Customers charged double shipping

[Floranoctemshop]

I have 2 shipping rates, one of which is for larger items and the other is for everything else. The larger rate is £4.50 and the regular sized item rate is £3.00.

When a customer adds a larger item and a regular sized item to the cart they are charged both shipping rates,  so £7.50. This is putting customers off and they are not completing their purchases; I've lost money on this. Why charge people 2 rates for one purchase? 

In these circumstances, I want them to just be charged the higher rate, not both rates together. There doesn't seem to be a way of setting this up, even though I've tried. I feel like this is a serious flaw in Shopify's system and as I said, I've lost sales because of it.

Does anyone know how to fix this? 

Many thanks,

Laura

[Victor]

Hi @Floranoctemshop,

Thank you for reaching out and for providing details of your issue.

By default, only one shipping rate should be chosen by the customer, and they should not stack based on the number of items they have in their cart. However, this can occur if the customer orders two items from different locations or shipping profiles, meaning each item is being shipped separately from each location and as such, two shipping charges would stack and be charged to the customer. Are you selling from multiple locations and if so, did the customer in the order you are referencing order products from different locations? Do you still have these rates set on your store?

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Floranoctemshop]

Thank you for your responses.

I do have two shipping profiles set up, because that's the only way I can see to ensure my larger items are costing the higher shipping rate. There isn't an option to choose specific products in the general shipping category; only item values and weights. I only ship from one location and the address matches in both shipping profiles.

Ideally, I want to charge £3.00 for "regular sized" items, £4.50 for the larger ones, but I also want free UK shipping on orders over £50 (regardless of size.) I don't want the shipping rates to stack if someone buys both a regular and a large item. Using the option for weight doesn't work correctly as it doesn't pick up the orders over £50. Also, I've put my weights in grams on the product pages, but the weights have to be in lb on the shipping page. I don't really want to go through all my products and convert the weights. The shipping page doesn't allow you to choose between Metric and Imperial. Annoying.

This is so frustrating, because everything else on Shopify seems to work fine. The shipping set up is the only real problem I've encountered.

[Victor]

Hi @Floranoctemshop,

Okay, thank you for detailing all of that. The only times that shipping charges will stack is when an order contains either products from either two or more shipping locations, or two or more shipping profiles—it sounds like from what you are describing, the fact you have products spread across two shipping profiles would be the cause of the stacked shipping rates. This is expected behaviour with Shopify's shipping system.

With regards to your set up, what would you want the shipping charges to be if a customer ordered two "regular sized" items? Is there a limit on the number of items they'd order to be only be charged £3 for shipping? Likewise, if they ordered a "regular' and "large" item, would you just want the charge to be £4.50?

If you can explain a little more what rates you'd want to charge in specific scenarios, we may be able to assist with getting this set up.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Floranoctemshop]

Hi @Victor 

I'd still want to charge £3 if they bought any number of regular sized items, because they would all be packaged together. And if they bought a regular and a large item I'd like them to be charged £4.50. If they bought several large items, the charge would still need to be £4.50. I'd still like free shipping when they spend over £50, regardless of what size items they buy.

At this moment in time, I'm only using the £3 and free shipping rates. I've had to amend some item prices to balance it out.

[TheCraw]

Victor, I am not an expert on this but you can tell it to use 0 as the
shipping rate once you reach the 50 pounds. This might clear up some of
your issues. Since it looks like 4.50 is the fee for most things other than
all small packages which is 3.00. I can't see how you can do all of that. I
looked through the automatic discount code to see if there was any way I
could see in there to handle your all small packages and could not see
that, can get close. If you were willing to have 3 dollars for small, and
small and large and 4.50 for the rest up to 50 I can see how you could do
automatically I think but the discounts won't allow a negative discount (I
tried) which would allow you do all of what you wanted.

If you can live with (3 for small) and (3 for small with large) and 4.50
for large of any number and at 50 pounds free shipping for all you could do
the following. Under rates set it at 50 purchase the rate is 0 below that
is 4.50. Set up an automatic discount of 1.50 for the order if they buy one
of the small packages.

Don't know if that would help. You would have to see how many order small
and large together and they would only be paying 3.00 but at least it would
be all automatic.

Interesting problem.

Regards

[Victor]

Hi @Floranoctemshop,

Okay, thank you for clarifying more information about what you're looking for here. I don't believe there is a perfect solution for you here but I'll outline the options I believe you have given the context you've provided thus far.

• As mentioned, shipping rates will always stack together if the customers orders 2+ products from multiple shipping locations and/ or profiles. You mentioned that you had two different profiles set up to ensure that the smaller items always cost £3 and the larger items £4.50, and I understand why you have done this, but it does mean that when a customer orders an item or more from each profile these prices will add together. To account for this, you could consider adding all products to the same shipping profile and tweaking your flat rates so that the weight of smaller items, even if multiple ones are ordered, always qualify for the £3 rate, whereas the weight of the larger items is such that as soon as the customers adds one of them, the weight value for this product immediately moves the customer's cart into the range that qualifies for the £4.50 rate.
• @TheCraw has made a couple of great potential suggestions here, including adding live rates at checkout meaning that customers are more likely to pay a rate closer to what it costs you to ship rather than the flat rates you set. This allows more accuracy, if this is what you are looking for, but less control on exactly what the customer pays. If you wanted to explore this route, apps like the Royal Mail Shipping Extension would be worth considering.
  
• The potential automatic discount set up @TheCraw mentioned could potentially work—I can't think off of the top of my head a clear reason why it wouldn't—but it's worth bearing in mind that if you have an automatic discount running for this sort of thing, any other discounts and offers you have on the store will not be able to be added at checkout alongside this (only one discount can be added to a cart at a time, and they do not stack).
  

Please also bear in mind that if you set a price-based rate for free shipping on all orders over £50, this will apply to all customers who meet this spending threshold and will always display at checkout alongside other rates you may have set up.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[TheCraw]

Victor tweaking the rates for small and large may not work, ie the suggestion of setting a threshold. If we were provided the weights of the small versus the big we could calculate if it can be done but without that info we can't say for sure.  Depending on the actual weights it might end up being an optimum solutions and than kick in the free at 50 Dollars and it might do everything.

[Victor]

Hi @TheCraw,

You're correct, yes—setting the weight-based rates in such a manner so all "regular" items are charged one rate and all "large" items are charged another, irrespective of how many are ordered, depends on the weights used for the products in question. However, as the weights inputted into Shopify for products are primarily there for shipping calculations, you can alter them to be inaccurate to the products' actual weights, but this can allow you more flexibility when it comes to customers choosing the rates you want them to.

For example, you could set up two shipping rates based on weight—one would be 0-49.9lbs with a £3 cost, and another 50lbs+ which would cost £4.50. If you then set all regular sized products to 1lb, this would mean you could order tens of these products and still qualify for the £3 rate. If one large product was added, and its weight was set to 50lbs, then the £4.50 rate would the one shown at checkout.

Obviously, when it comes to actually shipping the items, you'd enter in the actual weights of the products and package when buying a label. The £50+ free shipping rate could also run alongside it and would automatically appear alongside the weight-based rates at checkout when the customer has ordered enough to qualify.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[TheCraw]

Had not thought of modifying the weights. When you go to actually ship is
that a manual exercise to change the weights when you go for a label. If it
is I doubt that would be acceptable, if it can be automatic it would be
okay but it is one place that would be very easy to make mistakes on if not
automatic.

Tom

[Floranoctemshop]

Thank you both for your help, it's really appreciated.

I'll try out the weight based shipping and see how it goes.

Thanks again 🙂

[Victor]

Hi @Floranoctemshop,

No problem at all, I hope it helps. Please let me know if you need any further help.

@TheCraw, you would indeed need to change the weight of the products and the order in total when buying a label directly via the admin, to ensure it is accurate. This is something that should be checked anyway even if the product weights in the admin are designed to be accurate.

Also, thank you for your suggestions throughout this topic—always great to see other members of the community helping each other out!

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[AndrésEDDigital]

HI, 

Thanks for the information on this thread. 

I am having the problem when a customer orders products from different suppliers/locations shipping is being stacked as we have a set rate depending on spend of the customer. For us it doesnt matter if it is coming from 4 different location we want to charge same flat rate. 

Is there any way around this? 

[Victor]

Hi @AndrésEDDigital,

Thank you for getting in touch. Shipping costs may stack at checkout if the customer orders products that are based in different shipping profiles. Do you know if you have more than one shipping profile enabled, with different products in each? This is likely the cause and the combining of shipping rates at checkout will always occur if you set up your shipping profiles in this manner. We have more information about this on our Help Center:

If you decide to create multiple shipping profiles, or have multiple locations within profiles, then some orders might contain products from different profiles or locations. When this happens, the separate shipping rates for each product are added together. This provides the customer with a single shipping rate at checkout.

I would recommend checking out the Help Center page for further details and to see some of the examples that are given. If you still have questions or are needing further help, please let me know here and provide more information about your shipping setup if possible.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[AndrésEDDigital]

Hi Victor, 

Thanks for the response. At this moment we don't have any shipping profiles set up. 

Here a short (1 minute 27 seconds) screencast sharing further: https://www.loom.com/share/916677b34124484690aceeb0b745bb55

Thank you so much, 

Andrés 

[Victor]

Hi @AndrésEDDigital,

Great, thank you for the video. I can see that you just have the single shipping profile setup so that should not be the cause of the additional shipping costs being added at checkout. I saw in your video that within the profile, a number of apps were referenced here—are you able to check these apps individually and see if they are adding on shipping fees? I have seen this occur before where an app installed into the store is adding on a shipping cost on top of the rates that are listed within the shipping zone.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[fcbeautyco]

I am having the same problem and haven't found answers anywhere! One product can be sent by regular postage; the other has to go into a parcel. Adding the postage-sized product to a parcel doesn't affect my costs; therefore, I don't need to charge my customers even more for shipping! I'm getting a lot of abandoned carts, and I know this is the reason. So frustrating; I'm with you on this. 

[Victor]

Hi @fcbeautyco,

I'm sorry to hear that you're having this problem. Can you tell me if you have these two products in different shipping profiles? If so, the shipping costs for products in different profiles will stack at checkout.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[briem]

We are having the same issue! I’ve been trying to solve this for months. Currently, we have products shipping from three locations but only want to charge $5.99 for ALL orders under $150 and free over $150. Currently, if a customer adds multiple items to their cart shipping from all 3 locations with the total value still being under $150, then they are being charged $17.97 ($5.99 x 3) or $11.98 for items from two locations. We’re also getting a lot of abandoned checkouts as a result of this and have not been able to find a solution anywhere (not with apps, web developers, Shopify support, etc). Please help!

[Victor]

Hi @briem,

Thank you for getting in touch and for detailing your issue. To confirm, are the only shipping rates you have enabled the two price-based rates you have mentioned? Are the products all shipped from three different locations?

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[BillyBrown]

I was looking at possible free Shopify apps that might solve this issue.

'Customship' sounds like it may be a solution to this issue. I'm waiting to hear back from their support to see if it's a possible option.

[briem]

Yes. $5.99 for orders under $150 and $0 for orders over $150. 2 rates total. And yes, as I mentioned, there are three shipping locations. While it may cost us extra to ship this way, we do not want to charge our customers for that. Make sense?

[Victor]

Hi @briem,

Okay, thank you for confirming. I checked this with our shipping department and they confirmed that shipping rates will always consolidate if a customer adds products to their carts from different locations and/ or shipping profiles, and that this is intended behaviour. I would recommend checking out an app such as Advanced Shipping Rules, as this may offer a workaround and allow you to charge shipping in the manner in which you've described.

Kind regards,

Victor | Shopify Social Care

[Hoang21]

Hi, I have enabled two different locations (1 for Oberlo and 1 for Local pickup) and now the customers are being charged double. How I can fix this issue?

[TheCraw]

I see you are doing flat rate shipping. We used to do that but instead just went to where the weight and the postage options are calculated at checkout. We ship all around the world and the shipping rates change depending on where you live. If you did this you would only be charging them what it actually costs to ship. Now you maybe subsidizing shipping which is a different ball game but we have most people order 2-3 items but do have some get 8-9 and the rates do change based on the weight.

You can also add in a fixed adder per order if you like  for example a dollar if you want that for the packaging material you use.

May not be how you want to do it but would certainly deal differently with what you are currently experiencing. Also handles situations where someone orders 5 of your large packages.  You do need to have the size and the weights figured out which depending on what your product is may make this not easy to do.

We have not had a lot of complaints about shipping cost more about how long it takes to get stuff there. Amazon does make it difficult for smaller companies.

Regards

[AndusMcabu]

I had a similar problem with double charges, and managed to solve it by having a separate shipping profile for my store location, and a separate shipping profile for my app locations. 

For me, I have a flat rate fee for everything, so it was as simple as setting the same rates for each profile. However, if you have different prices, you would probably need to set conditions for the rates, since Shopify selects the profile with the cheapest rate available for the items in the cart.

[KWillowLLC]

I need help with shipping prices. I am being double charged for shipping. How can I resolved this?

[Victor]

Hi @KWillowLLC,

As mentioned earlier in this thread, this will happen when you have two or more items in your cart that feature in different shipping profiles or locations. Can you confirm if the products in your cart are included in different shipping profiles, or are assigned to different locations?

[Anindita]

Hi @KWillowLLC,

Have you created multiple shipping profiles or configured multiple locations? If yes, then it is a very common Shopify shipping problem. When using multiple shipping profiles, or having multiple locations within profiles, if orders contain products from different profiles or locations, this will result in combined rates at the checkout. At this time, there is no way to disable combined rates natively if you have multiple shipping profiles. Ultimately this feature is in place to ensure merchants don’t end up overpaying for shipping when customers order products from multiple profiles or locations. Currently, the only available workaround would be to use an app to set up more specific shipping rules. 

This is possible with Multi Carrier Shipping Label App. You can set unlimited shipping rules and completely automate your shipping process.