• What your customer sees.
• Shipping with FreightDesk Online
• Using Address Validation
• Compare rates versus ShipEngine

Save the file as a CSV or Comma Separated Value file. If you are using a Mac, you’ll need save the file as a Windows Comma Separated (.csv) or MS-DOS Comma Separated (.csv) file, or the import process will not be successful.To import your populated CSV file, navigate to the Import CSV tab in the app preferences. Click the box to indicate that your file has a header row (if it still does), and then click the Choose File button. Select your file and click the Next button.

On the next page, use the drop down lists on the right to map the column headers in your file to the shipping parameters listed on the left. When the mapping is done, click Next.

You’ll be prompted to provide an email address which will receive an email once the import is done. The email will contain information about the outcome of the import process. The import process typically takes 5 minutes or less. If you don’t receive a notification email within 10 minutes, check your spam folder and make sure the notification email isn’t there. If it isn’t, download the CSV template again. Examine the new file you receive to see if your updates are reflected in the data.  If they aren’t, email the CSV file that contains your updates to support@eniture.com.

The Orders page lists the orders that have been placed on your store. Its primary purpose, in the context of the app, is to provide information about the shipping quote that was selected during the checkout process. The information provided includes the shipping origins, the shipping service, the amount of the quote, a list of the additional services included in the quote, and a list of the items (by shipping origin) on each shipment. If you have the Standard Box Sizes add-on app enabled, the Shipping Detail page will also have a graphical illustration of the packaging solution complete with step-by-step instructions on how the box was packed. The Standard Box Sizes add-on app is relevant only to parcel and postal providers.

Click an order’s Shipping Details button to view the details of the shipping quote selected during checkout.

The Shipping Rules page gives you an opportunity to customize the behavior of the app. Click the Add button to create a rule.

When enabled, the Residential Address Detection add-on sends the ship-to address to a database sourced from the USPS to inquire about the address type. The app notifies your enabled shipping providers when the ship-to address is residential so that the shipping quotes offered to your shopper include the residential delivery fee. Charges for the Residential Address Detection feature are usage based and are in addition to the monthly subscription you pay for the app. Plans for the Residential Address Detection add-on begin at $5/month for 100 transactions, or 5¢ per transactions when the plan is fully depleted. Other plans are available. The largest plan will drop the rate to 1¢ per transaction when it is fully depleted. (View all subscription plans)

A transaction occurs each time an address type is identified prior to sending a request for shipping quotes to your enabled carriers. If a visitor causes the app to retrieve shipping quotes multiple times (perhaps after returning to the catalog to add additional items to the Cart), only one transaction will occur provided the ship-to address remains the same. However, an additional transaction will occur each time the ship-to address is changed.

Subscription plans renew when the current one expires or is fully depleted, which ever occurs first. To change plans, select a new option from the Auto-renew setting. When the current plan expires or is fully depleted, the new plan will be in effect.

The Residential Address Detection add-on has an extremely high Return On Investment (ROI). The residential delivery fee for parcel shipments is between $4 and $5 depending on the service used. The residential delivery fee for an LTL freight shipment can approach $200. Most of the time, LTL freight deliveries to residential addresses require lift gate delivery service, the fee for which can also approach $200. Investing a few cents to identify the ship-to address type of your online shoppers is an excellent way to protect the profitability of your orders and avoid unpleasant surprises.

When the Standard Box Sizes add-on is in use, it allows merchants to identify the sizes of boxes that are kept on hand for shipping purposes. When the activity of an online shopper triggers the need for parcel shipping quotes, the programming examines the available boxes and identifies a packaging solution that is best suited for the contents of the cart. The packaging solution will result in the lowest shipping cost. A graphical illustration of the packaging solution will be saved with the order and can be viewed on the Orders tab in the app’s user interface. It will show the box(es) selected for the packaging solution and step-by-step illustrations of how each item in the cart was oriented and placed in the box.

The Standard Box Sizes feature is important if you want to offer accurate parcel shipping rates to your customers. Parcel carriers like FedEx and UPS determine package charges based on billable weight, which is the greater of a package’s actual weight or dimensional weight. The size of the box used is a critical factor in determining dimensional weight. Learn more.

If you elect not to use the Standard Box Sizes add-on, each item in the Cart will be treated as shipping as its own package. When an item’s dimensions are present, then the item will be treated as shipping in a package of that size. If the item’s dimensions are absent, then only the its weight will be used for rating purposes.

Charges for the Standard Box Sizes feature are usage based and are in addition to the monthly subscription you pay for the app. Plans for the Standard Box Sizes add-on begin at $5/month for 100 transactions, or 5¢ per transaction when the plan is fully depleted. Other plans are available. The largest plan will drop the rate to 1¢ per transaction when it is fully depleted. (View all subscription plans)

When the Standard Box Sizes add-on is enabled, a transaction occurs each time a packaging solution is obtained. A packaging solution is obtained prior to sending a request for shipping quotes to your enabled parcel shipping providers. If a visitor’s activity causes an additional request for shipping quotes and the contents of the Cart have not changed, then the previously obtained packaging solution is used and an additional transaction will not occur.

Subscription plans renew when the current one expires or is fully depleted, which ever occurs first. To change plans, select a new option from the Auto-renew setting. When the current plan expires or is fully depleted, the new plan will be in effect.

When the Standard Box Sizes add-on is enabled, the app’s navigation will display Standard Box Sizes in the Add-ons section. Click on it to gain access to the Standard Box Sizes settings. Use the Add Box button to introduce a new box. Use the Edit link adjacent to an existing box to edit its properties, or the Delete link to remove it.

When you enable the Standard Box Sizes add-on, a setting is added to the product shipping parameters to allow you to indicate that the item ships as multiple packages. When you enable the setting, the item will appear on the Box Sizes page in the Items that ship as multiple packages section which is located beneath the section for standard box sizes. For each item that ships as multiple packages, click the Add Box button and identify the boxes.

When the Pallet Packaging add-on is in use, it allows merchants to identify the sizes of pallets or handling units that are kept on hand for shipping. You don’t need to enable this optional, usage-based feature if your pricing tariff is based exclusively on traditional freight classes. However, if your pricing tariff requires that your shipments be dimensionally rated then you will need to enable this feature. Product dimensions are required when this add-on is in use.

When the activity of an online shopper triggers the need for LTL shipping quotes, the packaging algorithm will select the smallest pallet possible from your list of identified pallets. The selected pallet will be the one with a width or length greater but closest in size to the item in the cart with the largest dimension. If there is more than one possibility, the pallet with the smallest square area (length x width) will be chosen. This ensures the greatest edge-to-edge coverage on the pallet and therefore the lowest shipping costs when shipments will be dimensionally rated.

When the Pallet Packaging add-on is enabled, the packaging solution is saved as a step-by-step graphical illustration which you can access from the Order Details page. Use the step-by-step instructions to pack the order exactly as it was quoted.

Charges for the Pallet Packaging feature are usage based and are in addition to the monthly subscription you pay for the app. Plans for the Pallet Packaging add-on begin at $5/month for 100 transactions, or 5¢ per transaction when the plan is fully depleted. Other plans are available. The largest plan will drop the rate to 1¢ per transaction when it is fully depleted. (View all subscription plans)

When the Pallet Packaging add-on is enabled, a transaction occurs each time a packaging solution is obtained. A packaging solution is obtained prior to sending a request for shipping quotes to your enabled LTL freight providers. If a visitor’s activity causes an additional request for shipping quotes and the contents of the Cart have not changed, then the previously obtained packaging solution is used and an additional transaction will not occur.

Subscription plans renew when the current one expires or is fully depleted, which ever occurs first. To change plans, select a new option from the Auto-renew setting. When the current plan expires or is fully depleted, the new plan will be in effect.

When the Pallet Packaging add-on is enabled, the app’s navigation will display Pallet Packaging in the Add-ons section. Click on it to gain access to the Pallet Packaging settings. Use the Add Pallet button to introduce a new pallet or handling unit. Use the Edit link adjacent to an existing entry to edit its properties, or the Delete link to remove it.

What your customer sees will depend on the shipping providers you activated and the settings you’ve enabled. Shipping estimates are obtainable on the Cart page and the Checkout page. Below are examples of what a customer would see on both pages. Depending on the circumstance of the checkout, it is also possible for the shopper to be presented with both parcel and LTL freight quotes. Learn more.

1. How capture the cost of shipping on orders placed online.
2. How to ship the order, including how to create the shipping label (or Bill Of Lading in the case of LTL freight), schedule the carrier to pick up the shipment, and update the customer with the tracking number.

Quoting apps, like this one, provide a solution for the first challenge. What are your options for the second challenge?

Option 1 – The carrier’s website: You can log into the carrier’s website and manually enter all of the relevant information. Carrier websites are free to use since the carrier makes money when you use them to deliver an order. However, if you have more than a handful of orders each day this approach is time consuming and ripe for data entry errors which can be costly to correct.

Option 2 – Cloud-based Shipping Platforms: The next step up in capability are cloud-based shipping systems that will connect to your online store and retrieve the details of your orders, thereby eliminating the need for much of the manual data entry. Many of these shipping systems have arrangements with postal and parcel carriers that give subscribers access to discounted rates that they’d be unable to obtain on their own. Where these systems excel is in the efficiency of the fulfillment process. That translates to a much higher volume of shipments per unit of time. These systems are relatively inexpensive and the reduction in the amount of labor and time it takes to ship your orders will pay dividends.

Option 3 – FreightDesk Online: FreightDesk Online (freightdesk.online) is also a cloud-based shipping system. It enjoys all of the benefits of other cloud-based offerings but expands the solution in two ways:

1. It makes use of the detailed information collected by Eniture Technology’s quoting apps (like this one) such as the packaging solution and the additional services included in the shipping option chosen when the order was placed.
2. It provides merchants access to more than two dozen LTL freight providers in addition to the typical postal and parcel integrations offered by other cloud-based solutions.

These expanded capabilities deliver you closer to true “click-and-ship” shipping than any other alternative, whether you’re shipping with a postal carrier, a parcel carrier, or an LTL freight provider.

First, if you don’t already have one, register for a FreightDesk Online account (https://freightdesk.online/register). You can connect multiple online stores to FreightDesk Online, so you don’t have to create separate accounts for each one.

The pricing for FreightDesk Online is á la carte. You’ll be able to pick a separate plan for parcel (and postal) shipments, and for LTL freight shipments based on the anticipated volume for each type of shipping. Your monthly subscription rate will be comprised of these two selections. You can begin a 30-day trial of both types of shipping by selecting Trial in the corresponding dropdown fields on the registration form.

After you complete the registration process, log into FreightDesk Online. Click on your avatar located in the top right-hand corner of the browser window. Copy your FreightDesk Online ID which will be located below your company name.

Return to the BigCommerce ADMIN area. Click Apps and then Real-time Shipping Quotes by Eniture Technology. In the app’s navigation menu, select FreightDesk Online.

Enter your FreightDesk Online ID and then click the Connect button.

Now that you’ve connected FreightDesk Online, unfulfilled orders will automatically appear in FreightDesk Online. To view them, log into FreightDesk Online and click on Orders in the navigation menu. You’ll need to connect your shipping providers before you can start shipping. You can find a quick start guide in FreightDesk Online by navigating to Help > Getting Started.

Eniture Technology has a partnership with ShipEngine Carriers that provides subscribers access to the best UPS rates available anywhere. Merchants that take advantage of the partnership save up to 62% off UPS 2nd Day Air and 48% on UPS Ground. No minimum shipping volume is required. The Compare Rate utility will allow you to compare the parcel rates you receive from Worldwide Express to those offered by ShipEngine Carriers. Simply enter the origin and destination information and basic packaging information and compare!

If the rates available through ShipEngine Carriers are attractive, log in to FreightDesk Online (https://freightdesk.online) or begin a subscription. Afterward, navigate to Settings>ShipEngine Carriers and follow the instructions to create your ShipEngine Carriers account.

To provide shipping quotes from ShipEngine Carriers to your online shoppers, install the plugin ShipEngine Shipping Rates.