DOCS

Shipment rating rules

Control when shipping options are available in your checkout.

GraphQL

Advanced rules provide you with the tools to finely adjust your shipping choices, considering factors like weight, delivery location, item value, or SKU. Create rules to make shipping services available under the right circumstances and hidden when not wanted.

Conditions on flat rates: If you're using flat rate shipping options, consider building conditions for weight or cart value directly into the flat rate shipping conditions, rather than creating an advanced rule.

By weight 

Use advanced rules to set weight restrictions for your shipping service levels. This is particularly useful when you have set up a custom service via rate sheet and it has specific weight limitations. While Zonos knows the weight limitations of connected shipping services, we do not know weight limitations of any custom services you set up via a rate sheet. Ask your custom carrier for any weight limitations and apply them via an advanced rule.

By address 

Advanced rules can also help you create address restrictions for your shipping service levels. You can use address limitations to:

  • Apply service restrictions to rate sheets—While connected shipping services directly ask the carrier if the service is available to a certain address, services set up via rate sheet will always return the shipping rate associated with the destination country. If the service is unavailable to certain postal codes (often remote areas), create a rule to not allow that shipping option to that postal code.
  • Show free shipping only to selected users—Have you ever wanted to offer free shipping to a specific shopper, like an influencer or wholesaler? By limiting shipping options based on the address, you can ensure that free shipping is exclusively available to the individuals you want to target.

By item value 

High-value goods often warrant additional considerations when shipping internationally. Use advanced rules to force quicker shipping options, allow free shipping options, and restrict carts to avoid filing EEIs.

  • Shipping speed—You often want to ensure they ship quickly to reduce the risk of issues during transit. If you sell both high- and low-value goods, you may want to offer different shipping options based on the value of the order.
  • Free shipping—Alternatively, you may want to only show a free shipping option when the order is over a certain amount. You can already build in value conditions for free shipping when you set up the free shipping rule. However, if you want to hide all other shipping options when free shipping applies, create a rule to do so.
  • Avoid filing EEIs—If you want to avoid filing EEIs due to the hassle, you may decide to not allow any shipping options when the cart is over 2500 USD. Since Canada does not require EEIs, you could write the rule to still allow high value orders to Canada.

By SKU 

Note: Country restrictions by SKU should be managed in Catalog. Advanced rules should only be used when Catalog is not sufficient (such as conditions that are specific to the shipping service level).

If you want certain items to only use a particular shipping option, create an advanced rule to disable all other shipping options when that SKU is the in cart.

Customizations 

The examples in this document can be altered to fit your specific scenario. When you adjust the actions and conditions, first verify that are written correctly before implementing the rule. Use the validate mutation to ensure the proper syntax is used. Enter the action and condition separately as the expression and ensure the correct ruleContext is used.

1mutation validate {
2 validateExpression(
3 input: {
4 expression: ":items_total: > 150 USD and :service_level_name: ne \"Free Shipping\""
5 ruleContext: "SHIPMENT_RATING_BUFFER"
6 }
7 )
8}
Book a demo

Was this page helpful?


Get support·Legal docs·© 2026 Zonos