Some carrier companies provide web services that allow online stores to access information about the shipping options and rates provided by these companies in real time. Online stores integrated with such services can provide real-time carrier-calculated shipping quotes to their users.

X-Cart provides integrations with some of the most popular real-time shipping rate calculation services, including:

After a customer has submitted the shipping address during checkout, X-Cart sends the order information to the API of the carrier (for example, FedEx). The carrier then uses the information submitted by X-Cart - including the information about the origin and destination addresses, the weight of the products in the order, and, if specified, the expected parcel dimensions (length, width, height) - to calculate the shipping cost. The customer then receives information about the shipping options and rates applicable to the order.

The shipping options available for the order are shown as a list; the sort order of the shipping options on the list is defined by the store admin in the store's Admin area. The default shipping option is the first active shipping method from that list that is available for the customer's address zone.

Since the shipping costs are calculated automatically by the carrier when the order is created, this method allows you to get the most accurate rates.

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