Shipping rules

A shipping rule is a saved way of shipping: which connected carrier and product to use, which sender address to print on the label, which destination countries it covers, and which conditions set the price at checkout. Use rules when you ship the same way again and again. For example, a customer in Denmark gets GLS home delivery for 39 DKK, and a customer in Sweden gets PostNord. Without a rule, you pick the carrier and product on every shipment.

You need at least one connected carrier and one sender address before you can save a rule.

What a rule does

A rule is used in three places:

Checkout prices: Shopify and WooCommerce show matching rules as shipping methods. The customer’s country, the cart’s weight, its value and the number of items decide which rules appear and what they cost. See Checkout.
Orders: when the customer picks a rule at checkout (or a shipping method is mapped to a rule), the order keeps that rule. A shipment created from the order gets its carrier, product, services and sender address from the rule.
Shipments: you can apply a rule to a draft or pending shipment, or keep choosing the carrier on the shipment by hand.

When you send a shipment that has a rule, the rule also decides whether documents are created, whether labels print automatically, and what happens with returns.

Shipping rules are not the same as automations. An automation does something when an event happens (for example, apply a rule when a shipment is created). A shipping rule is the saved carrier and product setup that the automation applies.

Where to find them

Shipping rules is in the sidebar under Shipping, between Carriers and Carrier requests. The list shows each rule’s name, carrier, countries and a short summary of its conditions. Click Add shipping rule to create one, or click a row to change it.

Shipping rules list showing GLS Hjemmelevering for Denmark and PostNord MyPack Home for Sweden and Norway — Shipping rules, with destination countries and a summary of the conditions

You can search the list and filter it by carrier or brand.

Create a rule

Open the form

Click Add shipping rule. The page is called Create shipping rule.

Name the rule

Rule name is what you see, and what your customers see at checkout. Write it the way customers should read it, such as GLS Hjemmelevering - Danmark, not an internal code. You can add a Description.

Pick the direction

Outbound is for normal shipments. Inbound (return) is for return labels. The Product list only shows products for the direction you pick.

Pick the carrier, product and services

Pick a Carrier you have connected, then one of its products under Product (for example GLS PrivateDelivery). If the product has Services (for GLS PrivateDelivery: Addressee only, Deposit, Notification email), tick the ones every shipment with this rule should get.

Pick the sender address

Address is the “from” address printed on the label. Only addresses marked Sender are listed.

Pick the destination countries

Receiving countries is required. Add countries one by one, or use Quick add: EU, Nordics, Europe, North America or World. A country the product can’t deliver to is marked Not supported by this product.

Add at least one condition

You can’t save without a condition. Start with Flat rate if every cart should pay the same price, or add Weight, Order value, Value range or Quantity.

Save

Click Create rule. You go back to the list. There is no separate switch to turn the rule on: a saved rule is in use right away.

Create shipping rule form with carrier, product, services, sender address, and receiving countries filled in — The form after choosing GLS Denmark, GLS PrivateDelivery, a sender address and the Nordic countries

At checkout, a home delivery rule shows as the rule name with the product name after it in brackets. A service point rule shows the rule name, and Shopify adds the service point’s name. Keep names short and in your customers’ language.

Conditions

Conditions answer one question: does this cart get a shipping price from this rule, and how much? They can’t pick a carrier by SKU or by order channel. There are no conditions for those. The form has five kinds:

Button	Kind	When it matches
Weight	Weight range	The cart’s total weight (kg) is between the minimum and maximum, both included
Order value	Order value	The cart’s Total (after discounts) or Subtotal (before discounts) compared with a value: at least, greater than, at most, less than, or equal to
Value range	Order value range	The cart’s total or subtotal is between a minimum and a maximum
Quantity	Item quantity	The number of items compared with a number you choose
Flat rate	Flat rate	Always matches. Use it as a fallback price

Every condition also has a Shipping price and a Currency. That price is what the customer pays at checkout when this condition wins.

Edit condition window set to Weight range, 0 to 5 kg, shipping price 39 DKK — A Weight range condition: 0 to 5 kg for 39 DKK

A rule can have several conditions. Click a condition to change it, or click the bin icon to remove it.

Shipping conditions with a weight condition at 39 DKK and a flat-rate condition at 49 DKK — Two conditions on one rule: 0 to 5 kg for 39 DKK, and a flat rate of 49 DKK as a fallback

How Zippendo picks the price

Zippendo checks every condition on the rule. Of the conditions that match, the one with the lowest shipping price wins. A 2 kg cart that matches both “0 to 5 kg for 39 DKK” and “flat rate 49 DKK” pays 39 DKK.

A condition on the Total (after discounts) is only checked for orders that have come in. At Shopify checkout only the subtotal is known, so a Total condition is skipped there. Use Subtotal (before discounts) for checkout prices.

Hard limits

Click Configure on the Hard limits card. The limits (optional) can skip the whole rule before any condition is checked:

Total weight: a minimum and maximum in kg
Order value: a minimum and maximum, in the order’s currency

If the cart is outside a limit you set, the rule is not offered at checkout and its conditions are not checked.

Examples

Build these with the fields above. There are no SKU or order channel conditions. By destination country. Make one rule per region. Set Receiving countries to DK for domestic GLS, and make a second rule with SE and NO for PostNord. The country is the first thing checked at checkout.

Receiving countries with the Nordic countries added through Quick add — Receiving countries after Quick add → Nordics

By weight. Add a Weight condition for 0 to 5 kg at 39 DKK and another for 5 to 20 kg at 59 DKK. Or set a hard limit of 20 kg so heavier carts never see this rule. By order value. Free shipping from 500: Order value, compared with At least (≥) 500, shipping price 0. A Value range from 0 to 499 at 49 DKK covers the rest. By number of items. Quantity, At least (≥) 3, shipping price 0 for “three items ship free”. Flat rate fallback. Add Flat rate last so a cart that didn’t match a narrower condition still gets a price. If no condition matches, the rule is not offered at checkout. By order channel. This is not a condition. In the order channel’s settings, on the Orders & checkout tab, tick which rules appear at checkout. If you tick none, every rule in your organization that matches the destination is offered. Shopify webshops that don’t use carrier-calculated shipping link their shipping methods to rules instead. See shipping method mapping. By SKU. There is no SKU condition. Send those orders through their own order channel or brand, or pick the rule on the order yourself.

Products and extra options

The Product list shows the products of the carrier you picked. Home delivery and service point delivery are different products. When you apply a service point rule to a shipment that has no service point yet, you must pick one. Extra fields appear below Services when the product (or a service you ticked) needs extra details. GLS PrivateDelivery usually has none. Other products may ask for return options or other carrier details. Fill in the required ones before you save. If you later give the carrier or the sender address to a different brand, saving this rule fails until you change its Brand or pick another carrier or address.

Documents, printing and returns

These settings apply when a shipment with this rule is sent. Each has its own card: click Configure to change it, then Done.

Document generation options, Print labels automatically and Print documents automatically switches, and the Return shipping rule list — Document generation, Automatic printing and Return shipping on the form

Generate proforma invoice / Generate commercial invoice: Zippendo creates customs paperwork for shipments leaving the EU. Some carriers create these documents themselves and send them with the label. The form then tells you that Zippendo will not make its own copies.
Generate packing slip: a packing slip listing the parcels and items, to put in the box.
Print labels automatically / Print documents automatically: print on an approved label printer or document printer as soon as the shipment is sent. The printers must be Active.
Return shipping rule: pick an inbound rule to use for return shipments. Create return automatically when the shipment is sent creates and sends that return shipment as soon as the outbound shipment is sent. See Returns.

Brands

If your organization uses brands, the form has a Brand field. A rule with a brand only applies to that brand’s orders, and can only use carriers and sender addresses that brand may use (its own, or ones shared by the whole organization). A rule without a brand is shared by the whole organization.

How rules are chosen (there is no priority)

Rules have no priority number, and the first match does not win. At checkout

Zippendo starts with the rules ticked for that order channel, or every rule in your organization if none are ticked.
It keeps the rules whose Receiving countries include the customer’s country.
It drops rules the cart falls outside of under Hard limits.
It drops rules where no condition matches.
Every rule that is left is offered. A home delivery rule appears once. A service point rule appears once for each nearby service point.

Several rules can show at the same time, and the customer picks one. Within one rule, the cheapest matching condition sets the price. On an order or shipment The rule is the one already saved on the order (from checkout or a shipping method mapping), or the one you choose with Configure. Creating or sending a shipment does not check the conditions again to pick another rule.

Change, stop using or delete a rule

Click a row (or Edit in the row’s ⋯ menu) to open Edit shipping rule. Make your changes and click Update rule. There is no on/off switch. A saved rule can always be offered at checkout, as long as its countries, hard limits, conditions, brand and order channel settings allow it. To stop using a rule:

delete it, or
remove countries or tighten the hard limits so it no longer matches, or
untick it in the order channel’s checkout settings.

Deleting is permanent. Open the row’s ⋯ menu, click Delete, and type the rule name in capital letters to confirm.

Delete shipping rule window asking you to type GLS HJEMMELEVERING – DANMARK to confirm — To delete, type the rule name to confirm

Apply a rule when you ship

On an order

Open the order. The Shipping rule section shows the rule on the order, or No rule on order. An order with no rule and no shipments also shows a Configure shipping rules box.

Order with a Configure shipping rules box and a Shipping rule section showing no rule on the order — A pending order with no rule yet

Click Configure, pick a rule (or No shipping rule (manual)), and click Apply. If the order already has draft or pending shipments, you can apply the same rule to them in the same window.

Shipping rule window on an order with the rule list set to No shipping rule (manual) — Give the order a shipping rule

When you click Create shipment on an order that has a rule, the window uses that rule: the carrier, product, services and sender address are already filled in. Click Configure carrier manually instead for a one-off exception.

On a shipment

Draft and pending shipments show a Shipping rule section on the shipment page. Manual setup means the carrier is chosen on the shipment itself.

Shipment overview with the Shipping rule section on Manual setup and Printer settings beside it — A pending shipment with no rule. The carrier is chosen on the shipment

Configure opens the same kind of window. Applying a rule replaces the shipment’s carrier settings and sender address. If the rule’s product delivers to a service point and the shipment has none yet, you pick one before the rule is applied.

Shipping rule window on a shipment with Apply and a rule list — Apply a shipping rule to a pending shipment

You can still change the carrier or product on a pending shipment after you apply a rule.

Automations

In an automation, the Apply shipping rule action puts a rule of your choice on a shipment (for example when Shipment created happens). It does the same as Apply in the window: it does not check the conditions again. See Building an automation.

Test and check

Condition tester

On the create or edit page, click Test. Enter a sample Weight (kg), Order value and Quantity. The tester follows the same steps as checkout:

If the cart is outside the hard limits, the whole rule is skipped.
Every matching condition is listed, and the cheapest is marked (best).
You get a warning when the price is 0 (free shipping), or when the matching prices are far apart.

Condition tester window saying the customer pays 39 DKK, with the weight condition marked best — Condition tester: a 2 kg cart worth 549 matches both conditions, and 39 DKK wins

The tester does not send anything, and you don’t have to save the rule first.

Check a rule in real life

Go through checkout in your webshop (a test webshop works) with an address in one of the rule’s countries. See checkout rates. The shipping method should carry your rule name.
Open the order in Zippendo. The Shipping rule section should show that rule as Active.
Create and send the shipment. The carrier and product should match the rule. If you turned on automatic printing or documents, check the shipment’s Documents section and the printer’s job list.

Common problems

No shipping methods at checkout. The customer’s country is not in Receiving countries, the cart is outside the hard limits, or no condition matched. A rule with conditions where none match is hidden. It is not offered for free. (A rule saved without any conditions, which is only possible through the API, is offered for free.)
You expected the first matching rule to win. There is no priority. Checkout shows every matching rule. Narrow the countries, the hard limits or the rules ticked for the order channel if you see too many shipping methods.
SKU or order channel is not a condition. Tick rules on the order channel, or pick a rule on the order. There is no SKU field in the condition window.
Total or subtotal at Shopify checkout. Total conditions never match at Shopify checkout. Use Subtotal for checkout prices.
Service point product, no service point. Applying the rule to a shipment without a service point asks you to pick one. At checkout, the customer’s choice is saved when they pick a service point option.
Brand mismatch. A rule with a brand is not offered in another brand’s webshop, even if you ticked it there.
Plan limit. If you try to create more rules than your plan allows, Zippendo asks you to upgrade. See Shipping rules.
The form will not save. Name, carrier, product, address, at least one country and at least one condition are required.
No confirmation message after creating. After Create rule you go back to the list, and the new rule is in it. That is the confirmation.

Your rule works when a matching checkout shows it at the right price, and a shipment created from that order already has the carrier, product and sender address filled in.

Reference: Shipping rules
Create a shipment
Checkout · Live rates in Shopify · Shipping method mapping
Carriers · Orders · Returns · Labels and printing
Auto-print labels · Brands · Building an automation
Field by field: Shipping rule fields · Apply a shipping rule · Auto-print

Getting started

Shipments & labels

Orders & channels

Warehouse

Automation

Account

What a rule does

Where to find them

Create a rule