How Cart and Courier Tests Its Advice

Cart and Courier is written by The Cart and Courier editors for people who run small online stores. “Tested” means something specific here.

Start at the sale price, end at profit

Every example is worked from the price a customer pays down to what the store keeps, or from a carrier charge up to the total, with each step on the page. The calculators use the same formulas, so you can redo a result with a pencil.

Invented numbers, labeled

Weights, fees, prices and order counts in the guides are picked so the arithmetic is easy to follow. They are no average of anything and no rate on offer. Swap in your own before deciding.

Rates stay out

Carriers and processors change surcharges and fees often, and your account may differ from the next store’s. Pages show how a charge is put together and where to find the current schedule.

Definitions come from whoever sets the term

We check shipping and payment vocabulary against what the carrier, the processor or the regulator publishes, and link to that page when it helps.

Tax and legal questions

We are not accountants or lawyers. Sales tax, consumer protection and import rules turn on where you and your customers live, so pages that touch them send you to a professional or to the agency that writes the rule.

Spotted a wrong figure?

Write to hello@cartandcourier.com with the page and the line. A fix goes onto the page, and if it could change a decision you make, the date moves too. Any financial tie to a company named on a page is disclosed on that page, next to the name.