Paul Birkhead, President and CEOEniture integrates Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) freight capabilities into e-commerce platforms, enabling merchants to sell and ship large products online. Its shipping applications allow merchants to generate accurate freight shipping quotes and manage delivery for oversized products such as industrial equipment and farm implements directly within the checkout experience.
E-commerce platforms were built for parcel shipping. Eniture introduced LTL freight into that environment, enabling real-time freight quoting and eliminating separate offline processes.
How do Eniture’s applications enable real-time freight quoting within online checkout environments?
Eniture’s shipping applications work as plug-ins that connect an online store’s checkout to freight carrier systems through APIs. Once installed, the merchant configures shipment parameters within the store. When a customer places an order, the system gathers shipment details such as weight, dimensions and destination, queries carrier systems in real time through APIs and returns accurate LTL shipping rates within the checkout, allowing the customer to select shipping and complete the purchase.
Over time, Eniture expanded its shipping applications across several e-commerce platforms. It began with WooCommerce and Shopify, later added BigCommerce and Magento and is now developing for Wix. These applications are designed to operate directly within each platform's checkout environment.
Eniture’s development of freight-enabled shipping applications has been shaped by Paul Birkhead, President and CEO and his 30 years of experience in the LTL freight industry, much of it on the technology side. That background continues to influence how Eniture designs its LTL freight quoting and shipping applications and supports merchants, particularly those new to LTL shipping.
“We focus on platforms with APIs that allow us to develop products for their customers that have a need for LTL freight,” says Birkhead.
Making Shipping Technology Accessible
Why is shared freight technology important for reducing development costs for merchants?
Developing a fully functional LTL quoting system can require a significant investment. Eniture addressed this by developing the applications upfront and offering them as shared software that merchants can install and use. Instead of building custom freight quoting systems themselves, businesses can access the technology through Eniture’s applications and pay only a small fraction of what independent development would cost.
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We focus on platforms with APIs that allow us to develop products for their customers that have a need for LTL freight.
Today, thousands of merchants rely on these applications to generate accurate freight quotes and manage shipping processes.
As the company expanded across more e-commerce platforms, its products evolved as well. Early versions focused primarily on core quoting functionality, but ongoing customer feedback has driven the addition of more advanced capabilities.
One example is terminal pickup functionality, which allows shipments to be held at a carrier terminal for customer pickup instead of being delivered to a residential address, where LTL delivery often incurs a surcharge of around $350, reducing delivery costs for customers.
Experience-Driven Innovation
In what way does Eniture support merchants unfamiliar with LTL shipping operations?
Many merchants entering large-product shipping lack experience with LTL logistics, carrier networks and freight pricing. Eniture plays an active advisory role, guiding them on carrier selection, shipping setup and operational considerations, helping them configure their e-commerce operations and manage freight shipping with greater confidence.
This capability became particularly critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, when manufacturers and equipment suppliers were forced to move their sales online as physical interactions became restricted. Many of these businesses sold large, freight-sized products that could not be handled by traditional parcel shipping systems. Eniture’s freight-enabled checkout solutions allowed them to transition to e-commerce by enabling accurate freight quoting and delivery directly within the online buying experience.
Looking ahead, the company will expand integrations and add capabilities that generate rates and connect with more carrier systems, supporting new marketplaces and platform environments as they emerge, making selling large products online operationally viable.
