Each shipping zone lets buyers choose from the shipping methods you offer in that zone, and each method has its own pricing. This article explains the five method types you can add inside a zone. For the zone itself, see your shipping zone setup.
Warning
Shipping methods apply to every order that includes a shippable item. You cannot waive shipping for one order while leaving the item shippable. If you want to sell the same item for shipping or in-person pickup, add an in-store pickup method to a zone the buyer can choose at checkout. Do not try to remove shipping one order at a time. If you turn shipping off on the item itself, that change applies to every order for that item going forward.
Where to Find It
Open a shipping zone for editing, then scroll to Shipping Methods. You see five cards, each with its own on/off switch in the header: Free Shipping, Flat Rate Shipping, Ship By Order Total/Weight, UPS, and In Store Pickup. These methods do not save by themselves; they save when you choose the zone’s Save Changes.
Prerequisites
- A shipping zone that already exists, or one you are creating.
- For UPS: a connected UPS account set up under your integrations. You connect this account yourself. If you move from manually configured flat-rate or weight-based methods to UPS, you do not need Support. After the account is connected, turn on UPS in each zone that should offer it, then turn off the manual methods you no longer need there.
- For weight-based Ship By Order Total/Weight bands: a weight entered on each shippable product's settings. If the product does not have a weight, Rhythm cannot calculate its shipping cost correctly by weight.
The Five Kinds of Method
| Method | What It Offers | Key Settings |
|---|---|---|
| Free Shipping | One free method per zone, with optional order-amount limits | Name, optional minimum order amount, optional maximum order amount |
| Flat Rate Shipping | Any number of methods, each with a fixed rate | Name, rate, and whether the rate applies per order or per item |
| Ship By Order Total/Weight | Any number of methods priced by order subtotal or weight bands | Name, whether bands measure order total or weight, a default cost for orders no band covers, and the bands themselves (From:, Up To:, Cost:) |
| UPS | Live rates from one of your organization’s UPS accounts | UPS account, optional markup, optional limit to specific UPS services, and optional ship-from address for this zone |
| In Store Pickup | One method per zone for customers who collect their orders in person | Name and fixed cost |
For flat-rate and ship-by methods, choose Add Flat Rate Shipping Method or Add Shipping Method to open a dialog for each method. Free shipping, UPS, and in-store pickup each allow one method, so you edit them directly on their cards.
Warning
Weight bands do not build on each other. A 151–200 lb band does not include or add the cost from your 1–150 lb band. Enter a cost for every band, even when it covers the range directly above a lower band.
When you set a band's From: and Up To: values, From: includes the starting amount, and Up To: stops just before the ending amount. For example, a band from 2 up to 4 covers 2, 3, and 3.9, but not 4 itself. A value of exactly 4 falls into the next band up.
Tip
UPS refuses a parcel over its own weight limit of 150 lbs. If a heavy item makes UPS unusable for a zone, switch that zone's ship-by method from weight bands to order-total bands, or add a flat-rate method. That way, buyers are not offered a UPS quote that will fail.
At checkout, the buyer sees the shipping method's name as the label, even when the cost is $0. To remove a $0 shipping line instead of showing free shipping, turn off the Free Shipping method in the zone. Then price shipping through another method, such as a flat rate or weight-based charge.
Warning
Rhythm does not offer a way to connect other carrier shipping accounts, such as FedEx, for a shipping method. UPS is the only live-rate carrier integration available.
- Switch a method card on.
- Enter its name and pricing settings from the table above.
- For flat-rate or ship-by, repeat Add ... Method for each method you want to offer.
- Save the zone.
Marking a Method Staff-Only
When the checkbox is available, use Do not show in the portal (only console users can choose this shipping method) to keep a method available for orders staff enter directly, while hiding it from Portal buyers.
Warning
UPS does not have this checkbox in the setup screen; you can hide a UPS method from the Portal only through the API. In some cases, in-store pickup and ship-by methods do not offer this checkbox either. Unless you have confirmed that the hide option is available for that method, only add methods you are comfortable showing to Portal buyers.
UPS: Markup and Limiting Services
After you switch on UPS for the zone and choose an account, you can:
- Add a Price Markup: of None, a Percentage of the UPS cost, or a fixed Amount that is added to the UPS quote.
- Tick Limit the shipping options available to the customer and choose the UPS services this zone offers, such as Ground or 2nd Day Air, instead of offering every service UPS returns.
- Tick Use a different SHIP FROM address when shipping from this zone to ship this zone’s UPS parcels from an address other than your account’s default.
Tip
If your account does not have a default ship-from address yet, the UPS card shows a warning when you switch it on. Set a default ship-from address after you save the zone, or shipments from this zone may fail when rates are requested.
Posting Charges to a Shipping Product
By default, a zone’s shipping charges post to your account’s default shipping product. You can override that at two levels:
- Per zone: switch on Override Shipping Product near the top of the zone form to post every method in this zone to one product.
- Per method: tick Override shipping product inside a flat-rate or ship-by method’s dialog to post just that method to its own product.
When more than one level names a product, Rhythm decides the winning product when an order is priced, not on this screen.
Save-Time Quirks Worth Knowing
Warning
Every time you save a zone, the identifiers for its free shipping and in-store pickup methods gain another copy of the zone’s own identifier prefix. An identifier that started as US-FREE becomes US-US-FREE after a second save, and gets longer again after a third. Because orders record the method identifier they used, an order shipped under an older identifier can end up naming a method your current configuration no longer has. Avoid saving a zone repeatedly with no changes, and do not rely on a free or pickup method’s identifier staying the same across saves.
Warning
Turning a method kind off in a zone, saving, and then turning it back on does not restore your earlier settings. When you switch the kind off and save, Rhythm removes it from the zone, so switching it back on starts again from the form’s defaults. If you are only testing, consider leaving individual flat-rate or ship-by rows in place and adjusting them instead of switching the whole card off.
Validation and Errors
| What You See | Why | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| Please enter a name for this shipping method. | A flat-rate or ship-by method’s Name is empty | Enter a name |
| Please enter an id for this shipping method. | The method’s ID is empty | Enter a name so the ID can be generated, or type one |
| Zone ID '<id>' specified multiple times. Each zone must have a unique id. | Two zones share the same identifier | Change one zone’s identifier |
| Shipping method id '<id>' specified multiple times. Each shipping method must have a unique id. | Two methods, in any zone, share the same identifier | Rename one of the methods |
| No shipping method IDs can start with UPS - this is reserved for UPS integration | A method’s identifier starts with UPS: | Choose a different identifier |
| UPS Integration for shipping zone ... has been disabled | An order tries to ship with a UPS method that was later removed from its zone | Re-enable UPS for the zone, or ship the order another way |
Related
- Set Up Warehouses and Bins: where stock ships from before a shipping method ever applies.
- Set Up an Online Store: the store whose checkout offers the methods you configure here.
- How the Console Decides What You Can See: the general permission model behind Console screens like this one.