CCMS Shipping Insurance Pro

Install and Activate

• Install and activate WooCommerce and the free CCMS Shipping Insurance for WooCommerce plugin
• Download the Pro plugin ZIP, then go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin and activate it
• Open WooCommerce → Shipping Insurance → Pro License, paste your key and click Activate License
• A Connections tab and an Insurance Report tab appear. Every connection is off until you switch it on

What Pro Does and Does Not Do

Pro does not sell or underwrite insurance and does not buy labels. The free plugin collects the customer’s fee and records the choice on each order; Pro reads those records and helps you buy the matching cover and see whether the fee covered its cost.

Carrier and insurer products, prices, limits, claim deadlines and eligibility are set by those companies and can change. Check them in your own accounts.

ShipStation

ShipStation buys insurance when a label is made, not at checkout. This connection fills one of ShipStation’s custom fields with a short flag for every insured order, for example INSURE | declared 40.00 USD | fee 2.75 | USPS, and an automation rule in ShipStation adds the insurance.

• Install the official ShipStation for WooCommerce plugin and connect your store in ShipStation (Settings → Selling Channels → Store Setup). No ShipStation API keys are used
• On the Connections tab, tick Send insured orders to ShipStation, choose Custom Field 3 (recommended) or 2, and set the flag text
• In ShipStation, open Settings → Automation → Automation Rules, add a rule with the condition “Custom Field 3 contains INSURE” and the action that adds insurance to the shipment
• The card warns you if the official plugin is missing or another plugin already uses the field you chose
• ShipStation does not export virtual or no-shipping orders at all, so those are never flagged

In the US, ShipStation offers ParcelGuard when ShipStation Carriers are enabled; in the UK it offers XCover. ShipStation bills the insurance when the label is created, so make sure the fee you charge covers it.

EasyPost

EasyPost can insure a package whose label was made anywhere, using the tracking number and the declared value. It must be bought before the carrier first scans the package, so the best time is right after the label is made.

• Enter your EasyPost API key on the Connections tab. Keys starting EZTK are test keys that buy nothing real; EZAK keys buy for real. The card shows which kind you saved, and Test the key only reads from EasyPost
• The key is stored separately from the other settings, never shown in full, and can instead be set in wp-config.php with CCMSSIP_EASYPOST_API_KEY
• Manual mode adds a button to each insured order: enter the tracking number and buy
• Automatic mode buys when a tracking number is reported by the official ShipStation plugin, by the Shippo or carrier connections below, or by any plugin that calls do_action( 'ccmssip_tracking_available', $order, $tracking_number, $carrier )
• Set the most to insure per package. EasyPost insures up to $5,000, and orders above your limit are not insured automatically and are noted on the order
• Insurance is only ever bought for orders where the customer chose and paid for it

At the time of writing EasyPost charges 1% of the declared value with a $1.00 minimum. To charge customers the same amount, set the carriers on the Carrier Rates tab of the free plugin to a 1% percentage with a $1.00 minimum charge.

Safety rules: one automatic attempt per order, ever. A refusal or a timeout is written on the order as a note and is never retried on its own, because a timeout may still have bought the insurance. Check your EasyPost account before pressing the button again.

Shippo

Shippo adds insurance only while a label is being bought, and it cannot be added afterwards or requested from your store. Each insured order shows the amount and contents to enter when you buy the label in Shippo, where insurance uses XCover by default (FedEx and UPS carrier insurance are also available).

• Tick Show Shippo details on orders to get the box on each insured order
• Optionally tick Read Shippo tracking notes. Shippo writes the carrier and tracking number back to the order as a note such as “Order was shipped with UPS and tracking number is: 1Z…”. Only notes added through the WooCommerce REST API are read, so a note typed by a person never starts anything
• The note wording can be adjusted by developers with the ccmssip_shippo_note_patterns filter

Do not insure twice. If Shippo tracking notes feed EasyPost automatic mode and you also turn on insurance inside Shippo for the same label, you pay twice. The card warns you when both are on; use one or the other for each shipment.

FedEx, UPS and USPS

The carriers sell insurance (declared value) only while the label is created. This connection helps around that:

• On each insured order it shows the value to declare on the label, the tracking number if one is known, and a link to the carrier’s claim page. Claims have deadlines, so check the carrier’s rules
• With Read shipment tracking on, tracking numbers saved on an insured order by WooCommerce Shipment Tracking (and plugins that save them the same way) are passed on once each, so EasyPost automatic mode can follow

Developers can change the claim links with the ccmssip_claim_urls filter.

Insurance Report

The report compares what customers paid for insurance with what it cost you, by carrier, with filters for carrier and date and a CSV export. What customers paid is exact. The cost is known when:

• the EasyPost connection bought the insurance (EasyPost reports the fee), or
• you typed the cost in the What this insurance cost you box on the order and pressed Save cost. What you type wins over an EasyPost fee

Orders with no cost are counted in a separate column instead of being treated as free. For those you can set an estimated cost as a percentage of the declared value, using your insurer’s rate; estimated costs are marked as estimates in the CSV. Amounts must be typed with the store’s own decimal separator, so a typo like “1,50” in a store that uses a point is refused rather than read as 150.

Totals cover up to the 20,000 most recent matching orders.

For Developers

ccmssip_connectors — filter the list of connectors

ccmssip_tracking_available — an action other plugins can fire with an order, a tracking number and a carrier to let EasyPost automatic mode insure that package

ccmssip_easypost_api_base — change the EasyPost address (for testing)

ccmssip_shippo_note_patterns and ccmssip_shippo_accept_note — how Shippo tracking notes are recognised and accepted

ccmssip_claim_urls — the claim page for each carrier

Troubleshooting

There is no Connections tab. Enter a valid Pro license key on the Pro License tab. Without one, Pro features stay off.

The plugin says it needs the free plugin. Install and activate the free CCMS Shipping Insurance for WooCommerce plugin and update it to the latest version.

ShipStation shows nothing in the custom field. Check the official ShipStation plugin is active, the order was insured by the customer, and no other plugin already uses the field you chose (the card tells you).

EasyPost says no clear answer. That means the request may or may not have reached EasyPost. Look in your EasyPost account for insurance on that tracking number before trying again.

The report shows orders with no cost. Enter the cost on the order, buy through the EasyPost connection, or set an estimate on the report page.

Pro Add-on

Needs a CCMS Pro license and the free plugin.

Related

• Pro Plugin Overview
• Free Plugin Documentation
• All WordPress Plugins
• Help Center
• Contact CCMS