How do I add insurance to the shipping rate for Square Online orders?

[flyinghorse]

I am an artisan jeweler and getting ready to publish my site in the next couple of weeks.I require the customer to pay insurance so how do I set this up.It looks like until I upgrade to a paid plan I’m unable to set up calculated shipping.To start with I will only be shipping in the US while getting the hang of all this.

[BernadetteA]

Hi @flyinghorse All of your shipped items will require an additional fee to cover the cost of insurance, correct? Most shipping carriers include some insurance up to X amount of dollars, but it depends on which carrier you plan on using. 

I think you'll also need to figure out the estimated order total you expect to receive. For example, do you anticipate your customers purchasing one piece at a time, or do you think customers will purchase multiple items at once? 

Depending on this answer you could include the estimated cost of insurance into the item itself, or into the shipping rate if using manual rates. 

If you upgrade to the Premium plan for Real Time Shipping rates you would be able to add an additional fee for "package and handling" and could use this for the insurance cost. This would most likely make the most sense if you want all orders regardless of total to be covered by the same amount. 

[flyinghorse]

Hi  Bernadette,Thanks for getting back to me.I’m planning on using USPS unless someone requests a different carrier.I will be selling one of a kind pieces so prices are all over the map.Most clients only purchase one item.

I will see if there is a price chart available as that would be helpful.I like the idea of adding an estimated insurance price but display it at the end of the item description so the customer is notified and can differentiate between cost of item,insurance and then postage.
Until I upgrade and publish I’m unable to see what I’m dealing with in the shipping arena.I was hoping other artisan crafts people might have some ideas as well.Right now I’m on a budget.It’s a pandemic thing and last year hit me pretty hard.I will be doing some art shows to advertise my site and see how it works.

[BernadetteA]

You're welcome, @flyinghorse 

USPS labels are created through your Orders dashboard on the Square Online dashboard, or they can be created directly on Shippo, which is our shipping partner. 

USPS Priority Mail packages automatically include $50 worth of insurance for the package. There's a section on the label page that allows you to add additional insurance, but I believe that is through an agreement with Shippo. Here is more information about their insurance. I recommend reaching out to the Shippo team directly for a more in-depth explanation on how the program works. 

I wonder if you could use Modifiers on your item description page to include the cost of shipping insurance. This would be handy if you decide to use manual shipping rates. I think this would also work out for you if customers are only ordering one item at a time. 

Hopefully another seller will hop on here with some real time feedback on what is and is not working with their store. 🙂 

[TRC2020]

There is no option to do this.  The system is severely limited.  I'm struggling with the same thing, but for me, I need insurance on the total purchase, which normally consists of multiple smaller items which add up quickly.  Using a modifier, is only good on single pieces.  So you would need to add in each step in the cost.  For instance if your carrier charges in increments of $100, you need to add a separate modifier and price for every $100 increment (terribly annoying).  You can as mentioned above also add a % or specific $ add on to the calculated insurance rate (but only if your are using real time shipping which requires you to use SQUARE's highest cost plan.  The only difference in shipping capabilities is the real time shipping which calculates the shipping for you by the person's location and weight of the parcel and this option to add a $ or % to the total shipping cost.  This works for insurance, but if you add handling and materials, it does not, as you can have a very small expensive item and the add on would be significantly more than a large cheap item (so handling and materials are instead negatively correlated so it doesn't work.  The system is severely limited.  

[flyinghorse]

I’ve signed on with Shippo and published my site.So here goes.I am not expecting a rush of sales yet so have a bit of time to learn the Shippo process which seems to offer what I will need.They also seem to be available.Thanks for the responses.Tech and online stuff can be frustrating at times but at least I’ve made it this far.