Common Issues

Rates not showing at checkout

Symptoms: Customers don’t see any ShipRules AI shipping options at checkout, or see only Shopify’s default rates.

Check these in order:

1. Is the Carrier Service registered? Go to Settings in ShipRules AI and check the Carrier Service status. It should show “Active”. If it shows “Not registered”, click “Register” to set it up.

2. Do you have enabled methods? Check that you have at least one shipping method that’s both enabled and assigned to a zone that includes the customer’s destination country.

3. Are all methods hidden by rules? A Hide rule that’s too broad (e.g., hiding all methods for a destination) can accidentally remove all options. Check your rules in the dashboard.

4. Does the zone match? The customer’s destination country must be in one of your zones. If they’re shipping to a country not in any zone, no ShipRules AI rates are returned.

5. Check the Test Rates panel. Simulate the exact checkout scenario (same destination, same items). The rule traces will show you exactly what happened.

Note

If ShipRules AI returns no rates for a checkout, Shopify falls back to your default shipping rates (if configured). Customers won’t see a blank checkout — they’ll see Shopify’s built-in rates instead.

Rules not firing

Symptoms: A rule exists but doesn’t seem to have any effect at checkout.

Check these:

1. Are the condition values correct?

   • Prices are in cents: $100 = 10000, not 100
   • Weights are in grams: 1kg = 1000, not 1
   • Country codes are ISO format: US, not United States
   • State codes match Shopify’s format: AK, CA, NY (not full names)

2. Is the scope correct? If you’re checking product tags with “All products in order” scope, every item must have the tag. Switch to “Any product in order” if you want the rule to fire when at least one item matches.

3. Is the operator right? “Greater than 100” does not include 100. Use “Greater or equal” if you want to include the threshold value.

4. Are conditions AND’d? All conditions in a single rule must be true for it to fire. If you want OR logic, use comma-separated values in a single condition, or create separate rules.

5. Check rule priority. Rules are evaluated in position order. A Hide rule with a lower position fires before a Free rule with a higher position. Since Hide always wins, the Free rule never takes effect.

6. Use the Test Rates panel. The rule traces show exactly which conditions matched and which didn’t.

Changes aren’t showing at checkout

Symptoms: You made a change in ShipRules AI but the checkout still shows old rates.

Two things to check:

Shopify’s rate cache (the most common cause)

Shopify caches carrier service rates for a short period. After making changes, test using the Test Rates panel in ShipRules AI (which always evaluates in real time, bypassing Shopify’s cache).

For real checkout testing:

• Use a different browser or incognito window
• Change the cart slightly (add or remove an item) to bust the cache
• Wait a few minutes for the cache to expire

Caution

Shopify’s rate cache duration varies and is not publicly documented. Changes typically show within a few minutes, but in some cases can take up to 24 hours. Always use the Test Rates panel for immediate verification.

Shadow mode

If you’re in shadow mode, changes are staged — they don’t affect real checkout rates until you promote them. Check if you’re currently in staging mode and promote your changes if ready.

Wrong rates at checkout

Symptoms: The rate amount is different from what you expected.

1. Check adjustment stacking. If multiple adjustment rules match, their amounts add up. A +$5 surcharge rule and a +$3 surcharge rule on the same method results in +$8.

2. Check the free shipping threshold. If the method has a free shipping threshold and the cart exceeds it, the rate becomes $0 regardless of surcharge rules.

3. Check blended rate calculations. If the customer has products from multiple groups, the rate they see might be a blended rate (sum of individual group rates), not a single method’s rate.

4. Simulate the exact scenario. Use Test Rates with the same items, quantities, and destination to see the detailed calculation.

Import from ASR didn’t work as expected

1. Check the import preview before running the import. It lists warnings and skipped rules.
2. Unmatched variants — if ASR referenced product variants that no longer exist in your store, those assignments are skipped. The preview shows how many were unmatched.
3. Skipped rules — some ASR condition types may not have direct equivalents in ShipRules AI. Create those rules manually.
4. Roll back if the import result is wrong. Go to Version History and roll back to the version before the import.

AI prompt confidence is low

If the AI prompt box shows confidence below 50%:

1. Read the clarification note. It usually explains what was ambiguous.
2. Use specific names. “Standard Shipping in the US zone” is better than “the shipping method”.
3. Split complex prompts. Instead of one long prompt, try two simpler ones.
4. Check for name conflicts. If you have methods with similar names in different zones, specify the zone.

App is slow

1. Check your version history size. A very large number of versions (thousands) can slow down the Version History panel. This doesn’t affect checkout performance.
2. Check rule count. Hundreds of rules per method can slow checkout evaluation. Consider simplifying rules or using fewer, broader conditions.
3. Checkout performance is separate from dashboard performance. If checkout rates are fast but the dashboard is slow, the issue is browser-side.