Fee Rules

Product-Specific Rules

Apply fees only when certain products are in cart.

How It Works

Instead of charging every order, you can:

  • Apply fees to specific products only
  • Set different fees per product
  • Exclude products from fees

Setup

  1. Go to Settings → Rules
  2. Create a rule with your fee type/amount
  3. Go to Settings → Products
  4. Click Bind Product (or Bind your first product if nothing is bound yet)
  5. Select products this rule applies to
  6. Save

Example: Fragile Items

Scenario: Glassware needs special packaging.

  1. Create rule "Fragile Handling" with a fixed $3.00 fee
  2. Bind to: All glassware products (use bulk binding to do them in one go)
  3. Widget text: "Add protective packaging"

Fee only appears when glassware is in cart.

Example: Variable Gift Wrap

Scenario: Different products have different wrap costs.

A binding only picks a rule. It doesn't carry its own amount. So different amounts need separate rules:

  1. Create three rules: "Gift Wrap Small" ($2.99), "Gift Wrap Medium" ($4.99) and "Gift Wrap Large" ($7.99)

  2. Bind each group of products to its own rule:

    • Small items: "Gift Wrap Small"
    • Medium items: "Gift Wrap Medium"
    • Large items: "Gift Wrap Large"

If the cost depends on price instead, one rule in Price ranges mode can do it without any binding per size.

Narrowing a default rule

A rule marked Set as default rule can't be bound, but you can narrow it. In the rule form, tick Use product exclusion to skip chosen products, or leave it unticked and pick Included Products so the rule only applies to those.

When a rule has an include or exclude list, a Charge only the selected sizes checkbox appears. When you pick a product you can also choose which sizes (variants) to include. Tick the box to apply the rule only to the sizes you picked. Leave it unticked and the rule applies to every size of a picked product.

Unsaved changes

On the Rules and Products pages, Shopify's Save and Discard bar appears at the top when you have unsaved changes. If you try to leave with unsaved changes, you'll be asked to confirm. Errors show as a red message at the top of the form and stay until you close them.

Tips

  • Use product rules to keep fees contextual
  • Customers respond better to relevant fees
  • Test with various cart combinations

Going deeper

For the full binding workflow with screenshots (including why a rule marked Set as default rule cannot be bound to products), see Product-Specific Fees.