Create A Condition Group

Intuitive Shipping’s rules-based condition system gives you complete control over when and how shipping rates and delivery options appear at checkout. With over 40 condition types, you can customize the shipping experience using details like product tags, customer addresses, or cart value.

What happens when your shipping restrictions are too complex for a single set of conditions? For example, you may want to hide certain shipping methods based on the time of day, with different times for different days. Or, you may want to offer discounted shipping to VIP customers from anywhere and customers who live in a certain area.

Condition groups make this easier. You can bundle multiple conditions into a single group, then apply that group to a Scenario like any other condition. This keeps your setup clean, reduces the number of Scenarios you need, and simplifies maintenance.

 

 

How It Works

In a Scenario, you can control how conditions are checked by choosing a Condition match type. You can set it so that all conditions must be met, any condition can be met, or none of the conditions are met for the Scenario to apply.

When these settings create contradictions or cause conflicts between conditions in the same Scenario, you may need to use a condition group.

For example, let’s say you want to offer next-day shipping on weekdays if the order is placed the day before - as long as it's before 2:00 PM. However, on Thursdays, you want orders be placed before 12:00 PM to qualify for next-day shipping on Friday.

You might try adding these 4 conditions to a single Scenario:

• Current day of the week equals Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.

• Current time of day is less than 14:00 (2:00 PM)

• Current day of the week equals Thursday.

• Current time of day is less than 12:00 (noon).

However, combining all of these conditions won't give you the desired outcome. This is because the Condition match setting evaluates them individually or as a whole, depending on the selected setting. It doesn’t recognize that the second condition only relates to the first, or that the third and fourth conditions belong together.

Using the default Condition match setting - 'all conditions' - will make checkout impossible. A customer wouldn’t be able to check out because they would be required to place their order on either a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday as well as a Thursday - which can't be done without some clever time-travel!

When the Condition match setting is 'any condition', the restrictions still won’t behave as intended. This is because only one of the conditions needs to be satisfied. A customer could place their order on any day of the week - including Friday or Saturday - as long as it’s before noon.

Finally, if you set the Condition match to 'no conditions', the logic flips entirely. Shipping would only appear at checkout if the order was placed on a Friday or Saturday after 2:00 PM - the exact opposite of what you want.

 

To make sure the required conditions work as intended, you would need to create two (2) condition groups:

• One group that checks if the current day is Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and the time is before 2:00 PM.

• A second group that checks if the current day is Thursday and the time is before noon.

Both condition groups could then be added to a 'next day shipping' Scenario - the same way you would add typical, stand-alone conditions - and you would set the Condition match to any condition so that either group will trigger the shipping method properly.

 

Condition Groups With Product Conditions

We generally recommend avoiding the use of product conditions within condition groups. This is because condition groups are processed differently by our product filtering system than stand-alone product conditions.

Filters control which products are included in a shipping method’s rate calculation and are typically set to ‘match product conditions’ in the Scenario. It’s important to understand that a condition group is not considered a product condition - even if it contains product conditions.

If you place a product condition inside a condition group, the Scenario’s default product filtering may not work as expected unless you update how filtering settings are applied. This can lead to rate calculation issues.

There are, of course, exceptions. Condition groups may be necessary when a Scenario needs to include ‘and/or’ logic that involves different types of conditions, including product conditions. In those cases, it makes sense to include product conditions in a group. If you do, you’ll need to make sure product filtering is configured correctly for condition groups - we’ll cover how to do that shortly!

First, let’s look at an example. Let's say you’ve created three product-based Scenarios:

• A Scenario for food items.
• Another for beverages.
• A third for store swag.

In addition, you've set up a blended rate to combine shipping costs when a customer orders products from all three groups in the same order.

Now you want to run a promotion where just the beverages Scenario provides partial free shipping if:

• VIP customers who live anywhere in the state of Texas order $25.00 worth of beverage products.
• Or, any customers who live within the city of Dallas order $75.00 worth of beverage products

The basic logic of this setup looks like this:

• If the customer is a VIP and orders beverage products and the amount of beverages is at least $25.00.
• Or, if the customer is from Dallas and orders beverage products and the amount of beverages is at least $75.00 worth.
• Then customer gets free shipping on beverage portion only.

 

As with the ‘day and time of the week’ example from earlier, you could try adding these conditions to the beverage Scenario individually:

• Customer tag equals VIP

• Product tag equals beverage (Any product)

• Filtered cart total* is greater than or equals $25.00

• City equals Dallas

• Product tag equals beverage (Any product)

• Filtered cart total greater than or equals $75.00

_{*Filtered cart conditions apply only to product conditions or filters within the same Scenario.}

 

Just like in the ‘day of the week’ example, these conditions will lead to conflicts.

When Condition match is set to 'all conditions', a customer will only receive free shipping on beverage products:

• If they are a VIP from Texas.
• And they live in Dallas.
• And they order more than $75.00 worth of beverage products.

When Condition match is set to 'any condition', a customer would qualify for free shipping in any of these situations:

• They're a VIP from anywhere in Texas.
• They're not VIP, but live in Dallas.
• They order $25.00 worth of beverage products - regardless of their customer status of where they live.

Neither of these configurations accomplishes the desired outcome.

 

To ensure the correct outcome for your promotion, you would need to create two condition groups:

• Condition group 1: customer is VIP and has ordered at least $25.00 worth of beverage products.

• Condition group 2: customer lives in Dallas and has ordered at least $75.00 worth of beverage products.

These condition groups could then be added to a ‘free beverage shipping’ Scenario just like stand-alone conditions, with Condition match set to 'any condition'.

Key to these condition groups working as expected, however, is ensuring the product filtering setting in the 'free beverage shipping' Scenario is adjusted. That's because you’re only offering free shipping on the beverage portion of the order, while the rest of the cart - such as food or swag - still qualifies for paid shipping.

By default, product filtering in Scenarios is set to 'Match product conditions'. However, as mentioned earlier, a condition group that contains product conditions is not treated as a product condition itself - meaning it will be ignored by the product filtering system.

In this case, beverage products would not be filtered, and the entire cart would qualify for free shipping if the conditions are met - including food and swag items that should be charged shipping.

To prevent this, you would need to apply product filtering manually by changing the Scenario's Product filters setting to 'Set product filters', then adding a filter that specifically targets beverage products - such as a product tag.

This means the customer will receive free shipping only on the beverage portion of the order - assuming the condition groups are satisfied - while the food or swag items will still be charged for shipping.

 

 

Create A Condition Group

This guide will show you how to set up a basic condition group.

1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Condition groups from the drop-down list.

 

2. Click the Create condition group button.

 

General Settings

1. Enter a condition group title.

 

2. Set the condition group status.

You have three (3) settings to choose from:

• Off - when added to a Scenario, the condition group will be ignored during the Scenario's condition check, even in Sandbox mode.
• Test - when added to a Scenario, the condition group will be included in the Scenario's condition check only when using ‘Intuitive’ on the checkout page (see below).
• On - when added to a Scenario, the condition group will be included in the Scenario’s condition check. This is the default setting.

When using the 'Test' setting:

• For Shopify - enter ‘Intuitive’ as either the customer’s first or last name.
• For BigCommerce or Shopify B2B - enter ‘Intuitive’ in the optional address field for ‘Apartment/ Suite/ Building’.

 

Conditions

1. Select the Condition match setting for the condition group. 

You have three (3) settings to choose from:

• All conditions - all of the conditions within the group must be satisfied for the group to pass the Scenario's condition check. This is the default setting.
• Any condition - at least one (1) condition within the group must be satisfied for the group to pass the Scenario's condition check.
• No conditions - none of the conditions within the group must be satisfied for the group to pass the Scenario's condition check.

 

2. Select a condition type.

 

Condition types are grouped into categories:

Product Conditions

Product conditions control when shipping methods assigned to a Scenario are displayed at checkout based on the products in the cart.

Conditions that look for a numerical value, such as quantity, price and volume, apply to each unique product in the cart. 

• Product tag (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the tag assigned to the product in Shopify. Product tags are managed in your Shopify product settings. 
• Product vendor (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the vendor assigned to the product in Shopify.
• Product title - shipping methods will be displayed based on the title (name) assigned to the product.
• Product SKU - shipping methods will be displayed based on the SKU assigned to the product.
• Product collection (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the collection the product is assigned to in Shopify.
• Product category (BigCommerce only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the category the product is assigned to in BigCommerce. 
• Product type (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the assigned product type Shopify. 
• Product property (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the properties assigned to the product. Third-party apps for Shopify let you assign various properties (or attributes) to products; enter both the property key and property value. 
• Product quantity - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined quantity of each unique product in the cart.
• Product price - shipping methods will be displayed based on the price of each unique product in the cart.
• Product total - shipping methods will be displayed based on the product sub-total for each unique product in the cart.
• Product weight - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined weight of each unique product in the cart.
• Product volume - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined dimensional volume of each unique product in the cart.
• Product length - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined length of each unique product in the cart.
• Product width - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined width of each unique product in the cart.
• Product height - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined height of each unique product in the cart.
• Product packing method - shipping methods will be displayed based on the packing method assigned to the product in Intuitive Shipping.
• Product free shipping - shipping methods will be displayed based on the free shipping eligibility assigned to the products in Intuitive Shipping.
• Product has custom shipping - shipping methods will be displayed based on whether the products have been assigned custom shipping costs in Intuitive Shipping.
• Product has pieces - shipping methods will be displayed based on whether products have additional pieces assigned to them in Intuitive Shipping.

 

Customer Conditions

Customer conditions control when shipping methods assigned to a Scenario are displayed at checkout based on the available customer information.

Customer conditions can use information added by the customer during checkout, such as city and email address, or details assigned to your customer’s profile, such as customer tags if your eCommerce platform supports them.

• Customer tag (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the tag assigned to the customer in Shopify. Custom tags are managed in your Shopify customer profile settings.
• Customer group (BigCommerce only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the customer's assigned group in BigCommerce.
• Postal/ zip code - shipping methods will be displayed based on the postal or ZIP code entered by the customer at checkout.
• Street address - shipping methods will be displayed based on the street address entered by the customer at checkout.
• City - shipping methods will be displayed based on the city name entered by the customer at checkout.
• Post office box - shipping methods will be displayed based on whether the customer has a PO Box in their address.
• Company (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the company name entered by the customer at checkout. 
• Customer name (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the first and last names entered by the customer at checkout. 
• Email (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the email address assigned to the customer in Shopify.
• Previous Order Count (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the customer's total number of previous orders.
• Previous Order Total (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the customer's combined previous order value. 

 

Cart Conditions

Cart conditions control when shipping methods assigned to a Scenario are displayed at checkout based on the combined contents of the cart.

• Cart quantity - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined quantity of all items in the cart.
• Cart total - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined (pre-tax) product sub-total of all items in the cart.
• Cart weight - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined weight of all items in the cart.
• Cart volume - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined dimensional volume of all items in the cart.
• Cart length - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined length of all items in the cart.
• Cart width - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined width of all items in the cart.
• Cart height - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined height of all items in the cart.

 

Filtered Cart Conditions

In Condition groups, filtered cart conditions control when shipping methods in a Scenario are shown at checkout based on the Scenario's product filter settings. They’re useful when you want to calculate shipping rates based on combined values for specific products, no matter what else is in the cart.

For example, to offer free shipping when VIP customers orders at least 5 fragile items, you would add a pair of conditions to the condition group:

• A customer condition where the customer tag equals ‘VIP’.

• A filtered cart condition where the quantity is greater than or equal to '5'.

To ensure only VIP customers ordering at least 5 fragile items get free shipping, you would need to do the following in a Scenario:

• Add your new condition group and set it to equal 'true'.
• Change the Scenario's Product filters setting to 'Set product filters'.
• Add a product filter where the product tag equals 'fragile'

In the example above, free shipping would only be offered if the order is made by a VIP customer and includes at least 5 items tagged ‘fragile’ - even if other products in the cart exceed that quantity.

• Filtered cart quantity - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined quantity of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart total - shipping methods will be displayed based on the sub-total of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart weight - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined weight of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart volume - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined volume of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart length - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined length of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart width - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined width of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.
• Filtered cart height - shipping methods will be displayed based on the combined height of items in the cart that satisfy the product filters in a Scenario.

 

Delivery Conditions

Delivery conditions control when shipping methods assigned to the Scenario are displayed at checkout based on the customer's delivery preference.

Except where noted, delivery conditions are intended for use with third-party delivery app integrations like Store Pickup + Delivery and GiftShip.

• Delivery distance - shipping methods will be displayed based on the distance between your store location and the customer’s address. Delivery distance requires a Google API account, but does not require a third-party integration with Store Pickup + Delivery or Giftship.
• Delivery day of the week (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the delivery day of the week selected by the customer at checkout.
• Delivery date (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the delivery date selected by the customer at checkout. 

• Delivery time (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the delivery time of day selected by the customer at checkout. 

• Delivery type (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the delivery type selected by the customer at checkout, such as ‘shipping’, ‘local delivery’, or ‘store pickup’. 
• Days to Delivery (Shopify only) - shipping methods will be displayed based on the number of days between the delivery date and the order date.

 

Same Day Conditions

Same day conditions control when shipping methods assigned to the Scenario are displayed at checkout based on the current day, date or time at the moment shipping is calculated by Intuitive Shipping.

• Current day of the week - shipping methods will be displayed based on the day of the week at the time of checkout.
• Current date - shipping methods will be displayed based on the date at the time of checkout.
• Current time - shipping methods will be displayed based on the time of day at the moment of checkout.

 

2. Select a condition logic.

You have up to eight (8) settings to choose from. The list of available options depends on the condition type selected in the previous step.

• Equals - the value at checkout must exactly match the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Does not equal - the value at checkout must not match the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Contains - the value at checkout must contain the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Does not contain - the value at checkout must not contain the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Greater than - the value at checkout must be more than the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Greater than or equals - the value at checkout must be more than or the same as the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Less than - the value at checkout must be less than the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Less than or equals - the value at checkout must be less than or the same as the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Starts with - The value at checkout must begin with the condition value you enter in the next step.
• Ends with - The value at checkout must end with the condition value you enter in the next step.

 

3. Enter the condition value. Certain condition types require manual enter, such as text or number values like ‘fragile’ or ’12’. Other condition types require you to select one or more applicable options from a list, such as 'Current day of the week'.

When adding product conditions to the condition group, an additional setting field is displayed below the value field. This additional field will only be displayed for product conditions. 

If you don't have any product conditions, skip ahead to learn how to remove conditions from the condition group.

For product condition types:

4. Select the appropriate product setting.

You have three (3) settings to choose from:

• Any product - at least one product in the cart must satisfy the product condition within the group. This is the default setting.
• All products - all products in the cart must satisfy the product condition within the group.
• No products - none of the products in the cart must satisfy the product condition within the group.

 

Conditions can be removed by clicking Remove condition above the condition’s Value field.

 

To add more conditions to the condition group:

5. Click the Add another condition button, then repeat the previous steps for each additional condition.

 

Save Your Settings

1. Click the Save button to save your condition group.

 

 

Create Additional Condition Groups

You can create as many condition groups as needed and assign them to any Scenario - including the same Scenario, as long as they don’t conflict.

If desired, you can create another new condition group from scratch using the steps above if there are few - if any - similarities to the groups you've already created.

However, to save time, you can create a duplicate an existing condition group. This is recommended if the new condition group has some similaties with the original.

To create a duplicate Condition group:

1. Click Shipping on the sidebar menu, then select Condition groups from the drop-down list.

 

2. Click Edit beside the condition group you wish to duplicate.

 

3. Click the Duplicate button at the top of the page. This will return you to the condition groups list page.

 

4. Change the Condition group title from 'Copy of [original title]' to something different.

 

5. Edit the original condition group's settings as needed.

 

 

Add Condition Groups To A Scenario

For Condition groups to work, they must be added to Scenarios - the same way you add stand-alone conditions.

 

When creating or editing a Scenario:

1. Select Set restrictions in the 'Conditions' section.

 

2. Select the Condition group by clicking on the 'Condition type' field, scrolling to the bottom of the conditions list, then selecting the group you want added to the Scenario.

 

3. Repeat Step 2 to add more condition groups to the same Scenario if needed.

 

Adjusting The Condition Match Setting In Scenarios

When adding multiple condition groups to a single Scenario, make sure to set the Condition match setting to align with the outcome you want to achieve. Just like with multiple stand-alone conditions, multiple condition groups must meet the match criteria based on how it’s configured.

Let’s say you want to offer free shipping to customers who order a certain number of fragile items under one of two conditions:

• VIP customers from any location who order 5 or more

• Local customers within 50 km who order 10 or more

 

To set this up, you’ve created two unique condition groups - each with a set of 2 conditions:

Local Delivery Fragile Products +10

• A delivery distance condition: distance from your store is less than or equal to 50 km

• A filtered cart condition: quantity is greater than or equal to 10

VIP Fragile Products +5

• A customer condition: customer tag equals ‘VIP’

• A filtered cart condition: quantity is greater than or equal to 5

To make sure the quantity conditions in both groups only apply to fragile items, you’ve manually set a product filter in the Scenario:

• Product tag equals ‘fragile’

 

When you added both condition groups to the Scenario and set their value to 'true', the Condition match setting defaulted to 'All conditions'. This might not produce the result you want.

 

With the current setup, both condition groups would need to be satisfied at checkout. That means the customer would have to:

• Live within 50 km of your store,

• Be a VIP, and

• Order at least 10 fragile items

What you actually wanted is an either/or outcome where only one condition group needs to be satisfied. To do that, you would set the Condition match setting to 'Any condition'.

Now, a customer will qualify for free shipping if they either:

• Live within 50 km and order at least 10 fragile items, or

• Are a VIP and order at least 5 fragile items.

 

 

What's Next:

• Test your setup

 

Optional:

• Create a blended rate
• Add a location 
• Update product settings
• Update general settings

Can we lend a hand? Let us help you get up and running faster and with greater confidence. Book a complimentary Onboarding session!