Shipping profiles let you control how shipping is calculated at checkout—whether everything ships the same way, or different products ship differently.

You can use shipping profiles in two ways:

• Create single profiles to apply a single, storewide set of shipping rates
• Create multiple profiles to group products that ship differently and control how rates combine when customers buy more than one item

This article explains how shipping rates are combined at checkout and what determines whether they bundle into a single option or appear separately, so you can choose the setup that makes the most sense for your shop.

How Shipping Rates Are Combined

When products are assigned to shipping profiles, the way shipping appears at checkout depends on your rate names and delivery info.

• When rate names and delivery info match across profiles, shipping costs are combined into a single option.
• When they don’t match, rates appear as separate shipping options.
• When Items using this profile are shipped and charged separately, rates appear as separate shipments.

To support both single-item and multi-item orders, each shipping rate includes two prices:

• A price when the item ships alone
• A price when the item ships with other items

At checkout, Big Cartel automatically applies the highest “ships alone” price first, then adds the “ships with other items” price for any additional products

How Matching Rate Names Create One Combined Shipping Rate

For example, if a customer buys:

• A print (from your Art Prints profile) with Standard Shipping: $5 alone / $2 with others
• A pin (from your Enamel Pins profile) with Standard Shipping: $3 alone / $1 with others

They'll see one Standard Shipping option at checkout for $6 total ($5 for the print + $1 for the pin shipping with it).

When rate names and delivery info don't match, they appear as separate options.

This keeps things clear for your customers about what shipping service they're choosing. Different rate names mean different shipping options at checkout.

Make sure each product uses the correct shipping profile

To take advantage of your lower bundled shipping rates, make sure each product is assigned to the correct shipping profile.

1. Go to Products in your admin.
2. Select the product you want to update.
3. Scroll down to the Shipping section.
4. Use the Assign a shipping profile dropdown to choose the appropriate profile.

Setting Up Shipping for Multiple Products

Important: Shipping rate names must match exactly across profiles to combine.

For example, items with Standard Shipping can bundle together, but Standard Shipping and Express Shipping will show as separate options at checkout.

To ensure shipping rates work together smoothly:

1. Use consistent rate names and delivery info across your profiles Common names include: Standard, Express, Priority, International Names must match exactly, including capitalization and spacing Example: Standard and standard won't combine because of the capital S
2. Price each profile appropriately Set both the ships alone and ships with other items price for each rate name Remember that the highest "ships alone" price will be used first, then ships with other items prices are added Make sure the combined total covers your actual shipping costs
3. Consider your fulfillment process This works best when all items ship from the same location If different products ship from different places, you might want to use different rate names to keep them separate

Need items to ship separately?

If certain products need to ship on their own, you can create a separate shipping profile for them.

Select Add new shipping profile to create a custom profile for items that shouldn’t bundle with the rest of your products. After naming the profile, enable Items using this profile are shipped and charged separately, then add your shipping rates and assign the profile to the appropriate products.

How To Set up a single shipping profile (storewide shipping)

If you want to set storewide shipping rates for all products in your shop, use your primary shipping profile.

This approach works well when you have a general shipping rate structure that can cover all orders in your store. You can add one or more shipping regions (for example, the United States, Europe, or Worldwide) and offer the same shipping methods across all products.

How it works

With a single shipping profile:

• All products in your shop use the primary shipping profile by default
• You can add multiple regions, each with its own shipping rates
• Customers see one consistent set of shipping options at checkout

Each shipping rate includes two prices:

• Price for first item in order
• Price for additional items

At checkout, shipping is calculated by:

1. Applying the first item price once
2. Adding the additional item price for each extra item in the cart

This allows you to create flexible storewide rates that work for both single-item and multi-item orders.

If your shipping needs change later, you can create additional shipping profiles and assign them to specific products—while keeping your storewide rates in place.

Example Setups

Store-wide shipping rate

Let’s say you use one primary shipping profile that applies to all products in your shop.

Primary Shipping Profile (All Products):

• Standard: $6 first item / $2 additional items
• Express: $15 first item / $5 additional items

Because all products use the same shipping profile, these rates apply storewide.

When someone orders one item, they’ll see:

• Standard: $6
• Express: $15

When someone orders multiple items, shipping is calculated like this:

• The first item price is applied once
• The additional item price is added for each extra item in the cart

For example, if a customer orders three items, they’ll see:

• Standard: $10
• ($6 for the first item + $2 for each of the two additional items)
• Express: $25
• ($15 for the first item + $5 for each of the two additional items)

Because all products use the same shipping profile and rate names, checkout always shows one set of shipping options with a single combined price.

Bundled shipping

Let's say you sell apparel and accessories:

T-Shirts Profile:

• Standard: $6 alone / $3 with others
• Express: $15 alone / $8 with others

Accessories Profile:

• Standard: $4 alone / $2 with others
• Express: $10 alone / $5 with others

Sweatpants Profile:

• Standard: $8 alone / $4 with others
• Priority: $20 alone / $12 with others

When someone orders a t-shirt and an accessory, they'll see:

• Standard: $10 (t-shirt $6 alone + accessories $2 with others)
• Express: $20 (t-shirt $15 alone + accessories $5 with others)

Because the T-Shirts profile and the Accessories profile have the same rate names, their rates get combined at check out.

Bundled shipping that include items that must ship in their own package

When someone orders a t-shirt, accessory, and sweatpants, they’ll see:

Shipping for t-shirt / accessory:

• Standard: $10 (t-shirt $6 alone + accessories $2 with others)
• Express: $20 (t-shirt $15 alone + accessories $5 with others)

Shipping for sweatpants:

• Standard: $8
• Priority: $20

Notice how Priority appears as its own option since sweatpants profile has a rate that the others do not have (e.g. Prirority).

Tips for success

• Test your checkout: Add products from different profiles to your cart and check that shipping options display as you expect
• Keep it simple: Using the same 2-3 rate names across all profiles makes checkout clearer for customers
• Update as you grow: When you add new profiles, make sure the rate names align with your existing setup