Flat rate vs. conditional shipping

Flat Rate vs. Conditional Shipping

Alpaca supports multiple ways to set shipping prices for your customers.

Flat Rate Shipping

  • Simple: One price for all orders to a specific zone.
  • Example: $10 shipping to anywhere in the US.

Conditional Shipping

  • By Price: Charge different amounts based on order total (e.g., Free shipping over $100).
  • By Weight: Set rates for different order weights.
  • Per Product Fee: Add a fee per product or only for certain tagged products.

Setting Up

  • When adding a shipping rate, enter minimum and maximum order price or weight (if you want conditional rates).
  • Add a per-product fee if needed.

Use Cases:

  • Offer free shipping on high-value orders to incentivize larger carts.
  • Charge more for heavy or bulky orders.

Tips

  • You can have multiple rates per zone, covering different scenarios.
  • Test your checkout as a customer to see which rates appear based on cart content.

Want to know when to use Alpaca or Shopify for shipping? See Using Alpaca vs. Shopify’s native shipping.