How rates work if the cart contains items from different product groups

If a customer cart contains items belonging from more than one product group, the expected behavior for these rates is to be added together and give you a combined price. The specific behavior is described below:

1- If rates have the same name among product groups, the app will preserve the rate name, and its final price for the rate will correspond to the sum of all matching rates.

Example:



Fast Shipping (General group) €10 (+) Fast Shipping (Product Group #2) €15 =>Fast Shipping - €25



2- If rates have different names among product groups (it's not exactly the same on ALL product groups), the cheapest rate in each group is selected. These rate prices will be added together and a single rate with the title “Shipping” will be displayed.

Example:



The cheapest rates were chosen to give a final rate:



Note that if rates with matching titles are found across relevant Product Groups, any non-matching rates will be discarded. For deeper details as to how Product Group rates are calculated, please read: How Product Group rates are calculated | Postcode Shipping.

How to avoid combining rate prices from different groups?

If you want to 'avoid' combining rates prices from different groups, you'll first need to evaluate what’s the price ‘goal’ on different cart combinations. Example of a 2-group setup:

General Group only =$X
Product Group #2 only =$X
General Group + Product Group #2 =$X

Single product group cart

Let's focus on carts with products from a single product group.

General Group only =$X
Product Group #2 only =$X

Then set up your rates on each group, where you specify a rate rule defining the only product group the cart can contain for that rate:



This will ensure it only applies when it matches that requirements. And therefore, the rate won’t come up for mixed carts as you're specifying it should apply only if the cart contains products of that single group.

Mixed product groups

Now, focus on carts with Mixed product groups. For this, you want to:

1- Define which rate will have each 'Cart combination'. E.G.

General Group + Product Group #2 =$20

This means you will need to set up more rates, and stablish precise rate rules to each, making sure these rates apply when the products in the cart include the other group too:



2- You first need to make sure the rate names in the product groups are the same among groups so they are added together as expected and can provide a combined total for each rate.

For example, if I wish a rate for the mixed cart to be €20, I'd need to make sure to create the same rate on both groups, apply the rate rules on each (to include the other product), and then set the prices so once they're combined, it gives you the expected rate:

Updated on: 04/10/2022