes having all of their shipping records in one spot. If this is the case, you might want to take a look at Pirate Ship instead. You're not left entirely without records, though: Paypal does send you an email with all of the shipping information, which will be your only record and should be saved in case there’s a customer issue down the road. You can do with that information as you please, but I just keep them in a separate folder in my email client for reference should I ever need it; others that are more organized and detail-oriented than I might even go so far as to save all of the info in a spreadsheet or other archive for quicker reference.

It should also be noted that batch shipping is not supported via this "manual" method, so all shipments must be hand-keyed (or copied and pasted) one at a time, further proof that this method is more for one-off shipments and not at all a legitimate service for high-volume sellers.

FEES 

As alluded to earlier, this is a completely free program, with no fees or postage markups of any kind. Keep in mind that I don’t ship UPS at all, so I’m unfamiliar with their rates (the times I have compared, they were way higher than both USPS and FedEx), but I did run some comparisons between USPS prices here and elsewhere, and the rates provided through Paypal Shipping are all just as cheap as shipping on eBay. Some people see that as a con, because they aren’t any lower, but if you can get the same published rates that other people are paying $15/month for through Endicia, how is that a bad thing? (I'm fully aware comparing this to a full-service shipping platform like Endicia is not even close to an apples-to-apples comparison. It's just an observation that, for small volume or hobby sellers, this can be a great way to access the same rates for free.)

APP 

While there is a Paypal app, I don’t see any mention of shipping capabilities from within it, so I’m assuming that’s not an option. Curiously, there don’t seem to be many mobile applications that offer the ability to pay for and print postage, outside of the main carriers themselves. And even then, it’s usually limited to a few shipping services. You are going to need a PC or a way to access the mobile site (along with a wireless printer) in order to print off labels with Paypal from a mobile device.

SUPPORT/COMMUNITY 

Paypal community landing page.

Aside from the obligatory phone and email customer support options, Paypal does have an online support forum made up of normal people (and probably a few Paypal-appointed moderators) that are ready to tackle any non-urgent questions you may have. I don’t think I’ve ever had to use Paypal's support in any capacity, either through the forum or customer service, so I honestly can’t tell you how quickly they respond, or what to expect. I guess the simple fact that I’ve never needed them for anything speaks to how well they’ve treated me on the whole so far, though as with anything there are many people who have had problems with them.

I’ve also never had an issue with a payment, either coming or going, from Paypal, so security seems to be solid enough. Again, a quick search of the internet reveals that there are many, many people who have had issues, so maybe I've just been incredibly lucky, though having a much lower sales volume no doubt can be a factor in that.

OVERALL 

CONS (-)
-Can be hard to find the shipping page for non-Paypal orders.
-Manually typing in information can be a hassle
-Only USPS and UPS support—do that many people really use UPS?
-No way to access shipping info on non-Paypal orders from website.
-No way to export orders to CSV or similar file.

-Definitely not for high-volume sellers, as batch shipping on manual orders is not an option.

-Shipping platform is sloooooow (how does it take so long to calculate prices, every single time?)

PROS (+)
+No monthly service charges, or postage markups.
+Shipping items paid for with Paypal is a simple, couple-click process.
+Same low prices as Endicia and other paid shipping platforms.
+Simple printing to 5.5” x 8.5” labels by default.

It's definitely not for everyone, and it's pretty slow, but for personal shipments and low-volume/hobbyist sellers, this can be a great option for printing single labels without any markups or monthly fees. For a free alternative that offers a plethora of advanced features for the serious seller, check out Pirate Ship.

RATING: 7/10