Real time shipping is a tool that will allow you to generate accurate shipping costs with a selected vendor.  This will often times save your customer money in extra shipping costs.  

Real time shipping generates the shipping cost upon the weight and the dimensions of the box specified for the product.  If you place multiple items in a box, it can throw off the calculations, giving you inaccurate results.  This will often result in a loss on your end.  If you are aware of this, and want to use real time shipping, please go through the requirements and instructions below to set this up:

Requirements for Real Time Shipping

Requirement 1: Setup an account with a vendor

In order to use the real time shipping calculations for FedEx, UPS, or USPS, you will need to setup an account with one.  If you have not done so already, please click on a link below for more information:

FedEx
UPS
USPS

Important Note: You cannot open an account with more than one vendor because this will often violate their "terms of use" agreement.

Requirement 2: Enter shipping origin information

In order for the real time shipping to generate an accurate value, it needs to know where the merchandise is coming from.  Because of this, it is necessary to fill in the Shipping Origin information in the e-Store.  For instructions how to do this, please click on the link below:

Shipping Origin

Requirement 3: Add weights and dimensions for your products

The last thing to do is to add the weight of the product and the dimension of the box the product will ship in, as shown in the image below:

Note: Weight is in pounds or kilos, dimensions are inches or centimeters depending on the country that was specified in Shipping Origin.

For instructions on how to set this up, please click on the link below.

Adding Products

Adding Vendor Shipping Methods

1. Log into your e-Store Control Panel
2. Select the Settings tab
3. Select Shipping Methods from the category bar to the left
4. Press the New button

5. Under Name, Enter a display name that your customers will see.  For example, you may want to enter "UPS Ground"

Note: If you do not change the name, you customers will see "New Ship Method" in the checkout window, and they will be unsure what this means.

6. From the Type drop-down menu, select the appropriate shipping method

7. Press the Save Changes button

8. If needed, repeat the steps to readd an alternate shipping method with the same vendor.

Important Note: You cannot add different shipping vendors with your e-Store, as this violates most 'terms of use' agreements with the vendor.  

Adjust Price By

With "Adjust Price By", you can tack on an extra dollar amount or percentage of the shipping cost to the final shipping total.  This is effectively a per order handling fee.  

For example, if a customer would normally get a shipping total of $35.00, and you had adjusted the price by $10, their new shipping total would say $45.00.

Removing Unneeded Shipping Methods

If you have any extra shipping methods present under the Shipping Methods section, you will want to press the Delete button to the right of it.

If you don't remove any extra shipping methods, customers may click on the option at checkout, and perhaps get free shipping if you have not configured it.