How to resolve multiple shipping rate issues on an e-commerce store?

[PomandChi]

Hi, 

I'm trying to set up multiple shipping options on my Shopify store and I keep running into the same issues. 

Here are the shipping rates I'm trying to set up: 

1) Bandanas - flat fee of $3

2) Free shipping over $100 

3) Carrier calculated rate for everything else 

If a customer orders 4 bandanas and the price goes over $100, they do not get the free shipping option. 

Also, I'm pretty sure if a customer orders a bandana + another item, it adds the $3 bandana shipping cost to the carrier calculated rate for the other item. Is it possible to just have the carrier calculated rate override for both items instead of adding an additional $3?

Can someone help me figure out why this is happening? 

Thank you

[Ron-Anderson]

Hi @PomandChi,

This is a limitation with Shopify's shipping and delivery settings. You can set up separate rates by product using Profiles, but if a customer orders a mix of products, it just automatically blends all the rates together. There is no way to prevent it. And free shipping will only apply to the Profile it's set up in, which is why when bandanas are over $100, the customer doesn't get free shipping if they have anything else in the cart. It's adding the live rates to free shipping.

If you're open to using a third-party solution, Intuitive Shipping lets you set up multiple Scenarios that can either be blended together, or set up so that one takes priority over others.

That means you can set up at least 2 Scenarios:

1) Bandanas - flat rate -- only activates when the cart just has bandanas

2) All other products -- live rates -- activates when the cart includes any other products, or a mix of products that includes bandanas

And, if you want, you can even set up a 3rd Scenario where if the entire cart is over $100, the customer only gets free shipping. You can set things up pretty much any way you want.

Intuitive Shipping is free to install and use in Setup & Testing mode, so you can try it out before selecting a billing plan, to make sure it's a good fit. If you do decide to try it out, we recommend that you move all of your products into a single Profile, as our system is intended to be used with one General profile. Our Scenario system works similarly to Shopify Profiles, but gives you greater control.

If you'd like to learn more about this, feel free to book a demo with one of our team members  who would be happy to walk you through setting up a mix of flat rate and live rate shipping methods.

Please note that to use Intuitive Shipping - or any third-party rate calculation app - Shopify requires that you enable their third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates feature. This feature is $20 USD per month. If you change your Shopify billing to annual, they will add the feature at no additional cost (plus they will reduce your billing plan by 10%). If you're on the Advanced plan or higher, this feature is already included and activated by default.

Best regards,
Ron