Shipping rules and Try a cart
Hide checkout options, change their price, set a fixed price or show no Parcello rates for carts that match your conditions, and test a cart first.
Available on the Operations plan and higher. Compare plans
Updated October 5, 2026
Shipping rules change the options checkout shows for carts that match your conditions. Use them for things like free express for wholesale customers, no overnight to Alaska and Hawaii, or a fixed price for a product line. Try a cart lets you see the result before customers do.
Before you start
- Live rates must be on. See Live rates at checkout.
- Rules and Try a cart are in the Shipping rules card on the Checkout Rates page. On a plan below Operations, the card says Available on the Operations plan, and rules you saved earlier stay stored but don’t run.
Add a rule
- In Shipping rules, click Add rule.
- Enter a Name and keep On ticked.
- Under When, choose Match: All conditions or Any condition. Click Add condition for each condition and fill in its value. A rule with no conditions applies to every cart.
- Under Then, pick an Action and, for most actions, Which rates it changes.
- Click Save.
The rule appears in the list with its number, a summary of its conditions and action (for example, When Destination state or province is any of AK, HI, then Hide rates named “Next Day”), and an Off badge when it’s turned off. Use Edit and Delete to change or remove it.
Conditions
| Condition | Compares | Operators |
|---|---|---|
| Destination country | Two-letter country codes, such as US, CA | is any of, is none of |
| Destination state or province | State or province codes, such as AK, HI, PR | is any of, is none of |
| Destination ZIP / postal code | Postal codes or their start, such as 995 | starts with any of, is any of, is none of |
| Destination is | A home or A business, from your Home or business setting | is any of |
| Order subtotal | Item prices times quantities, before discounts | is at least, is at most |
| Total weight (lb) | Product weights from Shopify times quantities | is at least, is at most |
| Number of items | Units that need shipping | is at least, is at most |
| Any item has product tag | Shopify product tags | is any of, is none of |
| Any item is in collection | Collection names or handles | is any of, is none of |
| Any item has SKU | Variant SKUs | is any of, is none of |
| Customer tag | Tags of the logged-in customer | is any of, is none of |
Enter several values separated by commas. Text matches ignore upper and lower case. “Any item” conditions match when at least one item in the cart has the value; with is none of, they match when no item has it.
Customer tag only matches logged-in customers. Guests have no tags.
When you open the page, Parcello reads product tags and collections from Shopify in the background for any products it hasn’t read yet. While it works, the card says how many products are left; tag and collection conditions match those products once it’s done.
Actions
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Hide rates | Removes the matching options. |
| Change the price | Adds a Percent and an Amount to the matching options. Use negative numbers for a discount. The price never goes below $0. |
| Set the price | Sets the matching options to a Price. $0 makes them free. |
| Show no Parcello rates | Returns no Parcello options. Shopify shows your other rates, or your backup rates when there are none. |
Which rates decides which options an action touches:
- Every rate.
- Rates from some carriers: tick the carriers. Estes freight options count as Estes, and FedEx Freight options as FedEx Freight. Shippo options count as Shippo and as the carrier underneath (USPS, UPS or FedEx).
- Rates whose name contains: enter words separated by commas, such as “Next Day, Overnight”. This matches the name customers see, including your renamed services and tier names.
When a cart ships as several shipments, its options are your shipping tiers, which don’t belong to one carrier. Target them by name.
Order of rules
Rules run from top to bottom, each on the result of the one before. Use Up and Down to reorder them. A rule with Show no Parcello rates stops the list.
Rules run after free shipping. A rule can set a price on the free option or make another option free. See Free shipping at checkout.
Example
You want wholesale customers to get free ground shipping and no overnight options to Alaska or Hawaii.
| # | Name | When | Then |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No overnight to AK and HI | Destination state or province is any of AK, HI | Hide rates, Rates whose name contains “Overnight, Next Day” |
| 2 | Free ground for wholesale | Customer tag is any of wholesale | Set the price $0, Rates whose name contains “Ground” |
A wholesale customer in Hawaii gets free ground and no overnight options.
Try a cart
Try a cart rates a test cart with your carriers the same way checkout does. Nothing is bought.
- In the Product column, type a SKU or product name and pick the variant. Set the Quantity. Click Add item for more lines (up to 30).
- Enter the Country, the state or province, the ZIP or postal code, and the City.
- Optionally enter a Subtotal (spread evenly over the units) and Customer tags.
- Click Get rates. The button is active once there is an item and a postal code.
You’ll see “Rules that matched:” with the rule names, or “No rule matched this cart.”, and two lists: Before the rules and At checkout. “Before the rules” already includes free shipping. If Parcello returns nothing, the result says “No rates:” with a reason; see Why checkout shows backup rates.
The product list warns about lines that won’t rate, for example “No box set up, so it won’t rate” or “Doesn’t need shipping”. Only rules that are on take part.
Notes and limits
- Rules change only Parcello’s options. Other rate apps in the same Shopify shipping zone are not affected.
- A condition row left without a value blocks saving: the row shows “Add a value” until you fill it in or click Remove.
- With Rates from some carriers and no carrier ticked, or Rates whose name contains and no words, the editor says “Tick at least one carrier, or pick Every rate.” or “Enter at least one word, or pick Every rate.”
- Destination is uses your Home or business setting in Rate settings: a fixed answer, or detection from the address.
- Shopify can reuse rates for the same cart and address for about 15 minutes, so a new rule may take a few minutes to show at checkout. Try a cart always rates fresh.