Shipping Methods
Shipping methods are what your customers see at checkout — “Standard Shipping”, “Express”, “Free Shipping”, and so on. Each method has a name, a base rate, and optionally rules that modify its behavior.
Anatomy of a method
Section titled “Anatomy of a method”Every shipping method has:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | What the customer sees at checkout (e.g., “Standard Shipping”) |
| Subtitle | Optional description shown below the name (e.g., “5-7 business days”) |
| Rate type | How the base price is calculated (flat, tiered, free, etc.) |
| Zone | Which destination zone this method applies to |
| Product group | Which product group this method applies to |
| Enabled | Whether the method is active |
| Free shipping threshold | Optional: make the method free when the cart exceeds this amount |
| Rules | Conditions that hide, show, adjust, or make the method free |
Rate types in detail
Section titled “Rate types in detail”Flat rate
Section titled “Flat rate”A fixed price, regardless of what’s in the cart.
Example: $9.99 flat rate shipping.
Always $0.00. Use this when shipping is included in the product price, or as a promotional method with a Show rule.
By weight (tiered)
Section titled “By weight (tiered)”Price varies based on the total weight of items in the cart. You define weight tiers with a min/max range and a price for each.
Example:
| Weight range | Price |
|---|---|
| 0 - 1 kg | $5.00 |
| 1 - 5 kg | $10.00 |
| 5 - 20 kg | $20.00 |
| 20+ kg | $40.00 |
Weight units can be grams (g), kilograms (kg), pounds (lb), or ounces (oz).
By price (tiered)
Section titled “By price (tiered)”Price varies based on the cart total. Define price tiers similar to weight tiers.
Example:
| Cart total | Shipping price |
|---|---|
| $0 - $50 | $8.00 |
| $50 - $100 | $5.00 |
| $100+ | $0.00 (free) |
By items
Section titled “By items”Two pricing modes:
- First + additional: Set a price for the first item and a per-item price for additional items. Example: $5.00 for the first item + $2.00 for each additional.
- Tiered: Set price tiers based on the number of items. Example: 1-3 items = $5, 4-10 items = $8, 11+ items = $12.
Percentage of cart total
Section titled “Percentage of cart total”The shipping price is a percentage of the cart subtotal.
Example: 5% of cart total, with a minimum charge of $3.00 and a maximum of $20.00.
Method positioning
Section titled “Method positioning”Methods are ordered by position. The order they appear in your ShipRules AI dashboard is the order they appear at checkout (after rules are applied). Drag to reorder in the UI, or set the position value via API.
Plan limits
Section titled “Plan limits”| Plan | Shipping Methods |
|---|---|
| Starter | 20 |
| Pro | Unlimited |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |