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ShipRules AI

Understanding the Basics

ShipRules AI has four building blocks. Understanding how they connect makes everything else straightforward.

The four building blocks

Section titled “The four building blocks”

Zones

Where you ship to. Each zone contains one or more countries. Zones can have subzones for postal code targeting.

Product Groups

How you organize your products. Each group contains specific product variants. Every store starts with a “Default” group that includes all products.

Shipping Methods

The actual shipping options your customers see at checkout. Each method has a name, a rate type (flat, tiered, free, etc.), and belongs to one zone and one product group.

Rules

Conditions that modify how methods behave. Rules can hide methods, make them free, or add/subtract surcharges based on cart contents, destination, time, and more.

How they fit together

Section titled “How they fit together”

Here’s the hierarchy:

Zone (e.g., "United States")
  └── Product Group (e.g., "Default" or "Heavy Items")
       └── Shipping Method (e.g., "Standard Shipping — $9.99 flat")
            └── Rule (e.g., "Free if cart total > $100")
            └── Rule (e.g., "Hide if product tagged 'hazmat'")

A shipping method always belongs to one zone and one product group. Rules belong to a method and are evaluated in order (by position).

When a customer checks out, ShipRules AI:

  1. Finds the zone that matches their destination country.
  2. Finds which product groups the cart items belong to.
  3. Evaluates all shipping methods for those zone + group combinations.
  4. Applies rules to each method — hiding it, making it free, or adjusting the price.
  5. Returns the visible methods (with adjusted prices) to the checkout.

Rate types

Section titled “Rate types”

Each shipping method has a rate type that determines the base price before rules are applied:

Rate TypeHow it works
FlatFixed price (e.g., $9.99)
FreeAlways $0.00
By WeightTiered pricing based on total weight (e.g., 0-1kg = $5, 1-5kg = $10)
By PriceTiered pricing based on cart total (e.g., $0-$50 = $8, $50-$100 = $5)
By ItemsFirst item + additional items pricing, or tiered by item count
PercentagePercentage of cart total, with optional min/max charge

Rule actions

Section titled “Rule actions”

Rules can do one of five things:

ActionWhat it does
HideRemove the method from checkout when conditions match
ShowOnly show the method when conditions match (hidden by default)
FreeMake the method free ($0.00) when conditions match
Add surchargeAdd a flat amount or percentage to the rate
Subtract discountSubtract a flat amount or percentage from the rate

AND / OR logic

Section titled “AND / OR logic”

Rules use AND logic between conditions: all conditions in a rule must match for the rule to fire.

For OR logic, you have two options:

  1. Comma-separated values — In a single condition, separate values with commas. For example, destination_state equals AK,HI means “Alaska OR Hawaii”.

  2. Multiple rules — Create separate rules, each with different conditions. Since rules are evaluated independently, any matching rule takes effect.

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”

Now that you understand the building blocks, explore each one in detail: