One product on its own shipping rate, everything else on live rates
SureCart calls this a Shipping Profile. It is the equivalent of a shipping class: a group of products that gets its own zones and its own rates. Live carrier rates are set per rate, not per store, so one profile can use Shippo while another uses a price you type in yourself.
This demo store has two profiles:
- T1538388 Books (Flat Rate Box) holds the book. Canada zone, two weight based rates: 0 to 5 kg costs $22.95, anything over 5 kg costs $45.
- T1538388 Other Goods (Live Rates) holds the mug. Canada zone, one flat rate of $12.
Use this test address: 100 Queen St W, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2T6, Canada.
Card number 4242 4242 4242 4242 if you want to go all the way through. You do not have to, because the shipping line updates as soon as the country is filled in.
1. One book, the flat rate box price
The book weighs 450 g, so it falls in the 0 to 5 kg tier. Checkout shows T1538388 Flat Rate Box (Canada Post), $22.95. No live rate is requested for this product at all.
2. Twelve books, the tier switches on its own
12 x 450 g is 5.4 kg, which is past the 5 kg a flat rate box holds. Checkout drops the box rate and shows T1538388 Expedited Parcel (Canada Post), $45.
This is the part that replaces a separate “multiple books” product. One product, one price, and the shipping rate follows the cart weight.
Try 4 books as well. Still 1.8 kg, still $22.95.
3. A book plus something else, read this before you go live
When a cart holds products from two different profiles, SureCart prices each profile separately and then has to merge the two lists. If the two profiles do not offer the same shipping method names, it cannot pick a name, so it charges the cheapest rate from each profile added together and labels the single line Standard Shipping.
Here that is $22.95 plus $12, so $34.95. The money is right, but the buyer loses the choice and the Canada Post name disappears.
Open cart with a book and a mug
The fix: give every profile the same shipping method names, and only change the price behind each name. Then mixed carts show real names with the prices added together, and the buyer still chooses.
How to build it
- Put a real weight on the product: Products, your book, Shipping, Physical product, Shipping Weight. A weight of 0 makes every weight based rate behave as if the cart were empty.
- SureCart, Settings, Shipping, Add New Profile. Name it something like Books.
- Inside that profile, Products, Add Product, and pick the book. This is the only place a product is assigned to a profile. There is no profile selector on the product edit screen.
- Create Zone, pick Canada.
- Add Rate, choose Based on item weight, set 0 to 5 kg, and type the flat rate box price. Add a second rate starting at 5 kg with no upper limit so heavy orders still have something to fall back on. A cart weight with no matching rate makes the cart unshippable.
Everything not added to a profile stays in General, which is where the Shippo live rates keep running.
