Shipping and Fulfillment

Once a fan pays for something you post, the next step is getting it to them. TribeNest does the heavy lifting: comparing carrier rates, buying labels, generating tracking, and updating the customer at each step. You focus on packing the box.

This page covers shipping settings on your products, buying and printing labels, and the tracking timeline that shows what is happening with each shipment.

Shipping settings on a product

Shipping is a collapsed section on the product form, because most products never ship. Open it only when something on the product goes in the post. Everything inside can be edited later from Edit product.

Shipping type

Choose how shipping is calculated at checkout:

• Flat Rate, one fixed shipping cost that applies to every order. Simple and predictable, and best when most of your shipments cost roughly the same to send.
• Dynamic (Real-time rates), where TribeNest fetches live carrier rates based on the customer's address and your product's weight and dimensions. Fans see the options at checkout and pick what they want.

If you pick Flat Rate, you also fill in the shipping cost, the amount fans pay for shipping on every order.

Weight and dimensions

Real-time rates need accurate weight and box size to calculate cost.

• Weight with a unit of oz, lb, g, or kg.
• Length, width, height with a unit of inches or cm.

Fill these in even if you use flat rate. They are used when you buy a label later.

Shipping label size

Pick the paper format your label printer uses:

• 4" x 6" (Standard) for most thermal label printers
• 4" x 8"
• A4 for full-page office printers
• A5, A6, 2.3" x 7.5" for specialty printers

Delivery zones

Decide where you are willing to ship:

• Ships worldwide, left checked, accepts orders from anywhere.
• Uncheck it and use the search box to add specific countries one by one. Fans outside your selected countries cannot add the product to their cart.

Selected countries appear as chips. Click the X on a chip to remove one.

Shipping for one version

Shipping is set on the product, and any version that ships can override it.

Open a version that ships and you get the same set of shipping fields, under Shipping for this version. Leave a field blank and the version uses the product's setting. Fill one in when this version genuinely costs a different amount to send.

This is the case a single product-level rate always got wrong. A record and a cassette of the same release do not weigh the same, and one flat rate across both either overcharges the tape or loses you money on the record.

Testing shipping rates

If a product uses Dynamic (Real-time rates), you can preview what fans will be quoted before going live.

1. Go to Store then Products.
2. Find the product, open the menu, and click Test Shipping Rate.
3. Fill in a sample address: Address, City, State, ZIP / Postal Code, and Country.
4. Click Get Shipping Rates.

You will see the available carriers, services, prices, and estimated delivery days. This is what fans will see at checkout, so it is the best way to sanity-check that your weights and dimensions are reasonable.

Buying a shipping label

When a physical order comes in and is paid, buy the label straight from the order.

1. Go to Store then Orders.
2. Click into the order.
3. On the relevant delivery row, click the menu and choose Buy Shipping Label.
4. The dialog fetches available rates and lists them, each with the carrier, service, estimated delivery days, and cost.
5. Pick the rate you want. The dialog tells you exactly what you will be charged.
6. If the customer paid for shipping at checkout, you will see how much, for comparison. If your selected rate costs more, you get a warning showing the difference.
7. Click Purchase Label.

The label is generated immediately and the delivery moves to Label Purchased. The cost shows up on the delivery row as Label cost.

Printing the label

After purchase, the actions menu on the delivery row gains a Print Label option. Click it to open the label in a new tab and trigger your browser's print dialog.

Marking as shipped

Once the package is in the carrier's hands:

1. Open the order.
2. On the delivery row, now showing Label Purchased, click the menu and choose Mark as Shipped.

The status moves to Shipped and the customer receives a shipped notification with their tracking number.

For most carriers, tracking events come in automatically after this. You do not need to update the order again.

Copying the tracking number

Need the tracking number to share with a fan? Open the delivery menu and click Copy Tracking Number. It goes straight to your clipboard.

The tracking timeline

Every physical delivery has a full event timeline.

1. Open the order.
2. On the delivery row, click the menu and choose View Timeline.

The dialog shows:

• Tracking, a summary card with the tracking number, the carrier, the current status badge, the estimated delivery date if available, and a link to track on the carrier's own site.
• Timeline, a step-by-step log of every event so far: order paid, processing started, label purchased, shipped, in transit, out for delivery, delivered. Each event shows the time, the location when known, and any notes. Address edits are logged here too.
• Carrier Updates, the raw status updates from the carrier as they happen, with dates, locations, and source.

This is your single source of truth for "what is actually happening with this shipment?". Use it when fans email asking where their package is.

Customer paid, and your label cost

You will see two shipping numbers on each physical delivery:

• Shipping paid, what the customer was charged at checkout.
• Label cost, what you actually paid when you bought the label.

With Dynamic (Real-time rates) these usually line up, because the customer paid the live rate you are now buying.

With Flat Rate, the difference depends on how good your guess was. The label dialog warns you when the label costs more than the customer paid, so you can either pick a cheaper service or accept the loss on that order.

Editing the delivery address

If a fan writes in with an address correction before you have shipped:

1. Open the order.
2. On the physical delivery row, click the menu and choose Edit Address.
3. Update the address, city, state, ZIP, country, or phone.
4. Click Save.

The change is logged on the timeline. If you have already bought a label, you may need to refund and rebuy. Ask us if you get stuck.

Where to go next

• Set up a product's shipping: creating a product
• Per-version weights and rates: product versions
• See and manage every order: orders
• Set your business address and currency: settings
• Track payouts and shipping cost differences: income