How to Rate Shop

Learn how to set up rate shopping to control the cost, the speed, and the carriers used when shipping orders.

To set up Infoplus to Rate Shop for one carrier or multiple by finding the cheapest or fastest service for the same company (e.g., UPS, FedEx), follow the steps below to set up and execute rate shopping from the Carrier table as noted below.  

What Settings are Required to Be True for Rate Shop to Work in Infoplus?

1. Orders must be Pre-Cartonized for rate shopping to work. To set up your orders ahead of time to Pre-Cartonize, the system needs to know the size, weight, and dimensions of the shipment so it can calculate and find the best price/speed for your orders. You will need to set up cartonization and a trigger to automatically cartonize orders for Rate Shopping to run automatically. 
2. Parcel Accounts must be set up before Rate Shopping can be set up on the Carrier Table.
3. If you want to utilize a script for Pre-Cartonization or a specific Rate Shop feature, will need to set that up before setting up the Rate Shop in the Carrier table.
   1. Learn how to set up a trigger action and a script to automatically set up Pre-Cartonization. Make sure this step is complete before setting up your Rate Shop Carrier.
   2. Rate Shop Fastest and Cheapest Example Script:
      Use a script to set up the Rate Shop to search for either the fastest or cheapest shipping options (or both). View an example of this script and the necessary parameters here.

What Settings are Optional for Rate Shop?

1. Set up the Rate Shop to run automatically for every order, or manually run the Rate Shop on a single order.
2. Set up a Smart Filter before setting up the Trigger for the Rate Shop. This Smart Filter should include all the parameters for orders that need to have Rate Shop run automatically. 

How to Set Up Rate Shopping in Infoplus

There are two methods to access the “Carrier” table:

- From the Dashboard: Click the “Apps” tab, click the “Manifest Setup” App, then click the “Carrier” Table.

- From the Quick Actions shortcut: Press a dot (period) on your keyboard, then select "Carrier” from the list of Quick Actions.

Click the Create New button. The Creating New Carrier screen appears

In the Carrier Company field, select Rate Shop from the drop-down arrow
Enter the Name of your choice (examples below)

• • Cheapest - UPS
  • Fastest - FedEx
  • Cheapest - USPS
  • Fastest - DHL

Rate Shop: select the appropriate Rule (dropdown arrow):

Cheapest: will select the service that can ship the parcels at the lowest cost out of the options set.

Fastest: will select the service that will deliver the parcels the quickest.

Script: add a script that has been created to customize how the Rate Shop chooses a carrier service.

Parcel Accounts: click Add to list the accounts you would like to rate shop on this service.

Carriers: click Add to put the specific carrier services that need to be taken into account for the service. Click Save.

Manually Rate Shop Orders

There is also the option to run the Rate Shop manually when you want to use it for specific orders.

There are two methods to access the “Rate Shop Orders Process”:

- From the Dashboard: Click the “Apps” tab, click the “Fulfillment” App, then click the “Order” Table.

- From the Quick Actions shortcut: Press a dot (period) on your keyboard, then select the "Rate Shop Orders Process” from the list of Quick Actions.

• Select orders then under the "Actions" menu (top right), select Rate Shop Orders
• Select orders then bottom right, click "Next" to rate shop the selected orders

How to Automatically Run Rate Shop via a Trigger Action

A Rate Shop Trigger Action can be used to have orders automatically rate shopped upon insert into Infoplus or when they are updated. If a rate shop action is assigned to a trigger, then any orders matching the trigger's filter will automatically be rate shopped. For insert actions, this relies on the order being set to one of the Rate Shop Carriers that have been created.

To learn more about how to set up a Trigger, click here.