How to set shipping rates by weight on Shopify: tiers, per-kg and volumetric

If your products vary a lot in weight, a single flat rate means you overcharge for light orders and lose money on heavy ones. Weight-based shipping fixes that by matching the rate to what the parcel actually costs to send.

Three ways to price by weight

1. Weight tiers

Fixed prices for weight ranges:

Order weight	Rate
0–1 kg	$5
1–5 kg	$9
5–10 kg	$15
10 kg+	$25

Easy for shoppers to understand and easy to set up.

2. Per kilogram (incremental)

A base rate plus a charge for each extra unit of weight — for example, $5 for the first kg and $1.50 for each kg after. This tracks real costs more closely for heavy or variable orders.

3. Dimensional (volumetric) weight

Carriers often charge for space as well as weight. A large box of pillows is light but takes up room in the truck, so carriers bill the higher of the actual weight and the volumetric weight — usually length × width × height divided by a divisor the carrier sets. If you sell bulky items, pricing by actual weight alone will undercharge.

Weight-based shipping in Shopify’s settings

In Settings → Shipping and delivery, open a shipping profile, add a rate to a zone and add conditions based on order weight. Repeat for each tier.

That works for tiers. It doesn’t do per-kg pricing, incremental rates or volumetric weight, and every tier has to be repeated in every zone.

Weight-based rates with ShipEase

ShipEase handles all three:

• Weight tiers and total-weight rates — on every plan, including Free.
• Per-unit and incremental rates — on Pro.
• Dimensional and volumetric weight — on Pro, with a product size CSV to load dimensions for your catalog in one go.
• Box sizes and packaging weight, and splitting heavy orders into packages — on the Carrier plan, together with live carrier rates.

You can combine weight with other conditions, such as zone or product — for example, a different per-kg rate for remote zip codes. Test each rule on your real checkout before shoppers see it.

Get your product weights right

Weight-based rates are only as good as the weights in Shopify.

1. Export your products and look for empty or zero weights.
2. Weigh the packed product, not just the item — packaging adds up.
3. Add packaging weight for the box itself if you use standard boxes (ShipEase’s Carrier plan can add this for you).
4. Recheck after adding products — new listings are where missing weights creep in.

Choosing your tiers

• Match carrier price breaks. If your carrier’s price jumps at 2 kg, put a tier boundary there.
• Round to friendly numbers. $9 is easier to accept than $8.73.
• Keep a free shipping threshold for orders over a certain value, so heavy-but-valuable orders still feel rewarded.

For the other ways to price shipping, see the complete guide to custom shipping rates.