Shipping profiles let you control how different types of products calculate shipping, especially when customers buy multiple items at once. This article explains how shipping rates are combined at checkout and what determines whether rates bundle into one option or appear separately. If you use different rates for different products, this guide will help you set them up so customers eceive the best possible rate for their purchase.
How Shipping Rates Are Combined
If your products are assigned to different shipping profiles, the way shipping rates appear at checkout depends on your rate names:
When rate names and delivery info match across profiles, the shipping costs are added together.
Each rate name in your shipping profile has two prices:
- A price when the item ships alone
- A price when the item ships with other items
At checkout, the system automatically uses the highest first item in the order price from the group, then adds the Additional items. price for everything else.
Heads up: If all of your products use the same shipping rates (like Standard or Express), you can create one shipping profile and assign it to all products. This gives you a single, store-wide set of shipping options at checkout.
How Matching Rate Names Create One Combined Shipping Rate
For example, if a customer buys:
- A print (from your Art Prints profile) with Standard Shipping: $5 alone / $2 with others
- A pin (from your Enamel Pins profile) with Standard Shipping: $3 alone / $1 with others
They'll see one Standard Shipping option at checkout for $6 total ($5 for the print + $1 for the pin shipping with it).
When rate names and delivery info don't match, they appear as separate options.
This keeps things clear for your customers about what shipping service they're choosing. Different rate names mean different shipping options at checkout.
Make sure each product uses the correct shipping profile
To take advantage of your lower bundled shipping rates, make sure each product is assigned to the correct shipping profile.
- Go to Products in your admin.
- Select the product you want to update.
- Scroll down to the Shipping section.
- Use the Assign a shipping profile dropdown to choose the appropriate profile.
Setting Up Shipping for Multiple Products
Important:
Shipping rate names must match exactly across profiles to combine.
For example, items with Standard Shipping can bundle together, but Standard Shipping and Express Shipping will show as separate options at checkout.
To ensure shipping rates work together smoothly:
- Use consistent rate names and delivery info across your profiles Common names include: Standard, Express, Priority, International Names must match exactly, including capitalization and spacing Example: Standard and standard won't combine because of the capital S
- Price each profile appropriately Set both the ships alone and ships with other items price for each rate name Remember that the highest "ships alone" price will be used first, then ships with other items prices are added Make sure the combined total covers your actual shipping costs
- Consider your fulfillment process This works best when all items ship from the same location If different products ship from different places, you might want to use different rate names to keep them separate
Set up multiple shipping profiles
- Go to Shop settings → Shipping.
- Make sure Set rates manually is the shipping method you're using.
- Select Add new shipping profile.
- Name your profile.
Choose a name that reflects the type of products it will apply to (e.g., Art, Pins, T-Shirts). - Add a shipping region.
- Click Add new region.
- Use the region selector, expanding the list with the downward arrow to refine which countries, regions, or zones you ship to or exclude.
- Select your location(s) and click Save.
- Select Add rates.
- Create or choose a rate.
- Enter a Custom Rate name or pick one from the shipping rate list.
- Rate names should correspond to shipping types (e.g., Standard, Express, Priority, Bundled Shipping).
- Set your prices.
Add the cost for the first item in the order and for additional items. - Be sure to use Add rate again to add any additional
- Click Save changes.
- Repeat this process for each product category that needs its own shipping profile.
- Assign products to the profile.
- Go to Products and select a product.
- Scroll to the Shipping section.
- Use the dropdown to Assign a shipping profile.
- Save your changes.
Example Setup
Let's say you sell apparel and accessories:
T-Shirts Profile:
- Standard: $6 alone / $3 with others
- Express: $15 alone / $8 with others
Accessories Profile:
- Standard: $4 alone / $2 with others
- Express: $10 alone / $5 with others
Sweatpants Profile:
- Standard: $8 alone / $4 with others
- Priority: $20 alone / $12 with others
When someone orders a t-shirt and an accessory, they'll see:
- Standard: $10 (t-shirt $6 alone + accessories $2 with others)
- Express: $20 (t-shirt $15 alone + accessories $5 with others)
Because the T-Shirts profile and the Accessories profile have the same rate names, their rates get combined at check out.
When someone orders a t-shirt, accessory, and sweatpants, they’ll see:
Shipping for t-shirt / accessory:
- Standard: $10 (t-shirt $6 alone + accessories $2 with others)
- Express: $20 (t-shirt $15 alone + accessories $5 with others)
Shipping for sweatpants:
- Standard: $8
- Priority: $20
Notice how Priority appears as its own option since sweatpants profile has a rate that the others do not have (e.g. Prirority).
Tips for success
- Test your checkout: Add products from different profiles to your cart and check that shipping options display as you expect
- Keep it simple: Using the same 2-3 rate names across all profiles makes checkout clearer for customers
- Update as you grow: When you add new profiles, make sure the rate names align with your existing setup