How to Set Up "Choose Highest" Shipping Method in Shopify

When selling products of different sizes, weights, or shipping requirements, calculating shipping costs can become complex. Many Shopify merchants face a common challenge: how to charge customers only for the most expensive shipping item in their cart, rather than adding all shipping costs together.

This "choose highest" or "maximum shipping rate" approach makes sense for many businesses. If you're already paying to ship your largest or most expensive-to-ship item, adding smaller items to the same package often doesn't significantly increase your shipping costs.

In this guide, we'll show you exactly how to set up a "choose highest" shipping method in your Shopify store using the Better Shipping app.

Why Use a "Choose Highest" Shipping Method?

Before diving into the setup, let's understand why this approach benefits both merchants and customers:

Benefits for Merchants:

• Simplified shipping logic: Create a predictable shipping cost structure
• Competitive shipping rates: Avoid overcharging customers for multi-item orders
• Increased average order value: Encourage customers to add more items without shipping penalties
• Reduced cart abandonment: Prevent sticker shock at checkout from cumulative shipping costs

Benefits for Customers:

• Transparent shipping costs: Customers understand they're only paying for the most expensive item to ship
• Incentive to add more items: Once the highest shipping cost is applied, additional items don't increase shipping
• Better overall value: More products for the same shipping cost improves the perceived value

Setting Up the "Choose Highest" Shipping Method

The Better Shipping app doesn't have a single toggle for "choose highest" shipping, but you can easily achieve this functionality using shipping rules. Here's how:

Step 1: Create a New Shipping Rate

1. In your Shopify admin, open the Better Shipping app
2. Click "Create new shipping rate" (or select an existing rate you want to modify)
3. On the first page of the guided setup:
   • Enter a name for your shipping rate (e.g., "Standard Shipping")
   • This name will appear at checkout for your customers
   • Select the appropriate shipping zone from your existing Shopify shipping zones
4. Click "Next"

Step 2: Configure Initial Settings

1. When asked "Do you want to restrict shipping by zip/post codes?", select "No"
   • Note: You can use zip code restrictions if needed, but for this basic setup, we'll skip this
2. For the question "Do you want to use 'Per Product' shipping?", switch to "No" (off)
3. Click "Save and Next"

Step 3: Create Shipping Rules in Ascending Price Order

This is where the magic happens. You'll create a series of rules, starting with your lowest shipping price products and working up to your highest.

For Your Lowest-Priced Shipping Products:

1. Click "Create new rule"
2. Set a descriptive name (e.g., "Small Items - $5 Shipping")
   • Note: Customers won't see this name; it's for your reference only
3. From the first dropdown, select "Order includes products, variants, etc."
4. In the next dropdown, select how you want to group products:
   • "By product" to select individual products
   • "By tag" if you've tagged products by shipping price
   • "By product type" if your product types align with shipping costs
   • "By vendor" if vendor-specific products have similar shipping costs
5. Select the products for this lowest shipping price tier and move them to the right-hand box
6. Leave the dropdown below as "Any of the selected"
7. In the "Choose what happens" section, select "Replace total shipping price"
8. Enter your shipping price for these items (e.g., $5.00)
9. Click "Save rule"

For Your Next Higher-Priced Shipping Products:

1. Click "Create new rule" again
2. Follow the same process, but:
   • Select different products that require a higher shipping cost
   • Set a higher price (e.g., $8.00)
3. Save this rule

Continue Creating Rules:

Create additional rules for each shipping price tier, working your way up to your most expensive shipping items.

Step 4: Arrange Rules in the Correct Order

The key to making the "choose highest" method work is the rule order:

1. On the shipping rules page, you'll see all your rules with a "Rule Queue" number
2. Ensure your rules are arranged in ascending price order:
   • Lowest shipping price rule should be Rule Queue 1
   • Next higher price should be Rule Queue 2
   • And so on, with your highest shipping price as the last rule

If you need to reorder rules:

1. Click the up/down arrows next to the rule queue number
2. Move rules until they're in the correct ascending price order

How This Works

The Better Shipping app processes rules in sequential order, from Rule Queue 1 to the last rule. When multiple rules match a customer's cart:

1. The app applies Rule 1 first (lowest shipping price)
2. If Rule 2 also matches, it overwrites the previous price with the higher one
3. This continues through all matching rules
4. The last (highest) matching price becomes the final shipping cost

This ensures customers only pay for the most expensive item to ship, regardless of how many items are in their cart.

Advanced "Choose Highest" Configurations

Once you understand the basic setup, you can create more sophisticated "choose highest" shipping strategies:

Using Product Tags for Easier Management

Instead of selecting individual products, consider tagging your products by shipping cost tier:

1. Tag products with shipping-related tags (e.g., "shipping-tier-1", "shipping-tier-2")
2. Create rules based on these tags instead of individual products
3. When adding new products, simply apply the appropriate tag

This approach makes maintenance much easier as your product catalog grows.

Combining with Weight-Based Rules

You can also create a hybrid approach:

1. Set up product-specific rules for special items
2. Add weight-based rules for standard products
3. Ensure the rule queue is properly ordered

Adding Exceptions for Special Products

Some products might need special handling:

1. Create specific rules for these products
2. Place these rules at the appropriate position in your rule queue
3. Use the "Disable shipping rate" effect if certain products shouldn't use this shipping method

Real-World Example: Mixed Product Store

Let's see how a store selling a mix of products might set up their "choose highest" shipping:

Store Products:

• T-shirts (small, lightweight): $5 shipping
• Shoes (medium size): $8 shipping
• Jackets (larger): $10 shipping
• Furniture (oversized): $25 shipping

Rule Setup:

1. Rule 1: T-shirts - Replace shipping with $5
2. Rule 2: Shoes - Replace shipping with $8
3. Rule 3: Jackets - Replace shipping with $10
4. Rule 4: Furniture - Replace shipping with $25

Customer Orders:

• If a customer orders 3 t-shirts: $5 shipping
• If a customer orders 2 t-shirts and 1 pair of shoes: $8 shipping
• If a customer orders t-shirts, shoes, and a jacket: $10 shipping
• If any order includes furniture: $25 shipping

This approach ensures customers only pay the shipping cost of the most expensive-to-ship item in their cart.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Shipping Rates Not Appearing at Checkout

If your "choose highest" shipping rates aren't showing:

• Verify you've selected the correct shipping zone
• Ensure the app is in "Live Mode" (not "Test Mode")
• Check that products in the cart match your rule conditions

Wrong Shipping Price Being Applied

If the wrong price appears:

• Check your rule queue order (lowest to highest)
• Verify all products are assigned to the correct rules
• Test with the "Better Shipping" name trick to see all available rates

Multiple Shipping Rates Appearing

If customers see multiple rates:

• Ensure you're not using multiple shipping profiles in Shopify
• Check that all products are in the General shipping profile
• Verify you don't have conflicting rates with similar names

Best Practices for "Choose Highest" Shipping

1. Keep it simple: Group products into 3-5 shipping price tiers when possible
2. Use descriptive internal names: Make rules easy to identify in your admin
3. Test thoroughly: Try different cart combinations before going live
4. Review regularly: Adjust as your product catalog and shipping costs change
5. Communicate clearly: Let customers know about your shipping policy

Conclusion

The "choose highest" shipping method is a powerful way to offer fair shipping rates while encouraging larger orders. By following the steps in this guide, you can easily implement this strategy in your Shopify store using the Better Shipping app.

This approach strikes the perfect balance between covering your actual shipping costs and providing an incentive for customers to add more items to their cart. The result? Higher average order values, lower cart abandonment, and happier customers.

Ready to implement "choose highest" shipping in your store? Try Better Shipping today with our 14-day free trial and see how it can transform your shipping strategy.

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Looking for more shipping strategies? Check out our guides on per-product shipping, free shipping thresholds, and international shipping.