Shipping Rule Evaluation Logic with Multiple Shipping Groups

Overview

Shipping rules in ShipperHQ allow you to control shipping rates and methods based on conditions such as product attributes, cart value, or destination.
However, it’s important to understand how these rules behave when your products are assigned to multiple shipping groups.

Key Concept: Rules Apply Per Shipping Group

In ShipperHQ, shipping groups are evaluated separately.
This means that any rule you configure — for example, one offering free shipping over a certain cart total — applies within each shipping group independently, not to the combined cart total across all groups.

Example Scenario

Total cart value: $100
Expected behavior: Free shipping for the whole cart
Actual behavior: No free shipping applied — because each group’s subtotal ($40, $30, $30) is below $100.

ShipperHQ will not combine totals across shipping groups.
Each group’s rules are evaluated based on its own subtotal or quantity.

Why This Happens

Shipping groups are designed to separate shipping logic when products require different handling  for example, when items:

• Ship from different origins

• Have unique restrictions

• Use distinct carriers

Because of this, ShipperHQ isolates rules per group to maintain accuracy in rate calculations.

Recommendation

If you want rules to apply based on the total cart value, consider the following approach:

• Create a single shipping group and assign it to the products that should share the same rule (for example, free shipping over a certain cart total).