Setting Up Wholesale Shipping Rules

What are shipping rules?

Shipping rules let you offer special shipping rates to wholesale customer groups. You can provide free shipping above a threshold, charge a flat rate regardless of order size, or give a percentage discount on standard shipping rates. Each group can have its own shipping rules, so your top-tier wholesalers might get free shipping while other groups get discounted rates.

Note: Shipping rules can be configured and saved now, but automatic application of shipping discounts at checkout is coming soon. Currently, shipping rules are stored and ready for when the delivery discount integration is completed.

Rule types

ShipWave supports three types of shipping rules:

Free Shipping — Removes all shipping charges when the threshold is met. Customers see $0.00 shipping at checkout.

Flat Rate — Charges a fixed shipping amount regardless of order size (e.g. $10 flat rate). The flat rate replaces the standard calculated shipping cost.

Percentage Off — Reduces the standard shipping cost by a percentage (e.g. 50% off shipping). The discount is applied to whatever the carrier rate would normally be.

Threshold types

Each shipping rule can have a threshold that must be met before the rule activates. Choose a threshold type:

Order Value — The cart subtotal in dollars (e.g. free shipping on orders over $500).

Quantity — The total number of items in the cart (e.g. free shipping when ordering 100+ units).

Weight — The total cart weight in pounds (e.g. flat rate shipping for orders under 50 lbs).

If you don't set a threshold, the rule applies to all orders from the group.

Creating a shipping rule

Go to Admin → Wholesale → Groups, select a group, and click the Shipping Rules tab. Click Add Rule and fill in:

Name — A label for the rule (e.g. "Free shipping over $500").

Rule Type — Free shipping, flat rate, or percentage off.

Threshold Type — Order value, quantity, or weight (optional).

Threshold — The minimum value to trigger the rule (e.g. 500 for $500).

Value — For flat rate, the shipping cost in dollars. For percentage off, the discount percentage. Not needed for free shipping.

Priority — When multiple rules could apply, the highest priority wins.

Multiple shipping rules

You can create multiple shipping rules for a single group. When an order is placed, ShipWave evaluates all active rules and applies the one with the highest priority that the order qualifies for. For example, you might have:

Priority 10: Free shipping on orders over $1,000
Priority 5: Flat rate $15 on orders over $200
Priority 1: 25% off shipping on all orders

A $500 order would get the flat rate (priority 5), since it meets the $200 threshold but not the $1,000 threshold.

FAQs

Do shipping rules affect carrier rate calculations?

Shipping rules modify the final shipping price shown to the customer at checkout. The underlying carrier rates are still calculated normally—the rule applies a discount or override on top of those rates.

Can I restrict shipping rules to specific regions?

Yes. Shipping rules support optional country and state restrictions. When set, the rule only applies to orders shipping to those destinations.

What if no shipping rules are set for a group?

Customers in that group see standard shipping rates at checkout, just like retail customers. Shipping rules are entirely optional.

Setting up wholesale shipping rules