Donations and flat rate shipping

[SkyCaptain]

Our E-commerce site uses flat rate shipping based on order total. We are a 501c3, so we have the ability to donate in our shopping cart before checkout. The donation has a dollar value in the shopping cart, so it is counting toward the flat rate shipping total. This means when a customer adds a $5 item to their cart for example, and then adds a $25 donation to the cart, the shipping total which is $7 for up to $25 total, goes to $10 which is the next tier. We would only want them to pay $7.

Another situation might be if a customer has $75 in product in their cart, and they add a $25 donation, it will put them at $100 which is our threshold for making shipping free, even though the donation isn't a product which ships, so it gives them free shipping on the order The donation item isn't a physical product, but it will always have a dollar value in the cart which is going to contribute to the flat rate shipping total.

Is there a way around this issue that anyone has figured out? We would like the donation product and its variants to not be factored in to the total for the purposes of flat rate shipping tiers. I can't think of any way around it, but I wanted to reach out in case someone out there had solved this previously. Thank you.

[YOD_Solutions]

I think you can create a separate shipping profile for your donation item with free shipping. Or define your donation item as "Digital or service" (not "physical product"). https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/details/product-details-page#product-details-shipping

[SkyCaptain]

Unfortunately the issue isn't the shipping charge of the particular item. It's the fact that it has a product value which contributes to the dollar total of what's in the cart. I don't have a problem of getting the item itself to have no shipping charge, but that doesn't matter because that's now how the cart is determining what the flat rate shipping charge will be. It goes purely on the total amount of the items in the cart. Since donations have a value, they always count toward the total. That's my conundrum.

[Keerthi_Sree]

Hello @SkyCaptain 

The Shopify "Order Price" condition is dependent on the final order total value, regardless of whether the product is in the same profile or whether it's a physical product or not. Therefore, you won’t be able to set up shipping based on Shopify’s Order Price condition alone.

The best alternative in your case would be to utilize the Weight Condition instead of the Order Price within Shopify. Since donation products aren't physical products and typically don't have a weight configured, this will ensure your shipping rates remain accurate.

[SkyCaptain]

I appreciate your response on this but unfortunately that isn't the case. The items already have 0 weight, and are already unmarked as being a physical product so they will be treated as a digital product or service. Since nothing on our site is conditional on weight, and it is only the order total that is used, that is not our solution. Nothing on our website has a weight, even items which are a physical product. Weights are never used during the order calculation process on our store.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to do what I want to do, and there is no workaround for it within Shopify. Again, thank you for trying to help me out with this situation. I appreciate it.