Set up your shipping rules
Go to Shipping > Shipping rules. In this overview, all of the created shipping rules are shown in the order that they will be applied, from top to bottom. From here you can:
- Create a new rule
- Edit or delete existing rules
- Change the rule order.
- Toggle rules to be active or inactive
Important disclaimer about multicollo shipments
Please note that shipping rules have limited functionality when applied to multicollo parcels.
In these cases:
- Conditions based on weight, parcel dimensions (height, length, width), total order value, and total parcel item value will not be matched.
The following actions will also not be triggered:
- Use box
- Set weight
- Set number of parcels
- Insure shipment value by (fixed amount)
- Insure shipment value by % (percentage)
We recommend carefully considering these limitations when defining shipping rules involving multicollo shipments.
How do shipping rules work?
Shipping rules work by creating "if this (and this) then that" scenarios that, once set up, will apply to all orders that meet the criteria and automatically change these orders to match the rule created.
For example:
- If weight is less than 10kg, ship with PostNL Standard
- If to country is Germany ship with DPD Home
- If order value is greater than 200 then insure shipment by 200
🚨 Important: Sendcloud doesn't convert currencies when applying shipping rules. Conditions like "order value" use the numeric amount exactly as it appears in your order, regardless of the currency it's in. To learn more, read Important notes about currency conversion.
Shipping rules consist of conditions and subsequent actions. The conditions determine when a rule will be applied to an order. For example, if a shipping rule is created with the condition "weight is less than 10kg" then all orders which have a weight under 10kg will have a shipping rule applied to them. The action is the change that will be made to orders that meet the conditions, e.g., "If weight is less than 10kg, ship with DPD Home".
Shipping rule order
Your smart shipping rules are applied in the order they are listed in the shipping rules overview. The rules are applied from top to bottom, so the rules at the top of the list will be applied first, followed by the next rule. It’s important to carefully choose the order of your smart shipping rules, ensuring that no desired actions will be canceled out by smart shipping rules listed further down in your overview.
For example, see the two rules below:
- If “To Country is Germany” (CONDITION), then “Ship With DPD Home” (ACTION).
- If “To Country is Germany” (CONDITION) AND “Weight is Greater Than 20kg” (CONDITIONS), then Ship With DHL Parcel Connect 15 – 31kg (ACTION)
In this example, you would ideally want to place these rules in the same order as above. This will ensure that the orders that are being shipped to Germany AND are heavier than 20kg will be shipped by the right carrier (DHL Parcel Connect 15 – 31kg).
If you placed the rules the other way round, then the rule containing the weight-related condition would be overwritten. The order would be shipped with DPD Home no matter its weight because both rules include the condition “To Country is Germany”.
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.
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 activate the option "Match all the conditions of this rule".
If you activate "Match any conditions of this rule" instead, and in case at least one of the conditions is met, the rule will be triggered and the action will still be applied. Thus, you would not have succeeded in excluding all the values you wanted to exclude.
Click here to see an example
You have decided to exclude France, Spain and the United Kingdom from your shipments with PostNL Abroad. You prefer to use a different shipping option for those destinations.- You want to ship a parcel to France and you don't want to use PostNL Abroad. All the conditions of this rule match, therefore the action (ship with PostNL Abroad) does not apply and your package won't be shipped with PostNL Abroad.
- In case you wanted to ship the parcel to Poland, for instance, the action of this rule (ship with PostNL Abroad) would apply and the parcel would be shipped with PostNL Abroad.
How to see applied shipping rules
You can easily see which shipping rules have been automatically applied to your order. Either before the label was created (Incoming order overview) or after the label was created (Created labels).
Incoming orders
When you open/edit the order via the pencil icon, you can see the applied Shipping rules under Shipment > Applied shipping rules.
Created labels
You can see the applied Shipping rules by going to the Created labels tab and clicking the eye icon to enter the label details view. The name of the rule that has been applied and the action will be listed.
Related articles
→ Import shipping rules in bulk/CSV file