How to create shipping rules

Shipping rules are available for a paid subscription plan. The Sendcloud subscription plans have been updated. If the subscriptions shown in the banner above don’t match your current subscription plan and you’d like to know more, please click here.

How to create a new shipping rule

To create a shipping rule, go to Shipping > Shipping rules. From here:

• Click on Create new to make a new rule
• Give your shipping rule a name so you can identify it, and select your conditions and determination. Click the + plus button to add a new condition line. Then select an action to apply and click the + plus button to add multiple actions.

Why should I create shipping rules?

When an incoming order is pushed from your online store into Sendcloud, the order will be automatically run through all your active shipping rules.

If the order meets the condition(s) of a shipping rule, then the subsequent action(s) will be applied. This means that you can print all of your labels without making any adjustments to your orders. Instead of manually changing 100 orders, you can process them all instantly in one click.

You can choose from the following conditions:

*When you choose the To Country condition, selecting European Union includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia.

You can set the following actions:

Examples of smart shipping rules:

In order to give you an idea of what smart shipping rules can do for you, here are some examples. 

• Match a shipping option to a check-out shipping option name: When shop checkout shipping option is letter post And to country is Netherlands > Ship with PostNL Mailbox Parcel Extra 0-2kg
• When shipping an expensive product: If item name contains Fine Jewelry > insure shipment by 1000€
• When shipping an extra large product: If item name contains carpet And to country is Netherlands > Ship with DHL Europlus
• Shipping to foreign countries: If to country is United Kingdom And weight is less or equal than 5kg > Ship with UPS standard 3-6kg
• When you want to allow customers to collect orders from your physical store: If checkout method contains "Click and collect" (text must be as stated exactly on your checkout) > Ship with Unstamped letter.
• When you want to insure your parcel based on its value: You can download this CSV template and upload it to your Sendcloud account following this article. If the value of the order is between 100EUR and 200EUR > the insurance is set to 200EUR.

Match conditions using and/or

When adding multiple conditions to a shipping rule, you can choose whether the rule should match all conditions or any condition.

Select and if all conditions must be met before the shipping rule is applied. Select or if only one of the conditions needs to be met for the rule to be applied.

Important notes when using a shipping rule to exclude values

To exclude values (e.g. you want to exclude certain countries) in a shipping rule, you will use the "is not" operator in the conditions you add.

If you have added several conditions, it is important that you select and, so all conditions must be met before the rule is applied.

If you select or instead, the rule will be triggered as soon as at least one condition is met. This means the action may still be applied, and you would not have successfully excluded all the values you wanted to exclude.

Multiline for Postal code and Item SKU

When it comes to Postal codes and SKUs, you can add multiple inputs to a field for the following operators: In/Not in and Pattern match. So, instead of only using pattern matches, you can also decide to add a list of Postal codes/SKUs. The shipping rule will then be applied to every Postal code or SKU in the list. Make sure to separate the input by 'Enter'.

How can I make a shipping rule for B2B shipments?

You can use the condition Company name to create a shipping rule to ship B2B shipments with a specific shipping option. To do so, use the following rule, in which entering "?*" into the text field means that any character value in the address line Company name will trigger this shipping rule to be applied.

You can then select a shipping carrier of your choice to deliver B2B shipments. 

Shipping rules for shipment protection

It is possible to create unlimited insurance-only shipping rules, giving you the flexibility to manage insurance for your shipments, regardless of your plan.

For those on the Free Plan, you can create unlimited insurance-only rules. While other types of rules can be set up, they won’t be activated. This allows you to experiment with shipping rules and learn how they work.

On the Lite and Growth Plans, the ability to create unlimited insurance-only rules also applies, even if your plan has a limit on the number of rules. Since insurance-only rules don’t count toward the overall rule limit, you have more flexibility in ensuring your shipments are covered. If you downgrade to a lower plan, all non-insurance rules will be deactivated, but your insurance-only rules will remain active.

To set up insurance shipping rules, navigate to Shipping > Shipping Rules OR Shipping > Shipment Protection. Once your insurance shipping rules are configured, you can view an overview of all your insurance-only rules by going to Shipping > Shipment Protection.

In the Shipping Rules overview, identifying which rules are specifically related to insurance is simple. Each insurance-related rule is clearly marked with a distinct blue tag that appears directly behind the shipping rule. This visual cue makes it easy to quickly distinguish insurance rules from other types of rules, helping you navigate and manage your shipping preferences more efficiently.