How Rate Shopping feature works

Add Rate Shopping Feature

Rate Shopping is an advanced feature that we offer and it can be added to your account in the section Shipping Options as Custom Shipping Options.

Rate Shopping Logic

Rate Shopping is a complex shipping option that will allow you to "choose" the lowest rate among a number of Carrier Services from different Carriers at the same time. The feature makes a "virtual auction" to select and show the lowest Shipping Rate/s to your customers at checkout. It is worth mentioning that this communication between Carriers and Calcurates is done in mere fractions of a second.

Creating a Rate Shipping Carrier Shipping Option

Rate Shopping shipping option is created the same way other options are created within Calcurates: 4 easy configuration steps, only step 2 if unique for each option.

Choose Rate Shopping on the right-hand side of your screen among carrier options. 

Rate Shopping Settings

The system uses enabled and connected carriers from your account and requests multiple real-time rates. Here it is also required to specify what number of cheapest rates must be shown. This way you can give your customers the satisfaction of selecting the most "handsome" rate.

Please make sure that all the needed carriers are synced so they are available for selection here in Rate Shopping Settings popup:

Enable the needed carriers for the current option and their services will be compared before showing the rate to your customers.

Having selected the needed carriers, determine what Carrier Services should be used for the current Rate Shipping Option.

This can be done from the "Available Services" grid:

Smart Packaging functionality is also available for Rate Shopping so Carrier and Custom Packages grids can be accessed here too. The preferred Volumetric Method may also be applied to the given Rate Shopping option from the Volumetric Weight grid.

Editing a Carrier Service

Click "Edit" from the Actions column and you will be able to configure the specific carrier service by giving it a different Display Name and Tooltip on the checkout page.

Each carrier service may have specific delivery dates and cut-off time configured from the same popup, Delivery Dates tab if you have the Delivery Dates feature activated for your account.

Adding More Flexibility

Keep in mind that a created  Rate Shopping carrier option may be Hidden, Discounted, Surcharged or Replaced with our Shipping Rules functionality that is perfectly compatible.

Apply a rule over the numerous rates that are displayed to your customers at checkout.

You may make these shipping options only available for a specific customer group or after a certain order subtotal is reached.

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