Can you Rate Shop in ShipStation?

‍

Rate shopping in ShipStation allows all users to compare shipping rates across multiple carriers and services in real-time. This helps users save money by selecting the most cost effective shipping option for orders.

‍

There are a few ways ShipStation users can rate shop their shipments.

‍

Manually Rate Shop

‍

ShipStation users can manually compare shipping rates across carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, and more. To do this, you click on the “calculator” button in the top right corner of the order screen.

‍

ShipStation will show rate estimates based on shipment details (weight, dimensions, destination), and users can choose the most cost-effective or fastest option.

‍

From there, you can select the shipping option you think best suits your needs.  This method is very time consuming, 30 seconds or more per shipment, and the time you spend may not be worth the money you save.

‍

Use ShipStation “Automation Rules”

‍

Within ShipStation, you can set predefined rules that will automatically select carriers based on criteria like order weight or destination.

‍

Automation Rules are static, they simply prescribe a service based on certain aspects of an order you tell them to look out for. For example, you can say if the shipment is going to zone 5 and is 5lbs, use USPS Ground Advantage.  

‍

This inhibits you from getting the best price for every shipment because it doesn’t factor everything or use real time rates. 

‍

Compared to manually rate shopping, automation rules are much faster so while you may not always get the best shipping rate, you spend less time fulfilling each order.

‍

Pay for Rate Shopper by ShipStation

‍

Rate Shopper by ShipStation allows for more accurate automation than automation rules. You can pre-select a set of shipping services for ShipStation to choose the cheapest one for every shipment.

‍

While Rate Shopper provides better automation than the default “Automation Rules”, Rate Shopper still has some pitfalls. For example, Rate Shopper can’t access all carrier rates in real time, and it fails to consider time in transit when selecting the best option. 

‍

For example, if you have a zone 1 shipment that must arrive in two days, Rate Shopper won’t know that UPS Ground will arrive in time and is a good option for saving money. 

‍

Alternative Rate Shopping Tools

‍

The most efficient way to rate shop in ShipStation is to find an automated rate shopping tool specifically for ShipStation. For example, String automates rate shopping within ShipStation. 

‍

String works with all carriers and service options while taking into consideration all the criteria that are important to you and your business.

‍

String even accounts for all carrier rates in real-time and accounts for time in transit - this means String finds the most affordable rate that will get to the destination in time. 

‍

For example, if a customer paid for 2 day shipping and UPS Ground will arrive in 2 days, String will update the order with UPS Ground as the shipping option.

‍

On average, ShipStation users save $1.07 per shipment with String. Want to see if Strings automated rate shopping tool can benefit your business? Click here.