Rate Shopping

Rate shopping lets you automatically compare shipping rates across carriers, methods, and providers to find the cheapest option for each order. Teapplix supports several rate shopping approaches depending on your setup and goals.

What Is a RATESHOP Method?

A RATESHOP method (formerly called “SmartMethod”) is a user-defined bundle of candidate shipping methods. When you rate or ship an order using a RATESHOP method, the system evaluates all candidates and picks the cheapest one that meets your constraints.

You create and manage RATESHOP methods in Settings > Rate Shop. Each method defines:

• Candidate methods — the shipping methods to compare (e.g. USPS Ground Advantage, UPS Ground, FedEx Home Delivery)
• Destination region — all, US-only, or international-only
• Max delivery days — optional transit time limit (1-127 days)
• Honor deliver-by date — optionally filter candidates by the order’s required delivery date
• Per-candidate constraints — weight range, max dimensions, and price adjustments (flat cents or percentage)

Rules:

• At least one candidate is required
• No duplicate methods
• Cannot nest a RATESHOP method inside another RATESHOP method

Practical Examples

Example 1: USPS Flat Rate vs Regular Priority Mail

Create a RATESHOP method with two candidates: Priority Mail and Priority Mail Flat Rate Medium Box. For any order using this method, the system checks whether the item dimensions fit inside the medium box (11 1/4” x 8 3/4” x 6”). If they fit, it runs rate quotes for both methods and picks whichever is cheaper — automatically, at print time.

Example 2: UPS Weight-Based Routing

Create a RATESHOP method that picks among UPS methods by weight:

• Under 1 lb: UPS Mail Innovations Under 1lb
• Otherwise: UPS Ground

Set the weight constraint on the Mail Innovations candidate to max 1 lb. The system automatically routes lightweight orders to the cheaper method.

Setup and Usage (UI)

1. Go to Settings > Rate Shop and create a method with your candidate shipping methods
2. On the Open Orders page, select the RATESHOP method from the shipping method dropdown — it appears alongside standard carrier methods
3. Click Rate Quote to preview rates, or Ship to generate labels — the system picks the cheapest candidate for each order automatically
4. Click the edit pencil icon on an order to see all the rate options and the winning selection

Marketplace vs Native Rates

Sellers on marketplaces (Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Temu, TikTok, Shein, etc.) often have two sources of shipping rates for the same carrier and method:

• Marketplace rates — the marketplace’s negotiated carrier rates (e.g. Amazon Buy Shipping, Walmart shipping programs). These use standard carriers (UPS, FedEx, USPS) but at the marketplace’s negotiated pricing.
• Native rates — the seller’s own carrier account rates, configured in their shipping profile.

When you use a RATESHOP method, the system can automatically compare both marketplace and native rates for each candidate and pick the overall cheapest option. On the rate quote screen, the winning rate shows which source was used — you’ll see the marketplace name (e.g. “amazon”) if the marketplace rate won, or no provider label if your native account rate won.

For Amazon — the Buy Shipping API, Seller Prime auto-recognition, and which carriers Amazon allows — see Amazon Buy Shipping API.

Shipping Profiles

A shipping profile defines the from-address, carrier account credentials, and other shipping settings. Different profiles can have different carrier accounts with different negotiated rates.

Rate shopping can be combined with multiple profiles to find the cheapest rate across both methods and carrier accounts. Common uses:

• Separate warehouse profiles — compare rates from different ship-from locations
• Separate carrier account profiles — compare rates from different UPS/FedEx/USPS accounts with different discount tiers
• Marketplace vs native routing — use profiles and queues to separate orders that should use marketplace labels from orders that should use native labels

Profiles are tied to specific order queues. Assigning orders to queues means those orders will be processed by the tied profile.

Using Queues to Separate Marketplace vs Native Orders

A common pattern for high-volume sellers who use both marketplace and native carrier accounts:

1. Create separate queues for marketplace labels vs native labels (e.g. “Amazon Labels” queue, “Native UPS” queue, “Native USPS” queue)
2. Tie each queue to the appropriate shipping profile — marketplace queues use a profile configured for marketplace shipping, native queues use profiles with your own carrier accounts
3. Configure a RATESHOP method with candidates covering both marketplace and native methods
4. Route orders to the correct queue after rate shopping — either manually or using automation rules
5. Batch print from each queue — because each queue is tied to the correct profile, labels are purchased through the right carrier account automatically

This separation ensures that:

• Marketplace labels are purchased through the marketplace’s carrier account (required for programs like Amazon Buy Shipping)
• Native labels are purchased through the seller’s own account
• Each queue uses consistent shipping settings
• Batch printing is straightforward — just print from each queue

Understanding Rate Results

When you rate-quote an order using a RATESHOP method, the system returns:

• Winning rate — the cheapest option that met all constraints, shown as the primary result
• Alternative rates — the other candidates, so you can see how they compared
• Rate details — for each rate: the carrier, method, base transportation cost, surcharges, discounts, and estimated delivery date

The total cost for any rate is the base transportation cost plus surcharges minus discounts.

If a candidate method could not return a valid rate (e.g. the package exceeds size limits for that method, or the carrier doesn’t serve that destination), it will appear with an error rather than a price — the system skips it and considers only the valid rates.

Tips

• Rate shopping hits live carrier APIs in real time, so it takes a few seconds per quote — this is normal
• If no candidate method can provide a valid rate, rate shopping will return an error. Check that your candidates cover the destinations and package sizes you ship
• Marketplace rates are only available for orders from that marketplace (e.g. only Amazon orders can use Amazon Buy Shipping rates)
• RATESHOP method names are defined by you — you can name them anything meaningful to your workflow (e.g. “Ground Methods”, “Priority Options”, “Lightweight”)

Automating Rate Shopping with the AI Agent

If you’ve linked Teapplix to an AI tool (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.), you can automate rate shopping by prompting the agent in plain English — no manual clicking required. See ActionShip AI Agent — Rate Shopping for prompt examples and tips.

Video Tutorial

Watch the Automatic Rate Shop video tutorial