Best for: BigCommerce merchants evaluating or running a supported pilot
Start with the operating rule
The shopper wants one understandable price. The merchant still has to pay for the shipment that actually leaves the floor. Margin Safe Discounts is designed to connect those two facts without asking the warehouse to pretend every product fits a tidy box recipe.
For a supported pilot, the merchant approves the products, operating evidence, cost inputs, margin rules, and review boundaries. The platform evaluates selected carts in shadow mode first. It records what it would recommend, but nothing changes for the shopper until the merchant approves a live scope.
Read the pilot workspace
The exact interface can change as the pilot is configured, but the workspace should help the merchant answer four practical questions.
| View | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Mode and scope | Is this observation-only, or has a defined live scope been approved? |
| Connection health | Are the store and rate sources included in this pilot available for the current decision? |
| Catalog readiness | Which selected products have enough trusted information for review, and what is missing from the rest? |
| Recent decisions | What was recommended or withheld, and what evidence should the team review next? |
Follow one cart decision
A useful user guide should explain the decision without publishing the private models, parameters, rate data, or datasets behind it. The merchant-facing flow is straightforward.
- Review the approved cart inputsUse the selected products, destination, shipping requirements, and product economics included in the pilot scope.
- Compare practical shipment choicesConsider the reviewed packout context and the parcel, LTL, palletized, or mixed options available for that order.
- Apply the merchant rulesEvaluate the available customer value against the merchant-selected margin floor, eligibility rules, reserve treatment, and presentation limits.
- Recommend or withholdReturn an eligible offer recommendation only when the required evidence and rules support it; otherwise record a clear reason for withholding it.
- Review what actually happenedWhere available, compare the recommendation with the final packout, shipment, carrier bill, and order outcome before changing future assumptions.
Know what is eligible and why
Eligibility is limited to the products, destinations, shipment modes, and checkout paths that have been included in the pilot and supported by the required information. A complete catalog is not required to learn from a useful sample.
- Ready for reviewThe selected line has approved product economics, required shipping attributes, and reviewed packout evidence or operating context.
- Missing inputA required cost, dimension, weight, origin, service requirement, or other approved input is absent or cannot be trusted.
- Outside scopeThe product, destination, checkout path, promotion, or shipping mode has not yet been approved for this pilot.
- No safe headroomThe listed inputs and merchant rules do not support an eligible offer above the selected floor.
- Connection unavailableA required store, rate, or service connection did not return enough information for a protected decision.
Understand what the shopper sees
In shadow mode, the shopper sees no change from Margin Safe Discounts. The merchant reviews recommendations beside the current checkout experience while the pilot gathers evidence.
After a live scope is approved and configured, shoppers see only the merchant-approved offer presentation. Product cost, carrier-account pricing, rate details, internal margin rules, and reasons one cart has more room than another remain private.
Every supported checkout path, promotion interaction, address change, and cart change should be verified in the merchant's own storefront before activation. An alternate path that cannot be verified should remain outside the live scope until it is tested.
Set the merchant controls deliberately
The pilot plan defines what safe means for the merchant. The exact controls depend on the approved implementation, but every live decision should have an owner, a documented value, and a review history.
| Control | What to decide |
|---|---|
| Protected margin floor | The selected contribution-margin boundary the eligible offer is not intended to cross, based on the listed inputs. |
| Eligibility scope | The products, destinations, shipment modes, and checkout paths that are allowed into the decision. |
| Cost and reserve treatment | Which approved cost inputs are included and how uncertainty or expected variance is handled. |
| Offer presentation | The customer-facing amount, limits, minimum display rules, and merchant-approved language. |
| Launch and pause authority | Who can approve a live scope, narrow it, return it to observation, or stop it where the configured controls support that action. |
Keep the warehouse as a source of truth
Packing evidence should reflect approved real practice. Review example packouts with the people who pull, protect, box, palletize, measure, weigh, and hand off the shipment. They will see constraints that a catalog export cannot.
- Before the decisionUse reviewed packout evidence or approved operating patterns for the selected products.
- On the floorRecord the final handling units, dimensions, scale weight, condition, and photos where the pilot calls for them.
- After shipmentCompare planned and actual packout, then review material variance before updating any future assumption.
- For the recordKeep shipment identifiers, documents, tracking, invoices, and carrier-specific claim evidence linked where available.
Treat changes and no-offer results as new decisions
- Cart or address changesA changed order should receive a fresh decision or a documented no-offer result. Do not assume an earlier recommendation still fits.
- Promotions and couponsReview and test compatibility before activation. Do not assume a protected offer can safely combine with another promotion.
- Rate or service changesIf a required source is unavailable or the available service no longer fits the scope, withhold the recommendation and record the reason.
- Unexpected behaviorUse the configured pause or stop control where available, preserve the affected examples, and contact support before widening the live scope.
Review evidence before changing the live scope
The useful question is not how many recommendations the platform produced. It is whether the team can explain the decisions, compare them with available actuals, and define where a controlled live use is ready.
- Decision coverageWhich selected carts had enough trusted information to receive a recommendation?
- Withhold reasonsWhich missing inputs, connections, or scope boundaries appeared most often?
- Packout and rate varianceWhere did the planned shipment differ materially from the final operation or carrier bill?
- Offer headroomWhat customer value appeared under the selected inputs and merchant rules?
- Go-live decisionWhich products and paths are ready, which need revision, and which should remain out of scope?
Protect data and know where to get help
- Payment detailsShip Safe Offers does not store payment-card details; the merchant's payment provider handles them.
- Credentials and private ratesDo not place passwords, API keys, carrier credentials, customer labels, negotiated rates, or sensitive exports in a public form or ordinary email. Secure connection instructions follow an agreed pilot scope.
- Business and derived dataThe merchant owns the store, catalog, and order information used to run its business. The Terms and Privacy Policy explain rights in derived measurements, reconciliation outputs, accuracy metrics, and aggregated or de-identified learning data.
- Deletion requestsVerified requests are handled under the published Account and Data Deletion policy, including stated timing and legal-retention exceptions.
- SupportEmail help@shipsafeoffers.com. Ship Safe Offers aims to acknowledge new requests within one business day during the published support window.