What Are Routing Estimations?
Routing estimations are derived at the time of routing orders. These primarily consist of:
- Estimated shipping cost
- Estimated dropship fees
During order routing, one of the routing priorities is lowest cost. To properly estimate the lowest cost fulfillment solution, these estimated costs/fees should be factored in so the best fulfillment solution can be chosen.
How Are Estimations Derived?
There are two main mechanisms to derive estimations:
- Rate shopping (only for shipping costs)
- Workflows
Generally speaking, rate shopping is for determining real-time shipping estimates and workflows are for determining predefined costs and also serve as a fallback if rate shopping fails to find a valid rate for a fulfillment requests/fulfillment orders.
See Rate Shopping for more information around how rate shopping works.
How Are Estimations Used?
Estimations are used when routing orders. These estimations are attached to fulfillment requests/fulfillment orders in real-time and are later used when evaluating the Lowest Cost routing priority (see Routing Priorities).
| Example |
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An item under 5 lb. can be fulfilled from two different fulfillment sources: Distributor A and Distributor B The item costs the same from both sources and, for this example, also have the same estimated shipping cost. Fulfilling from Distributor A requires a $1.00 dropship fee for items < 5 lb. and a $3 fee for items > 10 lb. This is configured via a workflow estimation. Fulfilling from Distributor B has a flat-rate fee of $2. This is configured via a workflow estimation. When routing orders, both of these estimations will be evaluated and Distributor A will be chosen as the lowest-cost solution, since this item is less than 5 lb. |
Workflow Estimations
Workflow estimations are useful when you have situations such as:
- A static, tiered, or rule-based dropship fee for a source
- A tiered or rule-based shipping cost for a source (i.e. weight-based flat rate)
- Any custom rules (for this category = extra fee, etc.)
To configure workflow estimations, visit the Source screen and look for the following areas:
- FR/FOs → Estimated Shipping Cost
- FR/FOs → Estimated Dropship Fee
These areas in the app will allow you to configure workflows to set these values at the time a fulfillment requests/fulfillment orders is being generated.
Example Workflow Estimation
In this example, an estimated shipping cost is being derived via total weight based on tiers
Estimated Shipping Cost and Dropship Fee
You can map the rule for generating the estimated shipping cost and dropshipping fee for the generated FRs. This automated feature is equipped with a variety of fields you can use to select from while setting up the rule.
Here is an example depicting the setting up of rule:
Setting Up the Estimated Shipping Cost And Estimated Dropship Fee
Navigation
- Go to Source > Click on Settings > Click on FR/FOs
- Click on Estimated Shipping Cost
- Click on Add Rule, if you have not created one.
- Add and select the field to your preference and test the rule
- Click on back and enable the toggle to yes for the rule to start functioning for your FR/FOs
Setting up the rule on different Basis for your Estimated Shipping Cost
With Flxpoint, you get to choose the option for 'BASIS' while setting up the rule for Estimated shipping cost. These are:
Sum = sum of all line items on FR/FO
Average = average all line items on FR/FO
Lowest = lowest shipping cost of all line items on FR/FO
Highest = highest shipping cost of all line items on FR/FO
| How Summation Works for Multiple Variants in a Single Fulfillment Request |
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Choosing SUM for the "BASIS" will add the estimated shipping cost for all the variants that are generated under a single FR/FOs, This can be explained using an example: Option 1 :
Option 2 :
So Option 1 would be chosen |