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Real Time Shipping Rates

With Real Time Shipping (RTS), your website connects to one or more of the major shipping carriers (UPS, USPS, FedEx, Australia Post, and Canada Post) and gets the price that the carrier would charge to ship that order based on the weight and/or size of the products ordered, and the origin and destination of the package. This requires an account with one or more of the 3rd-party carriers, and incurs additional monthly fees through those companies.

More than one carrier can be used at the same time, to give your customers a wider array of shipping choices.

Calculations

When using Real Time Shipping rates, the software sends the total weight of all of the products, the dimensions (if the product is set as is ship separately), the customer's shipping address, and the origin address. The origin address is taken either from the storefront address (see below) or the drop shipper's address if using drop shipping (UPS only). The carrier then calculates the rates based on this information and returns it to the site for display. 

Rate Restrictions

By default, the software will display all rates that the shipping carrier returns. This means that the shipping carrier determines which methods are applicable to the customer, and the customer can choose from any of them. Some store owners may want to restrict these choices of available shipping methods. This can be done by preventing shipping methods from appearing . You can also determine which carriers are displayed in general for the United States (Domestic) and International (all available non-United States countries) using the Configuration - Settings - RTShipping.DomesticCarriers and RTShipping.InternationalCarriers . If used, these settings will override values in the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier setting.

To otherwise restrict where customers can ship to (removes the options from the Addressing), store administrators can delete or Unpublish (recommended) the States/Provinces from eRatex, and/or the Country table. 

General Setup 

To set up Real Time Shipping (regardless of the carrier you choose to use), the following steps must first be performed:
  1. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings.

  2. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'Origin', then click Apply Filter.

  3. Each of these RTShipping.Origin Settings needs to be populated. These make up the origin address that is used for shipping calculations, so set them to the address you wish to use for that purpose. Note the following rules:
    Be sure that RTShipping.OriginState is a 2-letter abbreviation, do not use the full state name
    RTShipping.OriginZip should only be 5 digits

  4. Go to Configuration > Shipping Calculation, and select the radio button next to Use Real Time Rates, then click Save.

UPS

 Once the General Real Time Shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable UPS shipping:

 

  1. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings.

  2. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'RTShipping.ups', then click Apply Filter.

  3. The following Settings will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from UPS. Do not change the other Settings unless instructed to do so!
    RTShipping.UPS.License (UPS refers to this as an Access Key)
    RTShipping.UPS.Password
    RTShipping.UPS.UserName

  4. Finally, search for the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier Setting, and set the value to UPS.

USPS

 Once the General Real Time Shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable USPS shipping:
  1. Obtain access to the USPS Web Tools by clicking the "Register Now" link, and submitting your information.

  2. You should receive an email from USPS with your username and password for the API. These credentials should be valid for the USPS production and test servers.

  3. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings

  4. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'RTShipping.usps', then click Apply Filter.

  5. The following Setting will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from USPS. Do not change the other Settings unless instructed to do so!
    RTShipping.USPS.UserName: This is the username assigned to you by USPS.

  6. Finally, search for the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier Setting, and set the value to USPS.

USPS has a maximum shipping weight of 70 lbs. Store administrators should make sure that their RTShipping.USPS.MaxWeight Setting is set to 70 or less.

FedEx

 Once the General Real Time Shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable FedEx shipping:
  1. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings.
  2. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'RTShipping.Fedex', then click Apply Filter. 
  3. The following Settings will need to be populated with your personal account information, obtained from FedEx. Do not change the other Settings unless instructed to do so!
    RTShipping.FedEx.AccountNumber
    RTShipping.FedEx.Meter *
    RTShipping.FedEx.Key
    RTShipping.FedEx.Password

  4. Finally, search for the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier Setting, and set the value to FedEx.

FedEx's API does not accept product dimensions with decimal places (ie 3.5). Remember that when entering dimensions for your products, they will be rounded up to whole numbers if you're using FedEx Real Time Shipping rates.

* To obtain your FedEx Web Services Meter Number, follow this procedure:

  1. Go to the FedEx developer website
  2. Login to FedEx and select Web Services for Shipping from the drop down selector
  3. Select FedEx Web Services on the left side navigation, then Move to Production
  4. Click the button called Get Production Key
  5. Fill out the required information and you will be given your meter number and credentials

 

Australia Post 


Once the General Real Time Shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable AusPost shipping:

 

  1. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings.

  2. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'RTShipping.AusPost', then click Apply Filter.
  3. Verify that the following Settings are configured as desired for your site. Note that AusPost does not require any username/password information to return live rates.
    RTShipping.AusPost.DefaultPackageSize
    RTShipping.AusPost.DomesticServices
    RTShipping.AusPost.IntlServices
    RTShipping.AusPost.MaxWeight

  4. Change the Localization.StoreCurrency Setting to AUD (see this page for more information on changing locales).

  5. Change the Localization.WeightUnits Setting to kg (see this page for more information on changing locales).

  6. Finally, search for the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier Setting, and set the value to AusPost.

Canada Post 

Once the General Real Time Shipping setup steps have been completed, follow the steps below to enable Canada Post shipping:

  1. In the eRatex admin console, go to Configuration > Settings.

  2. In the Search All Fields box, enter 'RTShipping.CanadaPost', then click Apply Filter.
  3. Verify that the following Setting is configured with your account information from Canada Post.
    RTShipping.CanadaPost.MerchantID

  4. Change the Localization.StoreCurrency Setting to CAD (see this page for more information on changing locales).

  5. Change the Localization.WeightUnits Setting to kg (see this page for more information on changing locales).

  6. Finally, search for the RTShipping.ActiveCarrier Setting, and set the value to CanadaPost.

 

A Note Regarding DHL

Since DHL no longer operates domestic parcel services in the United States, we have removed the ability to request domestic rates from them. DHL will only work for non-US stores and customers.

 
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