Using Automatic shipping? Use this troubleshooting guide instead. This troubleshooting guide is specifically for sellers using the Manual shipping feature.
Using our manual shipping feature? Shipping issues come down to how shipping profiles are set up and assigned. This guide walks through the most common problems sellers run into and exactly how to fix them.
When to Use This Guide
Use this guide if:
- Customers are seeing unexpectedly high shipping costs
- Shipping isn’t bundling correctly for multiple items
- You want to ship only to certain locations
- You have unused or confusing shipping profiles
- You’re trying to get the best possible shipping rates
- You’re working with a dropshipper and aren’t sure how to set shipping up
Why Is Shipping So High for My Customers?
Shipping usually looks high when:
- Your Price for additional items is too high
- Shipping profile rate names don’t match, so costs don’t bundle
- Items are set to ship separately. This is sometimes necessary for products that require different packaging. For example, art prints shipped in a poster tube may need to ship separately from smaller items like stickers or pins that ship in flat envelopes.
- You’re using a dropshipper with per-item fulfillment fees
Keep in mind— Big Cartel doesn’t guess shipping; the checkout page calculates shipping based on the rates and rules you’ve created
How to Troubleshoot
- Test your checkout
- Add two or more products (different type if you have multiple profile options) to your cart
- Go to checkout and note: Are you seeing multiple shipping methods? Are costs stacking instead of bundling? By stacking instead of bundling we mean you’re seeing separate shipment options for products instead of one.
In your admin, check:
- Head over to Shop settings > Shipping, check which shipping profiles are assigned to items and be sure you’re using matching shipping rates for each and be sure you don’t have Items using this profile are shipped and charged separately selected for any, that will create a separate shipment.
- If you’ve created a custom shipping rate across more than one profile, then be sure to check that the names match exactly (including capitalization). If there are discrepancies between custom rate names, then the checkout page will treat them as two different rates and won’t combine them.
What Does “Price for Additional Items” Mean?
The additional item price applies when a customer adds more than one item to their cart.
It’s important to keep this amount reasonable. Setting it too high can quickly increase shipping costs for multi-item orders and may discourage customers from buying more.
For example:
- First item price: $5
- Additional item price: $1
If a customer buys two items, shipping would total $6
($5 for the first item + $1 for the second item).
What Does “Price for Additional Items” Mean?
The additional item price applies when a customer adds more than one item to their cart.
It’s important to keep this amount reasonable. Setting it too high can quickly increase shipping costs for multi-item orders and may discourage customers from buying more.
For example:
- First item price: $5
- Additional item price: $1
If a customer buys two items, shipping would total $6
($5 for the first item + $1 for the second item).
How Do I Choose the Right Additional Item Price?
There’s no single “correct” number — it depends on:
- Your product size and weight
- Packaging costs
- Carrier pricing
- Whether items ship together or separately
A common approach is to:
- Start with a modest additional item fee
- Test checkout with multiple products in your cart
- Compare what you’re charging to what it actually costs you to ship
You can always adjust your rates as you start fulfilling orders. Many sellers refine their shipping setup after seeing real-world costs in action.
Shipping doesn’t have to be perfect on day one — you can update rates at any time.
For more guidance on determining accurate shipping prices, see I Need the Best Shipping Rates. How Can I Find Them?
How Shipping Is Calculated
When profiles are bundled:
- The highest Price for first item in order price is applied first
- Then the Price for additional items price is added for each additional item
If custom rate names don’t match, shipping appears separately because the checkout page will consider them two different rates, and in turn won’t combine them
How to Fix It
- Assign related products to shipping profiles with identical rate names
- Make sure delivery info matches (Standard vs Express, etc.)
- Disable “Items using this profile are shipped and charged separately” unless required
- Test checkout again after changes
What Does “Shipping Profile Names Must Match to Bundle Costs” Mean?
Big Cartel bundles shipping by rate name, not by shipping profile.
For shipping to bundle, the rate name must match exactly across products.
Example setup
Let’s say you sell:
- Handmade blankets
- Stuffed animals
- Sewing kits for stuffed animals
Each product uses its own shipping profile with different prices.
Stuffed animals
- $4 for the first item
- $1 for each additional item
- Rate name: Standard
Sewing kits
- $5 for the first item
- $1 for each additional item
- Rate name: Standard
Handmade blankets
- $8 for the first item
- $3 for each additional item
- Rate name: Two-Day Shipping
When shipping will bundle
Shipping bundles when products share the exact same rate name:
- Standard
- Standard
Example:
If a customer orders a stuffed animal and a sewing kit, shipping is bundled into one rate.
When shipping won’t bundle
Shipping won’t bundle if the rate names differ in any way:
- Standard
- standard
- Two-Day Shipping
Example:
If a customer orders all three items, the handmade blanket ships separately because its rate name doesn’t match.
The fix:
If you’d like it to bundle changing the Shipping profile name to Standard will fix that.
How to Confirm This Is Your Issue
- Compare rate names across profiles side by side
- Using custom shipping profiles? Look for differences in spelling, spacing, or capitalization
- Check delivery type (Standard vs Priority vs Express)
Best Practices for bundling shipping rates
- Use our default shipping profiles to avoid bundling issues
- Reuse the same rate names across all profiles
- If you need Custom profiles, stick to simple, consistent names: Standard Express Priority International
Can I Restrict Shipping To Certain Locations or From Certain Locations?
Shipping restrictions are handled inside each shipping profile.
You can:
- Ship only to specific countries or regions
- Exclude destinations you don’t want to ship to
- Create different profiles for items shipping from different locations
How to Set It Up
- Go to Shop settings → Shipping
- Edit a shipping profile
- Add or edit a shipping region
- Select only the countries, zones, or regions you want to ship to
- Save changes
In your Shipping section, click the pencil icon next to a shipping profile to open the Shipping Regions window (like the one shown above).
From there, use the arrows to expand each region (for example, Americas, Europe, etc.) and review the specific locations inside. If you’re restricting shipping to certain countries or areas, make sure only the correct boxes are checked. Expanding each section helps ensure nothing is accidentally included or excluded.
If a customer’s location doesn’t have a shipping rate added, they’ll see a message at checkout letting them know you don’t ship there, and they won’t be able to complete their purchase.
I Need the Best Shipping Rates. How Can I Find Them?
Where Shipping Rates Come From
Big Cartel doesn’t set carrier pricing— you choose the rates you charge customers.
To determine the best shipping rates for your shop, you’ll need to research current carrier pricing and decide what makes sense for your products and margins.
Your rates typically come from:
- Your shipping carrier (USPS, FedEx, Royal Mail, La Poste, Canada Post, etc.)
- Your fulfillment or print-on-demand provider (like DSers, Printful, or Printify)
- Your own packaging costs and handling fees
How to Find the Right Rate
- Check your carrier’s website
- Look up retail or business shipping rates based on:
- Package weight Dimensions Shipping speed (Ground, Priority, Express) Domestic vs. international destinations
- Contact your carrier directly
- If you ship regularly, ask about:
- Flat rate options Business discounts Volume pricing
- Review your fulfillment provider’s rate table
- If you use a drop shipper, use their published shipping rates and plug those directly into your shipping profiles.
- Test your setup
- After adding rates:
- Run test checkouts
- Try different locations
- Add multiple items to the cart confirm bundling works correctly
- Make sure the amount collected covers your actual shipping cost (plus packaging, if you haven’t rolled it into your product pricing”).
- For International Sellers
- Shipping costs vary widely by country, so be sure to:
- Check your local postal service or national carrier rates Review customs requirements and potential duties Factor in VAT or import taxes if applicable Confirm whether your carrier offers international tracking
Shipping takes a bit of dialing in, but once you know your typical package size and destination range, it becomes much easier to set predictable, profitable rates.
If You Use Printify
Printify provides shipping rates by product and print provider.
Use their rate tables to set accurate manual shipping prices:
Recommended setup:
- Use a dedicated Printify shipping profile
- Match rate names exactly across all Printify products
If You Use Printful
Printful provides shipping rates by product type and destination:
Recommended setup:
- Create a Printful-only shipping profile
- Use their published rates as your “ships alone” price
- Adjust “ships with other items” if bundling makes sense
I Have Unused or Confusing Shipping Profiles
If your shipping setup feels cluttered or confusing, it’s usually because there are extra shipping profiles, regions, or rates that aren’t being used.
Cleaning these up can make shipping easier to manage, and prevent mistakes at checkout.
Start with Profile Names
Each shipping profile should represent a specific type of product or fulfillment style.
Good examples:
- Art Prints
- Shirts
- Outerwear
- Stickers
- Apparel
- Posters
Shipping works best when profiles are grouped by:
- Product type
- Size/weight category
If you aren’t using them this way it’s totally fine, just be sure to create a naming setup that helps you stay organized.
How to Remove an Unused Shipping Profile
Before deleting a profile:
- Make sure no products are assigned to it
You’ll see how many product variants are using the profile at the top of the page.
If it says:
0 product variants use this profile
You can safely delete it.
To remove it:
- Go to Shop settings → Shipping
- Find the profile
- Click the trashcan icon
- Confirm deletion
Keeping only active, clearly named profiles makes troubleshooting much easier.
Removing Extra Shipping Regions you don’t plan on shipping to
Inside each profile, you’ll see shipping regions (like Everywhere or Europe).
If you’re not shipping to a region:
- Click the trashcan icon next to that region
- Confirm removal
This prevents customers in those locations from seeing shipping options you don’t intend to offer.
Removing Extra Rates
If you added shipping rates you don’t need (for example, Economy + Express when you only offer Economy):
- Head over to the profile
- Find the extra rate you don’t need
- Click the trashcan icon associated with that rate
- Confirm deletion
Too many rate options can:
- Confuse customers
- Increase cart abandonment
- Make bundling harder to manage
Keep It Simple
A clean shipping setup usually looks like:
- 1–3 shipping profiles
- Clear profile names based on product type
- Only the regions you actually ship to
- 1–2 consistent rate names (Standard, Express)
If shipping feels complicated, simplify first.
Most issues come from having more profiles and rates than necessary.
Quick Shipping Health Checklist
Use this before contacting support:
- Do products that ship together share the same shipping profile name?
- Are there unused profiles that can be removed?
- Are shipping destinations set intentionally?
- Have you tested checkout with multiple items?
- Do dropshipped products have their own profile?
Still Having Trouble?
If you’ve checked everything above and shipping still doesn’t look right, contact support let us go over shipping settings with you so you’re rates are dialed in correctly and you’re receiving orders with happy customers.