EasyShip

Overview

EasyShip provides e-commerce businesses with multi-carrier shipping infrastructure, offering real-time rate comparison, automated label generation, and order tracking across dozens of carriers worldwide. When embedded on storefront pages, EasyShip's scripts power customer-facing shipping calculators and tracking widgets that display delivery estimates, shipping costs, and package status information directly within the shopping experience.

These scripts are functional in nature — they provide information and capabilities that directly serve the customer's purchase journey. However, they involve communication with external APIs and may set cookies to maintain shipping preferences across browsing sessions, which website operators should account for in their consent strategy.

What This Script Does

EasyShip's client-side scripts integrate shipping functionality into e-commerce storefronts:

• Shipping rate calculators: Scripts query EasyShip's API with cart contents, destination address, and package dimensions to display real-time shipping rates from multiple carriers (USPS, FedEx, DHL, local carriers, etc.) directly on product or cart pages.
• Delivery estimate widgets: Based on the visitor's detected or entered location, scripts display estimated delivery dates for available shipping methods, helping customers make informed purchasing decisions.
• Order tracking integration: Post-purchase tracking widgets allow customers to check package status without leaving the store, pulling tracking data from carrier APIs through EasyShip's aggregation layer.
• Preference cookies: Cookies may be set to persist the visitor's shipping preferences — such as selected country, preferred carrier, or saved delivery address — across browsing sessions to streamline repeat visits.
• Cart data transmission: To calculate accurate rates, scripts transmit cart-level data (item weights, dimensions, quantities, destination) to EasyShip's servers. This data is used for rate calculation and is not typically used for marketing purposes.

The scripts are functionally oriented, serving the checkout and delivery experience rather than performing analytics or advertising functions.

Consent & Compliance

EasyShip's scripts provide functionality that is directly relevant to the e-commerce transaction — calculating shipping costs and displaying delivery information that customers need to complete their purchase. Under GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, scripts and cookies that are strictly necessary for a service explicitly requested by the user may be exempt from consent requirements.

A shipping rate calculator on a cart page can reasonably be classified as strictly necessary because the visitor has initiated a shopping interaction and needs shipping information to proceed. However, preference cookies that persist beyond the current session (e.g., remembering a preferred carrier for future visits) may not qualify as strictly necessary and could require consent.

The data transmitted to EasyShip's servers (cart contents, destination addresses) should be covered by a data processing agreement. Website operators should verify that EasyShip does not use this transactional data for secondary purposes such as analytics or marketing.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

EasyShip's scripts deliver core e-commerce functionality — shipping rate calculation and delivery tracking — that directly serves the customer's transaction. Blocking these scripts would degrade the shopping experience by removing shipping cost visibility and delivery estimates. Session-scoped cookies for rate calculation are functionally necessary. However, persistent preference cookies that extend beyond the immediate transaction may warrant consent.

No.