Payment & delivery rules

Make pricing conditional — only on orders above a threshold, only when paying on account, only for a particular delivery method.

Rules decide whether pricing applies, based on how the buyer is paying, how they are shipping, and how big the cart is.

They exist in two places:

• Price list settings — the condition applies to all pricing.

• A tag's settings — the condition applies to that tag only.

Set them where the condition actually belongs. A minimum order value that applies to every trade customer belongs on the price list; one that applies only to distributors belongs on the Distributor tag.

What you can match on

Payment method rules

Match against the name of the payment method the buyer selects. Match types:

• None — do not match on payment method

• Equal to

• Contains

• Starts with

• Ends with

Delivery method rules

The same match types, against the delivery method name.

Cart subtotal conditions

• None (always apply)

• ≥ (greater or equal)

• ≤ (less or equal)

• = (equal to)

You can add several rules. Use Add payment method rule and Add delivery method rule to build the list.

Worked examples

Minimum order value for wholesale pricing Cart subtotal ≥ 250. Below that, the buyer pays retail — which is exactly how most trade minimums work in practice.

Account-only pricing Payment method Contains invoice, so your best pricing applies only when the buyer pays on account rather than by card.

Excluding express shipping from a deal Delivery method Starts with Standard, so promotional wholesale pricing does not subsidise an expensive courier.

Getting the matching right

Match values are compared against the method name as Shopify presents it at checkout, which is not always what you expect.

• Prefer Contains. Payment and delivery method names carry rate names, carrier names and prices that vary by market. Contains survives that; Equal to breaks the first time a rate name changes.

• Check the real names. Place a test order and read the exact strings at checkout rather than guessing them.

• Watch multi-currency and multi-market stores. Delivery method names are frequently localised. A rule matching an English name will silently stop applying in another market.

A rule that never matches means pricing never applies, and it fails quietly — the buyer just sees retail prices. If wholesale pricing has stopped working for one segment, check its rules before anything else.

How rules interact

• A rule on the price list gates everything.

• A rule on a tag gates that tag's pricing.

• Both must be satisfied for that tag's pricing to apply.

Because the lowest price wins, a tag whose rules fail simply drops out of consideration. If a customer's only priced tag is gated out, they pay retail.

Testing

Rules are the hardest part of the product to verify by inspection, so test them:

1. Build a cart that should qualify. Confirm the wholesale price at checkout.

2. Build one that should not — one item below the subtotal threshold, or a different delivery method. Confirm retail pricing.

3. Do both as a genuinely tagged customer. An untagged customer proves nothing about rules.