Smart Rate Shopping Overview

Why this matters

Carriers publish transit-time estimates (UPS Ground says 1-5 days), but real-world delivery varies enormously by lane, time of year, and how the carrier is performing. Smart Rate Shopping uses EasyPost's SmartRate data — a percentile-based prediction of actual delivery time on your exact lane — so you can pick the cheapest rate that will still meet your customer's delivery promise.

The 85th-percentile default

For every rate, EasyPost returns a set of percentile predictions: 50th (median), 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th, 97th, and 99th. ShipWave uses the 85th percentile by default, meaning "if I shipped this same lane 100 times, 85 of them would arrive by this date." That balances confidence and cost — tighter percentiles (95th, 99th) almost always force you onto the next tier of service. You can override the percentile in Settings → SmartRate or per-profile (see Rate shopping profiles).

Turning it on

Go to Admin → Settings → SmartRate and flip Enable Smart Rate Shopping. New rates will include the predicted delivery date alongside the carrier's published estimate. Existing automation rules and the quick-ship UI will automatically use SmartRate data when present. There is no migration step.

Monthly budget cap

SmartRate lookups cost a fraction of a cent each but add up at scale. The default cap is $150/month, which covers ~150,000 lookups — enough for most workspaces shipping under 50,000 orders/month. The cap is visible in Settings → SmartRate → Usage. Raise or lower it freely.

Fallback when budget is exhausted

If you cross the monthly cap, ShipWave stops calling SmartRate and falls back to the carrier's published transit estimate for the rest of the month. Rate shopping still works — you just lose the percentile-based delivery prediction. The dashboard shows a banner so you know you are in fallback mode. The cap resets on the 1st of each month.

How it connects to the rest of the stack

Rate shopping profiles let you encode rules like "cheapest rate meeting a 2-day SLA at 85% confidence". The Promise Engine widget uses the same SmartRate data to show shoppers an accurate "order in next 4h 12m for delivery by Wed" countdown. The Carrier performance dashboard back-tests how well predictions held up.

FAQs

Do I need an EasyPost account to use this?

You are already on EasyPost — ShipWave's rate engine runs on it. SmartRate is an add-on that is included in your standard ShipWave pricing; you do not pay EasyPost separately.

Does SmartRate work for every carrier?

It covers USPS, UPS, FedEx, and major regional carriers (OnTrac, LaserShip/Veho, LSO). Less common services may fall back to the carrier's own transit estimate.

How fresh is the underlying data?

EasyPost updates SmartRate predictions daily from billions of recent shipments. Predictions naturally adjust during peak season (holidays, weather events) without any action from you.

What if I want to be more conservative?

Bump the confidence to 95th or 97th percentile in Settings → SmartRate. You will see fewer cheap rates "qualify" for tight SLAs but the ones that do will be very safe.