Intuitive Shipping gives you the option to calculate shipping based on packaging your products in a few different ways. If you’re calculating shipping using live rates, and your products vary in size, we recommend using SmartBoxing™.
How It Works
SmartBoxing™ is our advanced packaging feature for optimizing your dimensional shipping. By comparing the dimensions and weights of the products in the customer’s cart with the dimensions of your commonly used package sizes, SmartBoxing™ calculates the most efficient packaging method possible by choosing the best package sizes. Then, our system sends the packaging information to the carrier(s) for live rate calculations.
When the customer completes their purchase, Intuitive Shipping sends the packaging information to the Order Details section of the Shopify Order.
This process takes the guesswork out of the packaging during fulfillment and ensures that the live rates being returned by your preferred carriers are as accurate as possible.
We recommend that you understand how to create a Shipping Scenario and a Live Rate Shipping Method before completing this setup.
Create A Live Rate Shipping Method With SmartBoxing™
1) Make sure that you have added dimensions and weights to all products that will be using SmartBoxing™. You can add dimensions and weights to products individually, or you can add them in bulk.
If you do not enter a weight, Intuitive Shipping uses the weight you entered on the Shopify Product Information Page.
When product dimensions are not present, SmartBoxing™ will fail and packaging information cannot be sent to the carrier. No rates will be returned.
2) Click Shipping on the main menu, then select Scenarios from the drop-down list.
3) Create a Shipping Scenario or select an existing Scenario.
4) At the bottom of the Edit Shipping Scenario screen, click Add Shipping Method.
5) Create a Live Rate Shipping Method and complete the Display Settings section.
6) In the Calculate Shipping Based On section, select your preferred carrier – e.g. UPS – from the ‘Live Rates‘ section of the drop-down list.
SmartBoxing™ is only available for live rate shipping methods.
7) Complete the Ship From Location and Delivery Methods sections.
8) In the Packages section, select SmartBoxing™ Packing Algorithm from the ‘Advanced’ section of the drop-down list.
9) Click the Add Another Package button to enter your smallest commonly used package size.
10) Enter the ‘Up to‘ value that will be used to determine when packages will be split. Be sure to enter a numerical value with no symbols. For example, if the package can hold up to 10 lbs, enter ’10’.
If the package has no maximum weight, use the ~ (tilde) symbol to indicate that there is ‘no limit’.
11) Enter the Package dimensions and, if desired, the empty weight of the package.
When using the Smartboxing™ Packing Algorithm, be sure to enter the inner dimensions of the package.
However, if you’re using inner and outer cartons that creates a significant difference between the inner and outer dimensions, we recommend entering outer dimensions for the package, then adding buffer to your product dimensions to account for the reduction in available volume in the inner carton.
Units of measure for weight and dimensions are determined by your Intuitive Shipping settings. To change your units of measure, click the Settings tab after saving your Live Rate Shipping Method.
Changing Units of measure does not automatically convert the values. If the ‘Up to’ value is set to 10 lbs and you change from pounds to kilograms, the new ‘Up to’ value will be 10 kg. To keep the same weight value, you will need to convert the ‘Up to’ value to the kilogram equivalent of 10 lbs.
12) Repeat Steps 9 to 11 to add the rest of your commonly used packages. SmartBoxing™ will compare the dimensions and weights of the products in the customer’s cart with all of the available package sizes to determine the most efficient packaging.
Packages should be sorted in descending order from smallest to largest. Once packages have been added, you can drag and drop them to rearrange the order.
13) Complete the setup for the Live Rate Shipping Method.
14) Click the Save button to save your settings.