The Benefits of Eniture's Small Package Quoting Products

Eniture Technology publishes products that display parcel quotes and LTL freight quotes during the checkout process of supported e-commerce platforms. These products are engineered to work together so that visitors are presented only with shipping rates that are suitable for the shopping cart.

When a parcel quoting product is used that isn't published by Eniture Technology, unfavorable outcomes can occur.

• The visitor may see and select an invalid shipping option for the shopping cart.
• The visitor may not be presented with shipping options that would result in an order.

In both cases, the e-commerce merchant faces the dilemma of either absorbing the impact or contacting the customer to change the outcome of the checkout process.

In this article, we'll explore the consequences of using a parcel quoting product from another software company when one of Eniture Technology's LTL freight quotes products is in use. The examples were created using a Shopify store, but the outcomes are relevant to BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce.

What happens when a third-party parcel app quotes rates for a cart that can only ship LTL freight?

Eniture Technology's products will suppress parcel quotes from displaying when the settings for the items in the shopping cart specify that they should only receive quotes for LTL freight.

Eniture Technology can't affect the operation of an app or plugin it doesn't author. When another company's software is used for parcel shipping rates, it may present parcel shipping rates during checkout even though the order can't be shipped that way.

When an invalid parcel option is less expensive than the valid LTL freight rates, the visitor is likely to choose it. The merchant now faces the dilemma of honoring the option selected by the customer and losing money, or calling the customer to collect the shortfall. Attempting to collect additional money from a customer after the order has been placed negatively impacts the brand, the store's reputation, and often leads to a cancelled order.

What happens when a third-party parcel app is used but LTL freight would offer a lower rate?

At certain weight thresholds, the cost of LTL freight can be more affordable than shipping with a parcel carrier. Merchants that use Eniture Technology's LTL freight products can set when LTL freight quotes should accompany quotes from Eniture Technology's small package (parcel) products.

In this example, the product in the shopping cart normally ships through a parcel carrier when the quantity is one.

As the quantity of the product in the cart increases, eventually, LTL freight becomes a more affordable option. With the proper settings enabled, the Eniture Technology product will also generate shipping rates for LTL freight.

The lower shipping rates for LTL freight might make the difference between cementing the sale or losing it. If the app or plugin used for parcel quotes isn't from Eniture Technology, the visitor may only see the more expensive parcel shipping options and abandon the cart.

What happens when the shopping cart contains both a parcel item and an LTL freight item?

E-commerce platforms are not natively familiar with LTL freight. Product-level settings relevant to LTL freight must often be stored in Eniture Technology's databases. This data is not visible to other software titles or to the e-commerce platform's native shipping methods.

When the shopping cart contains an item that normally ships with a parcel carrier, and an item that must ship with an LTL freight carrier, other solutions that provide shipping quotes can ignore the LTL freight item in the cart, and provide a quote only for the parcel item.

The quoted parcel rate is incorrect because it accounts for only part of the shopping cart content. The difference between the quoted parcel rate and the actual LTL freight rate can be significant, leaving the merchant exposed to real financial and reputational risk if the shopper selects the cheaper, invalid parcel option.

In this example, if Eniture Technology's products were used for both parcel and LTL freight quotes, they would have visibility into the product-level shipping parameters for both and understand that the parcel item would be consolidated on the freight shipment.

The merchant would be spared from the customer's false choice for parcel shipping rates.

What is the recommended solution for merchants who need both parcel and LTL freight quotes?

If you're an e-commerce merchant who needs shipping quotes for both parcel and LTL freight, using products from Eniture Technology that check both boxes is an excellent solution. If you're tempted to use a parcel quoting tool from another software provider, make sure to test the use cases in this article to verify that you won't encounter these unfortunate outcomes.