Carrier Performance Comparison
Read-only: compares delivery times and shipping costs across carriers used in fulfillments to inform carrier mix and contract decisions.
shopify-admin-carrier-performance-comparison
Purpose
Aggregates fulfillments across recent orders, joins them to the shipping line on each order, and compares carriers head-to-head on (a) average transit days, (b) on-time rate (delivered before/at the customer-facing estimate), and (c) shipping cost per order. Surfaces which carrier is the right default per zone, route, or weight class. Read-only — no mutations.
Prerequisites
shopify store auth --store --scopes read_orders read_ordersParameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| store | string | yes | — | Store domain (e.g., mystore.myshopify.com) |
| days_back | integer | no | 60 | Lookback window for fulfilled orders |
| min_orders | integer | no | 10 | Minimum orders per carrier to include in comparison |
| segment_by | string | no | — | Optional segmentation: country, weight, or none |
| format | string | no | human | Output format: human or json |
Safety
> ℹ️ Read-only skill — no mutations are executed. Safe to run at any time. Cost data uses the shipping line price the customer paid, not your negotiated carrier rate; if you want true cost variance you must overlay carrier invoices yourself.
Workflow Steps
orders — query Inputs: query: "fulfillment_status:shipped created_at:>=', first: 250, select fulfillments { trackingInfo, createdAt, deliveredAt, inTransitAt }, shippingLine { carrierIdentifier, originalPriceSet, title }, totalWeight, shippingAddress, pagination cursor
Expected output: Fulfilled orders with shipping line and fulfillment timing; paginate until hasNextPage: false
fulfillments — query (per fulfillment ID for any order missing inline data) Inputs: id:
Expected output: Detailed events, deliveredAt, estimatedDeliveryAt
shippingLine.carrierIdentifier if present, else parse trackingInfo.company). For each carrier compute: avg transit days, p90 transit days, on-time rate (deliveredAt <= estimatedDeliveryAt), avg shipping price, order count.segment_by is set, repeat the group within each segment (e.g., per shippingAddress.countryCode).min_orders and sort by avg transit days ascending.GraphQL Operations
# orders:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query OrdersForCarrierComparison($query: String!, $after: String) {
orders(first: 250, after: $after, query: $query) {
edges {
node {
id
name
createdAt
totalWeight
shippingAddress {
countryCode
provinceCode
zip
}
shippingLine {
carrierIdentifier
title
code
originalPriceSet {
shopMoney {
amount
currencyCode
}
}
}
fulfillments {
id
createdAt
inTransitAt
deliveredAt
estimatedDeliveryAt
status
trackingInfo {
company
number
}
}
}
}
pageInfo {
hasNextPage
endCursor
}
}
}
# fulfillments:query — validated against api_version 2025-01
query FulfillmentDetail($id: ID!) {
fulfillment(id: $id) {
id
status
createdAt
inTransitAt
deliveredAt
estimatedDeliveryAt
trackingInfo {
company
number
url
}
events(first: 50) {
edges {
node {
status
happenedAt
message
}
}
}
}
}
Session Tracking
Claude MUST emit the following output at each stage. This is mandatory.
On start, emit:
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ SKILL: Carrier Performance Comparison ║
║ Store: <store domain> ║
║ Started: <YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC> ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
After each step, emit:
[N/TOTAL] <QUERY|MUTATION> <OperationName>
→ Params: <brief summary of key inputs>
→ Result: <count or outcome>
On completion, emit:
For format: human (default):
══════════════════════════════════════════════
CARRIER PERFORMANCE (<days_back> days)
Orders analyzed: <n>
With delivery data: <n>
Carrier Orders Avg Days P90 On-Time% Avg Cost
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
<carrier> <n> <d> <d> <pct>% $<n>
<carrier> <n> <d> <d> <pct>% $<n>
Output: carrier_performance_<date>.csv
══════════════════════════════════════════════
For format: json, emit:
{
"skill": "carrier-performance-comparison",
"store": "<domain>",
"period_days": 60,
"orders_analyzed": 0,
"carriers": [
{
"name": "UPS",
"orders": 0,
"avg_transit_days": 0,
"p90_transit_days": 0,
"on_time_pct": 0,
"avg_cost": 0,
"currency": "USD"
}
],
"output_file": "carrier_performance_<date>.csv"
}
Output Format
CSV file carrier_performance_ with columns:
carrier, segment, orders, avg_transit_days, p90_transit_days, on_time_pct, avg_cost, total_cost, currency
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
THROTTLED | API rate limit exceeded | Wait 2 seconds, retry up to 3 times |
deliveredAt is null | Carrier did not confirm delivery | Exclude from transit-time average, count as "in transit" |
estimatedDeliveryAt is null | Carrier did not provide an ETA | Exclude from on-time rate, do not penalize carrier |
carrierIdentifier and trackingInfo.company both null | Manual fulfillment without tracking | Bucket as (unknown), surface count separately |
Best Practices
min_orders >= 10; smaller samples are noise.segment_by: country for international comparisons — a carrier strong domestically may be weak across borders.delivery-time-analysis for the time-only view; this skill adds cost and on-time dimensions.