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How to Set Items to Pack Separately

Ensure specific products are always shipped separately using ShipperHQ packing rules

Table of Contents

Overview

You might have products in your store that always ship separately, meaning they're not packed into a box with other items. For example, a large flat-screen TV is usually shipped in its own box. Packing this into another larger box with other items isn't practical. In this section, we'll explore how you can handle this scenario. 😊

Setup

ShipperHQ enables you to configure products to ship separately using Packing Rules. You'll need to ensure the Dimensional Packing feature is enabled, then create a new Packing Rule from the Packing Rules section in the left-hand navigation.

Before creating your Pack Separately rule, you’ll want to define the box your product will ship in. This could be a custom-sized box that closely matches the product. If you don’t set a box, ShipperHQ will calculate rates using the product’s own dimensions or weight.

 To create the rule:

  • Under the "I Want To..." section, select Pack Separately as the method of packing.
    This ensures each product assigned to the rule is packed in its own individual box.

Screenshot 2025-10-10 at 8.02.56 AM


  • After selecting Pack Separately, the Pack Product Separately section will appear. Here, you can optionally select a Packing Box for the product. If no box is chosen, ShipperHQ will generate a custom package based on the product’s dimensions or weight at checkout.

Screenshot 2025-10-10 at 8.17.40 AM

Setting the Packing Rule on your Products

For Magento 1 or 2/Zoey, synchronize your eCommerce platform with ShipperHQ and enter the packing rule at the product level. Check out these instructions for Magento 1, Magento 2, and Zoey. For BigCommerce/Shopify/Woo, apply the packing rule name to the product. Find instructions for Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.

Output

When a product assigned to a “Ship Separately” or “Pack Separately” rule is added to a cart, each unit (i.e. each SKU quantity) will be packaged individually according to the defined rule.

Ship Separately on Magento

Magento includes a ship_separately product attribute (added by the ShipperHQ extension) that allows you to enable separate shipment behavior at the product level. This is particularly helpful for merchants migrating from the older WebShopApps Dimensional Shipping extension, as the attribute names and logic align.

  • If ship_separately is enabled and no packing box is assigned, each unit is boxed based on its product dimensions.

  • If ship_separately is enabled and a packing box is assigned, each unit uses that assigned box.

Examples

Assume a product with product dimensions of 2 × 2 × 2, and you’ve defined two packing boxes in ShipperHQ: 4 × 4 × 4 and 6 × 6 × 6.

Pack Items Separately

If you set a rule with method Pack Separately and assign the 6 × 6 × 6 box, then for a quantity of two, you’ll generate two 6 × 6 × 6 boxes.

Ship Separately Attribute

If you enable the ship_separately attribute for a product in Magento:

  • With no box assigned: each SKU is boxed at 2 × 2 × 2 (the product’s own dimensions).

  • With a 4 × 4 × 4 box assigned: each SKU is boxed in a 4 × 4 × 4 box.

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