Purpose: This article will provide a clear overview of your shipping costs and surcharges, enabling better visibility, cost control, and optimization of your shipping strategy.

Understanding Shipping/Surcharge Costs

The Shipping Costs Dashboard consists of the Shipping Costs Overview and the Surcharge breakdown. You can use the analytics displayed to analyze your shipping costs, surcharges, and average parcel price per shipping method and carrier lane.

The Shipping Costs Dashboard shows key shipping metrics, including:

• Average costs per parcel
• Total invoice costs
• Shipping costs contracts
• Weight distribution
• Total surcharges
• Average surcharge per parcel
• Top Surcharge breakdown by volume/costs

Filters

The analytics feature includes multiple filter options, allowing you to refine data and analyze specific aspects of your shipping activities. Using filters effectively helps in identifying trends, assessing performance, and making data-driven decisions. For the Shipping Costs dashboard, we have the following filters available.

Available Filters:

You can customize the dashboard view using the following filters:

• Date Range – Select a specific time period to analyze shipping trends over days, weeks, or months.
• Brand – Filter parcels by a specific brand if multiple brands are managed under one account.
• Carrier – View parcels handled by a particular carrier to assess the shipping costs of a specific carrier.
• Carrier method – Use an even more detailed filter to not only specify the carrier but also the specific shipping method of a carrier.
• Destination Country – Focus on parcels delivered to a specific country to evaluate regional shipping efficiency.
• Integration – Narrow down parcels by sales channels, such as specific e-commerce platforms or order management systems.
• Origin Country – Analyze parcels based on their country of origin to assess outbound shipping trends.

Costs overview - KPIs and their description

Parcels in view

What it shows: This KPI represents the total number of parcels within the selected date range.
It helps assess the reliability of the other data presented in the overview. A higher number of included parcels generally indicates that the insights derived from the data are more meaningful.

Pending parcel differences

What it shows: Parcels within the selected date range that are still eligible to receive surcharges and other costs. Surcharges are typically not invoiced immediately, as they’re applied during the shipping process. The number shown here reflects the parcels that may still incur additional charges.

This is based on the expected surcharges and is an indication of what costs could be potentially added. This is not guaranteed and is based on estimation.

Estimated Shipping cost

Note: This KPI is only applicable to users who ship via our Sendcloud rates. If you use your direct contract with a carrier, no data will be shown for this KPI.

What it shows: Estimated shipping costs based on completed parcels within the selected date range. The focus is on estimating shipping costs, including any expected surcharges that may still be applied. Expected surcharges are based on estimation and can be higher or lower after ‘finalized costs’.

Average costs per parcel

What it shows: The average costs per parcel for all the parcels done within the selected date range. At the moment, this only includes the base parcel costs and excludes any surcharges.

Total invoice amount

What it shows: The total invoiced Sendcloud shipping costs within the selected date range, broken down by category. This stacked bar chart shows the total invoice amounts for labels created within the selected date range. The costs are divided into different categories for greater insight:

• Base price: The standard shipping cost charged by the carrier.
• Surcharge: Any additional surcharges, excluding fuel-related charges.
• Fuel: Fuel-specific surcharges applied during shipping.
• Additional services: Costs for services such as insurance, pickups, insurance refunds, and claims.
• Other: Import-related costs, including VAT, duties, and administrative fees.

Each color in the chart represents one of these categories, helping to visualize how different cost components contribute to the overall invoice amount.

Average Parcel Price by Destination

What it shows: This geo map displays the average parcel price by destination across different countries. The darker the shade of blue, the higher the average parcel price for that region.
Users can drill down into specific continents for a more detailed view.

Average Parcel Price by Shipping Lane

What it shows: This table provides an overview of the average parcel price per shipping lane within the selected date range, with the option to switch to a country-based view.

• Shipping lane: Route between origin and destination countries.

• parcels: Total number of parcels made per lane or country.

• Average cost: Average parcel cost calculated for each lane or country.

• Total: Total cost of all parcels per lane or country.

• Country (only in country mode): Aggregated view of all parcel data per country.

The view allows quick comparison between different lanes or countries based on parcel volume, average cost, and total spend.

Shipping costs contracts data table

What it shows: This data table displays detailed cost insights per shipping method within the selected date range, based on Sendcloud contract rates. Each row includes information on:

• Shipping method: The specific service used, including carrier name.
• Lane: The route or country pair for the parcel.
• Contract: The contract will be shown as Sendcloud when shipping via our rates. 
• parcels: The number of parcels completed within the selected date range.
• Average cost and Average surcharge: Calculated averages for base shipping and additional charges.
• Total: Total cost for that shipping method.

You can download raw data in CSV format for further analysis, or switch to a carrier view to see aggregated costs by carrier instead of method.

Average parcel price over time

What it shows: This line chart shows the daily development of parcel costs across the selected date range. It compares:

• Base price: The standard rate charged per parcel, excluding any additional costs.

• Average price: The overall average cost per parcel, potentially including surcharges and extra services.

Use this chart to identify pricing trends, fluctuations, and patterns in your shipping costs over time.

Weight distribution

What it shows: This visualization helps identify whether higher shipping costs are caused by unexpectedly larger parcel sizes. It can also support improvements to internal operations, ensuring the correct label is applied and verifying that product dimensions align with the actual shipment weights.

Surcharge breakdown - KPIs and their description

Parcels in view

What it shows: This KPI represents the total number of parcels within the selected date range.
It helps assess the reliability of the other data presented in the overview. A higher number of included parcels generally indicates that the insights derived from the data are more meaningful.

Total surcharges

What it shows: This KPI shows the combined value of all surcharges within the selected date range, added to shipments, such as fuel, remote area, or additional service fees. It provides insight into how much of your total shipping cost is driven by these extra charges.

Avg. surcharge per parcel

What it shows: This KPI reflects the average total surcharge applied per parcel over the selected date range. It gives you insight into how significantly surcharges are contributing to the cost per parcel, helping evaluate cost efficiency and spot potential savings.

Surcharge per parcel

What it shows:  This KPI indicates the average number of different surcharge types applied per parcel within the selected date range. It helps you understand how complex your shipments are regarding added fees, revealing whether multiple surcharge categories (like fuel, dimensional, or residential) are commonly combined per parcel.

Average surcharge by destination

What it shows: This geo map displays the average surcharge amount, within the selected date range,  by destination country. Darker shades indicate destinations with higher average surcharge values. Use this map to spot geographic patterns and determine where surcharges might be driving up delivery costs.

Average surcharge by shipping lane

What it shows: This table provides a breakdown of surcharge amounts across different shipping lanes within the selected date range. It includes:

• Shipping lane: Route based on origin and destination countries.

• Shipments: The number of parcels shipped on each lane.

• Average surcharge: The average surcharge applied per parcel.

• Total: The cumulative surcharge cost for each lane.

You can switch to country view to get a destination-level overview instead of lane-specific data.

Top surcharges breakdown by volume/costs

What it shows: This bar chart highlights the top surcharge types, within the selected date range, ranked by volume or total cost. Use the toggle to switch between views and uncover which surcharges contribute most to your overall spend or occur most frequently.

You can also check the Show fuel box if you want the fuel surcharge costs to be included.

Surcharges breakdown

What it shows: This detailed table lists all surcharges applied within the selected date range, including shipment volume, share of total surcharges, average cost per parcel, and total invoiced amount. Use the available filters to analyze by carrier, surcharge type, or other variables for a deeper dive.