Cost Optimization

Smart Rate Shopping & Delivery Date Promise

Save 10-20% on shipping without missing SLAs. ShipWave uses EasyPost SmartRate ML to predict delivery dates with 98% accuracy, auto-picks the cheapest carrier that meets your promise, and displays a real-time delivery estimate on your Shopify product pages.

Get Started Free Get in Touch

98%

Delivery ETA Accuracy

EasyPost SmartRate ML prediction

10-20%

Shipping Cost Savings

vs. always-picking-cheapest or always-best-known

Rate Shopping Profiles

Cheapest, SLA-aware, fastest, best-value, preferred-with-fallback

Native

Shopify Promise Widget

"Order in 4h 12m for Wed delivery"

Benefits

Why Businesses Choose This Feature

98% Accurate Delivery Date ML: EasyPost SmartRate uses billions of historical shipments to predict actual delivery dates per carrier, per service, per origin-destination pair. The result is materially more accurate than carrier-published transit times.
Auto-Pick the Cheapest Carrier Meeting Your SLA: Set "deliver by Wednesday" once. ShipWave evaluates every carrier-service combination, filters to those that hit the SLA at the predicted 85th-percentile confidence, then picks the cheapest. No more overspending on premium services.
5 Rate Shopping Profiles: Apply different strategies per channel, per warehouse, or per SKU: cheapest, cheapest_meeting_sla, fastest, best_value (weighted cost+speed), or preferred_carrier_with_fallback (e.g., always UPS unless they cannot hit the date).
Promise Widget for Shopify PDP: A lightweight script tag adds a "Order in 4h 12m for delivery by Wed, May 27" badge to your product page. Conversion lift on promise widgets typically lands in the 3-7% range for time-sensitive categories.
SLA Capture Per Marketplace: Amazon promised delivery dates, eBay handling time + carrier transit, Walmart 2-day badge requirements — ShipWave reads the SLA from each order source and shops to it automatically, so you never miss a marketplace handling-time metric.
Transparent Rate Comparison: Every order shows the rate decision: which carriers were evaluated, which met the SLA, which were excluded and why, and which won. Auditable for ops disputes and for your CFO who wants to know why you picked the second-cheapest rate.

How Smart Rate Shopping Works

Order Lands with a Promise

A Shopify order, an Amazon SLA, or an eBay handling-time commitment defines when the package must arrive. ShipWave reads the deadline.

SmartRate ML Evaluates Every Service

ShipWave calls EasyPost SmartRate to get a predicted delivery date and confidence score for each carrier-service for this specific origin-destination pair.

Pick the Cheapest That Hits the Date

Filter to services where the 85th-percentile predicted delivery falls on or before the promise date, then sort by cost and pick the winner. Done.

Why ML Beats Carrier-Published Transit Times

Carriers Publish Optimistic Maps

When UPS says "Ground delivers in 3 business days from your origin," that map reflects on-time performance under normal conditions. It does not reflect the 15% of packages that get delayed by network congestion, the seasonal spikes in November-December, the weather events that take entire regions offline for 24 hours, or the carrier-specific quirks in particular ZIP codes. Shipping on the basis of published transit times means you miss promises 10-20% of the time on the marginal cases — exactly the cases where customers complain loudest.

How EasyPost SmartRate Actually Predicts

SmartRate ingests billions of historical shipment outcomes — packages tendered to specific carriers, specific services, between specific origin-destination pairs, on specific days of the week, in specific weather conditions. The model returns a distribution of likely delivery dates with confidence percentiles. Instead of "Ground takes 3 days," you get "85% confidence: 3 days; 50% confidence: 2 days; 99% confidence: 4 days." ShipWave uses the 85th percentile by default — conservative enough to make the promise reliably, aggressive enough to not always default to overnight.

Rate Shopping Profiles — Pick the Right Strategy

Not every order should follow the same rule. A $19 t-shirt to Florida should optimize for cost. A $400 electronics order in California where the customer paid for "fast shipping" should optimize for speed. A B2B reseller order shipping daily on UPS Account #123 should always go UPS — unless UPS cannot hit the date, in which case fall back to FedEx. ShipWave lets you define these profiles once and apply them per channel, per warehouse, per order tag, or per SKU. The profile picks the right service for the order without operator decisions on every label.

The Promise Widget — Conversion, Not Just Honesty

When a Shopify PDP says "Order in the next 4 hours 12 minutes for delivery by Wednesday, May 27," the visitor sees a concrete, time-bound promise instead of a vague "ships in 1-2 business days." This kind of urgency-anchored language reliably lifts conversion 3-7% in time-sensitive categories (gifts, replacement parts, event-driven purchases). The widget pulls from the same SmartRate ML that drives your label selection, so the promise on the page matches the promise you can actually deliver. Drop a script tag in your theme — no app install, no template editing.

How This Stacks Against ShipStation and EasyPost Direct

ShipStation introduced Smart Rate Shopping in 2024 — limited to their preferred carriers, no promise widget, hard to apply different strategies per channel. EasyPost sells SmartRate directly but only as a developer API — you pay for the calls, you build the rate shopping logic, and you build the widget. ShipWave packages SmartRate, the 5 profile strategies, the marketplace SLA reader, and the Shopify widget as one feature. You get the savings without the implementation burden.

ShipWave Smart Rate Shopping vs. ShipStation Smart Rates

More rate shopping profiles, marketplace SLA awareness built in, and a customer-facing promise widget included.

Feature	ShipWave	ShipStation Smart Rates
ML delivery date prediction	EasyPost SmartRate (98% accuracy)	Proprietary, accuracy not published
Rate shopping profiles	5 (cheapest, SLA, fastest, best-value, preferred+fallback)	2 (cheapest, cheapest-meeting-deadline)
Marketplace SLA auto-read	Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify	Manual deadline entry per order
Promise widget for Shopify	Included script tag	Not available
Per-channel/per-warehouse rules	Yes	Limited
Audit trail of rate decisions	Full — see why each carrier was picked/excluded	Winner-only

Who Benefits from Smart Rate Shopping

High-Volume Shopify Brands

Stores shipping 500+ orders/month see 10-20% cost reduction by switching from "always cheapest" or "always 2-day" to ML-driven SLA-aware selection — without compromising customer experience.

Marketplace Sellers Protecting Metrics

Amazon Seller Performance, eBay Top Rated, and Walmart Pro Seller all depend on on-time delivery rates. SLA-aware rate shopping prevents marketplace metric damage from missed promises.

DTC Brands Adding Urgency to PDP

Replacement parts, gifts, last-minute event purchases — anywhere a concrete delivery promise lifts conversion. The widget shows "Order in the next 4h 12m for Wed delivery" right on the product page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is the delivery date ML?

EasyPost SmartRate publishes 98% accuracy at the 85th-percentile confidence level for predicted delivery dates. That is materially more accurate than published carrier transit maps, which assume optimal conditions. ShipWave uses the 85th percentile by default, which you can tune up or down per profile.

How much does SmartRate cost?

SmartRate calls are billed by EasyPost per shipment. ShipWave bundles the cost into the per-label markup — there is no separate SmartRate fee. For volumes above 5,000 labels/month, ask about enterprise pricing where the markup adjusts.

How does it know the SLA from each marketplace?

Amazon orders include a "promised delivery date" field on the order. eBay orders include the seller-committed handling time plus the buyer-selected shipping service. Walmart provides the delivery promise on each order. For Shopify, you can set per-store, per-tag, or per-product SLA rules. ShipWave reads whichever applies.

What if no carrier can hit the SLA?

ShipWave falls back to the fastest available service and flags the order so your team can review or contact the customer. You can configure the fallback per profile — fastest, expedited, or hold for manual decision.

How does the promise widget install on Shopify?

A single script tag in your theme. The widget pulls live SmartRate predictions for the visitor location (IP-geo or stored address) and displays "Order in [time remaining] for delivery by [date]." No app install, no template surgery, no monthly fee.

Can different stores use different rate shopping rules?

Yes. Each connected store and each warehouse can have its own profile. Your Shopify store can run "cheapest meeting SLA," your Amazon channel can run "fastest" (to protect handling-time metrics), and your B2B channel can run "preferred carrier with fallback" (always UPS unless UPS cannot deliver on time).

Do I need to be on EasyPost?

ShipWave is built on EasyPost — your carrier accounts (UPS, FedEx, USPS, regional) connect through EasyPost. Existing EasyPost accounts migrate in minutes. New accounts onboard during setup. SmartRate is included.

Explore More

Related Features

Stop Overpaying for Shipping

Auto-pick the cheapest carrier that hits your SLA. Show customers a real delivery promise. Save 10-20% with no operator effort.

Get Started Now Explore All Features