i sell two main types of product in my store, stickers and enamel pins. orders containing only stickers are sent via letter mail for cheaper. orders containing enamel pins, whether they have stickers or not, are sent in padded envelopes as small packets. to try to accomodate for the difference in shipping rate i created two different shipping profiles, however i’m now realising that orders with both pins and stickers have overpriced shipping, plus when there are two stickers, it defaults to a padded envelope instead of a regular one.
im looking for an app, preferably a free or cheap one, that can help with this without CCS, as i cannot afford to upgrade my plan from basic at this stage. i did find an app that could do this for free but it uses CCS and i cant get access to that with a basic plan.
This is actually a pretty common issue when mixing product types with different shipping rules Shopifys default profiles can get tricky here.
The problem is that Shopify doesnt handle conditional logicvery well on Basic plans without CCS.
A simple workaround you can try (without apps) is
Use one shipping profile instead of two, and base your rates on weight or price
Set stickers to a very low weight
Set pins to a higher weight
Then create shipping rates like
Light weight → letter mail
Higher weight → padded envelope
Stickers only → cheap shipping
Pins → higher shipping automatically
Its not perfect but it usually works better than separate profiles.
If you do want an app, most of the advanced ones need CCS, so options are limited on Basic. Some cheaper apps exist but they still hit the same restriction.
So honestly, your best bet for now is the weight-based setup its what a lot of small stores use until they scale.
For shipping on Basic, you’ll want to look for an app that offers discounted carrier rates, label printing, and order syncing — all in one place. In my experience, the key features to prioritize are batch label printing (saves a ton of time once you’re past a few orders a day), automatic tracking number updates sent to customers, and support for whatever carriers you actually use.
Before you install anything, check if Shopify Shipping already covers your needs — go to Settings > Shipping and delivery and you’ll see built-in discounted rates for USPS, UPS, and DHL Express. A lot of merchants on Basic don’t realize those are already included.
If you need more (international options, multi-carrier rate comparison, custom packing slips), look for apps with a free tier or pay-per-label pricing rather than a flat monthly fee — that scales better when you’re still growing on Basic.
Yes, this could be a bit of an issue to handle it on Shopify. What you can do is handle it during fulfilment. With PluginHive Multi Carrier Shipping Label app (even without CCS), you can group products (stickers vs pins) and predefine packaging rules. So when orders come in, the correct package (letter or padded envelope) is automatically assigned.
PluginHive sounds like it would be a good solution but it’s a platform for buying shipping labels, and I don’t need that as my post office doesn’t sell labels and I can’t use UPS
Fedex or the like. I tried it out but it didn’t seem right for me.