In the subscription ecosystem, it’s a common use case for brands to offer free or discounted shipping on recurring orders as an incentive for their subscribers. To achieve this, it's crucial to have the right configurations in place for setting up subscription-specific shipping profiles.
This guide will walk you through the necessary steps to configure these profiles, explain what shipping profiles are, cover the types available, and outline the limitations of configuring shipping profile rates.
What is a shipping profile?
In Shopify, a shipping profile helps determine the shipping rates applied to your orders based on the products, locations, and zones that are part of that profile. Shipping profiles define how shipping rates are calculated depending on factors such as:
Products: Different products can be grouped and assigned to specific shipping profiles. (What is being shipped)
Locations: You can define where products can be shipped to and create different rates based on location. (From where the product is being shipped)
Zones: Shipping zones are geographic regions that you can define for rate calculation. (Where the product is being shipped)
Rates: Shopify allows configuring various types of rates for your products. (Rates that will be applied for that product in the order)
Types of rates that can be configured include:
Flat rate: A fixed shipping cost regardless of the order’s weight or price.
Weight-based rates: Shipping costs based on the total weight of the order.
Price-based rates: Shipping costs determined by the total price of the order.
Carrier rates: Shipping costs based on rates provided by a specific carrier, like UPS or FedEx.
Types of shipping profiles
Shopify offers two primary types of shipping profiles: General profiles and custom profiles.
General shipping profile: This is the default profile applied to all products in your store unless a custom profile is defined. It’s typically used when you don’t need specific shipping rules for particular products.
Custom shipping profile: This is a profile that you create to define unique shipping rules for specific products, locations, or zones. You can configure specific rates for these products based on different criteria.
Preference of rate priority
When both custom and general shipping profiles are present, Shopify gives priority to custom shipping profiles. If a product is assigned to a custom profile, the shipping rates from that profile will override the general profile.
Subscription-specific shipping profiles
Subscription-specific shipping profiles are a custom profile only. These profiles allow you to map a selling plan group, and all the products within that group will use the rates specified in this custom profile.
Here is the step-by-step guide on how to configure the subscription specific shipping profile:
Create a Shipping Profile by clicking “Create Shipping Profile”
Add a name to your profile & choose the selling plans that you want to map to this Shipping Profile. You can choose as many selling plans as you want.
Note: If you have the same selling plan mapped to multiple Subscription specific shipping profiles. Shopify will automatically choose the lowest value.With Loop, you can configure different subscription shipping rates for each fulfillment locations of your store. Click on add rates to configure rates for specific location.
Add zones where you would be shipping your subscription products and the shipping rates as well.
With Loop, you can set up rates based on order price or order weight & can also use carrier services rates.
Set your own rates using conditional pricing
Set rates using carrier or app to calculate rates
Subscription specific shipping profiles will override Shopify’s default shipping settings.
FAQs
How to ensure different shipping prices for one-time purchases and subscription purchases of a product?
How to ensure different shipping prices for one-time purchases and subscription purchases of a product?
Create a subscription-based shipping profile by going to Loop Admin portal > Settings > Subscription shipping rates, and create the profiles the same way as in Shopify. Please be aware that:
If the customer purchases the product one-time, the shipping profile is picked from Shopify.
If the customer purchases the product as a subscription, the shipping profile is picked from the Loop shipping profiles. In the case of a mixed cart (one-time and subscription products), both shipping prices may apply (from both Shopify and Loop profiles). To know more, please connect with the support POC.
Need help?
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If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to email us at support@loopwork.co or chat with us using the support beacon at the bottom right of your screen.
Regards,
Loop Subscriptions Team 🙂