Shipping

Include Real Carrier Costs, Zone Pricing & Dimensional Weight in Margin Decisions

Agentis pulls actual shipping costs from ShipStation (carrier rates, zone-based pricing, dimensional weight surcharges, and residential delivery fees) into every order's net margin calculation.

How It Works

Agentis connects to ShipStation's API to read your configured carrier rates, zone pricing tables, and historical shipment costs. When an order is placed, Agentis estimates its shipping cost based on destination zone, package dimensions, weight, and carrier selection. This estimated shipping cost flows into the margin calculation alongside COGS, payment fees, and discounts, giving you a true all-in profit figure within 60 seconds, before the order ships.

Data Flows

  • →Carrier rate tables and negotiated rates from ShipStation → Agentis shipping cost model
  • →Zone-based pricing by destination ZIP from ShipStation → Agentis per-order cost estimate
  • →Dimensional weight and surcharge data from ShipStation → Agentis packaging cost layer
  • →Historical shipment cost per order from ShipStation → Agentis margin analytics (post-order reconciliation)
  • →Residential vs commercial delivery surcharges from ShipStation → Agentis delivery cost model

Benefits

  • Stop losing money on free-shipping orders where actual carrier cost exceeds your margin
  • Factor in zone-based cost differences: shipping to Zone 8 costs 3x more than Zone 2
  • Catch dimensional weight surcharges that turn profitable orders into losses
  • Reconcile estimated vs actual shipping costs to improve future margin accuracy

Setup

  1. 1Connect your ShipStation account to Agentis via API key
  2. 2Agentis imports your carrier rate tables, zone pricing, and DIM weight rules
  3. 3Configure shipping cost estimation preferences (cheapest rate, default carrier, or customer-selected)
  4. 4Enable post-order reconciliation to compare estimated vs actual shipping costs

Technical Details

Agentis integrates via ShipStation's REST API v2 using API key authentication. We read carrier accounts, service rates, and zone pricing via the /carriers and /rates endpoints. For each new order, Agentis calls the /rates endpoint with package dimensions and destination ZIP to get current rate quotes. Post-order, we reconcile via the /shipments endpoint to capture actual label costs. Rate data is cached with a 1-hour TTL and refreshed on carrier account changes. All calls are rate-limited per ShipStation's 40 req/min governance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Agentis get live shipping rates for each order?

Yes, if you enable live rate lookups. Agentis calls ShipStation's rate API when it evaluates each new order. Alternatively, you can use pre-cached zone-based rate tables for estimates that do not depend on the rate API.

How does Agentis handle free shipping promotions?

When a customer qualifies for free shipping, Agentis still calculates the estimated carrier cost and includes it in the margin calculation. This way you know the true profitability of free-shipping orders and can set floor rules accordingly.

Does Agentis support multi-carrier setups?

Yes. Agentis reads all carrier accounts configured in ShipStation and uses the rate that matches your shipping rules (cheapest, fastest, or customer-selected) for the margin estimate.

Related Solutions

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Solution

Cross-Border Ecommerce Profitability

Factor FX, duties, and international freight into every cross-border order. Agentis flags or holds orders whose true landed cost breaches your profit floor before they ship.

Key Concepts

Cost Management

Landed Cost

The total cost of a product delivered to the customer, including COGS, freight, duties, tariffs, insurance, and handling fees.

Margin Analysis

Margin Leakage

The gradual, often undetected loss of profit across many orders, driven by small per-order cost overruns that compound into significant revenue erosion over time. Also called revenue leakage, a term more common in marketplace-seller (Amazon/Walmart) contexts for the same underlying pattern.

Margin Analysis

Order Profitability

The true net profit of a single order after deducting all variable costs: COGS, shipping, discounts, payment fees, fulfillment labor, and return allowances.

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