Dreamweaver Article

Retrieving shipping rate quotes in real time

Why go real time?

The chief benefit for implementing real-time shipping quotes is accuracy. The major shipping services vary their shipping costs for different customers. As you might expect, companies that ship more get better rates. The quotes retrieved from the shipping firm's web services are tailored to the customers requesting them. As you'll see later in this article, this tight integration means additional work on the web developer's part in the site-development phase.

It's important to keep in mind that while your site retrieves the correct rate for the products chosen by the online shopper, you're not obligated to pass the same rate to the shopper. You could, for example, add either a set amount or percentage of the quoted rate to cover handling. You could also offer a discount for volume purchases or even waive the shipping fee altogether should the purchase total exceed a given point. This type of control gives your online store owner tremendous flexibility to try out different sales and marketing strategies—a flexibility greatly appreciated by the savvy shopkeeper.

Setting up for real-time quotes

Now, let's take a look at the process required for retrieving real-time shipping quotes. The web has been a real boon for the package delivery industry given the increased volume accompanying the rise of online shopping. Most of the major commercial shippers have developed one or more methods to deliver pertinent rate information upon request. In the balance of this article, I'll review one technique for getting rates from FedEx and UPS.

The very first step for getting real-time shipping quotes is to sign up for the service with the shipping company in addition to having access to a regular account. For UPS, you'll need to establish a My UPS account; with FedEx, you'll need to register for a FedEx Ship Manager Direct account. Although both are rather involved, the UPS sign-up is a little more straightforward than the FedEx version, so let's take a look at that process first.

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