There are two types of Product Group that you can work with in Postcode Shipping. These are app-based and Shopify-based Product Groups.

The type of Product Groups you use will be determined by how you have currently set up shipping in Shopify.

ⓘ We strongly recommend you use app-based Product Groups if possible. Shopify sends carrier apps like Postcode Shipping multiple shipping requests (one per profile) that makes calculations or rules based on the whole cart impossible.

Shopify-based Product Groups

If you currently use shipping profiles in Shopify and have different rates assigned to different products using this method then you will need to use Shopify-based Product Groups.

When using this approach you will need to import information from Shopify about the shipping profiles you have set up and the products that are assigned to those profiles. We will then automatically create Product Groups for each shipping profile you have on Shopify.

You cannot edit Shopify-based Product Groups from within Postcode Shipping. If you want to make any changes (for example, to add or remove products from a Product Group) you will need to make the change in your shipping profiles on Shopify and then re-import the information from Shopify within Postcode Shipping.

If you have set up a few shipping profiles already and you are only using Postcode Shipping to handle your shipping rates we recommend removing these shipping profiles and using app-based Product Groups instead (see below).

Advantages

✅If you have a complex multi-profile setup in Shopify, using Shopify-based Product Groups will allow you to reflect this setup quickly in Postcode Shipping.

Disadvantages

❌You won’t be able to use rate rules that are based on the weight, value or quantity of items in the whole of the customer cart. This is because Shopify makes a separate call to Postcode Shipping for each shipping profile containing just the items in that profile.

❌Making changes to your Product Groups requires the change to be made on Shopify and then re-imported which is more time consuming than using app-based Product Groups.

App-based Product Groups

App-based Product Groups are created directly in the Postcode Shipping app. On Shopify, you only have one shipping profile (the default ‘General’ profile) and then on Postcode Shipping you can create however many Product Groups you need and assign products to those groups.

You are free to edit these Product Groups in the app whenever you need to. Note that, like shipping profiles on Shopify, a product variant can only belong to a single Product Group. Any variants that are not directly assigned to a specific Product Group will be in your default ‘Genera’ Product Group.

Advantages

✅All set up happens in Postcode Shipping - no extra changes in Shopify are required.

✅Shopify will send Postcode Shipping data including all cart items contents making surcharges and rules based on the full cart possible.

Disadvantages

❌Requires a small amount of up-front setup to create your Product Groups and assign products to them.

Updated on: 22/11/2022