NEW: Major Shipping Score (Rating) Update

September 12, 2022

AmmoSeek has had a major change in the way our shipping ratings works. Here are the details.

The Why?

The original shipping rating algorithm was inadequate, mainly because of the subjective ratings of Highest, High, Average, Low, Lowest, etc.. One man's "Average" is another man's "Highest".

Also, the individual ratings themselves were too few. This means there were a wide range of shipping costs present in each ratings bucket.

In an attempt to overcome these shortcomings, we have introduced an entirely new shipping "score" system.

The New System

The new scores look like the following (click the image to see a larger view):

New shipping score meters
New shipping score meters

The F "score" represents free shipping. The other scores go from 10 down to 1 with 10 (green) representing the best shipping costs and 1 (red) representing the worst shipping costs. In addition, if the product ships free under certain conditions, it will be represented with a CF next to the meter. For example:

Conditionally Free
Conditionally Free

Disclaimer

Please remember that our system may not represent actual or precise shipping costs for certain orders to specific zip codes. The score is meant as a general guide to help folks determine (at a glance) if a retailer may have cheaper or more expensive shipping costs.

New Feature: Show Free Shipping Only

With this update, we've also implemented a long-requested feature: showing only free shipping in search results. For ammunition searches there is a new way to specify the shipping scores you want to show in your search results. Here are some examples:

Show results with ONLY free shipping
Show results with ONLY free shipping
Show results with better shipping costs (scores greater than 6)
Show results with better shipping costs (scores greater than 6)
Show results with ONLY free and conditionally free shipping costs
Show results with ONLY free and conditionally free shipping costs

Confusion and Conclusion

There is some concern that the new system could cause some confusion: a higher score means cheaper shipping. In our previous system a higher number of bars in the meter image meant higher shipping. The old system had no color coded graphic, but the new system does.

BOTTOM LINE: For results without free shipping:

  • The MORE GREEN (HIGHER SCORE) the bar in the meter, the better the shipping costs.
  • The MORE RED (LOWER SCORE) the bar in the meter, the worse the shipping costs.

There is quite a bit of new code in this update. If you notice any bugs or have any questions about the new system please let us know.

Enjoy!

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