Shipping zones and rate tables

Updated Oct 17, 2026 Shipping & Tax

TitanCart charges for shipping through shipping methods. Each method is one choice the shopper sees at checkout — “Standard delivery”, “UPS Ground” — and inside each method you define the rate areas it serves (the countries, states or postcodes) and the rates it charges there: a flat amount, or a table that depends on weight, order value or item count. This article covers the method editor, rate areas and tables, free shipping, live carrier rates, and the product fields that feed them. Everything lives under TitanCart → Settings → Shipping Methods.

Lite and Pro: manual, table-rate and free shipping methods are in both editions. Live USPS, UPS and FedEx rates are a TitanCart Pro feature.

1. Create a shipping method

Click New Shipping Method. The General tab has:

Rate calculation — the method’s type: Manual — By customer’s address (a fixed price per rate area), Free shipping, Table rate — By weight/price/items, or one of the live carriers, USPS, UPS and FedEx (Pro).
Name and Delivery time (for example “3–5 days”) — both shown to the shopper — plus an optional description.
Status and Position — disabled methods never appear; position orders the list in the admin.
Weight limit — optional minimum and maximum cart weight, in pounds. Outside the window the method is hidden, which is how you build “under 5 lb only” or “freight over 50 lb” methods.
A tax class — if shipping is taxable in your jurisdiction, pick the tax rule to apply to this method’s cost (see Tax rules).

2. Rate areas — where the method applies

On the Shipping Time & Rates tab, click New Rate Area, give it a name shoppers never see (“USA”, “Canada”, “Europe”) and add locations at any of three levels: a Country code (US), a State / Province within a country (PA), or a Zip / Postal Code — exact (18465), a prefix with a star (184*), or a range written 18000...18999. A rate area with no locations at all is Worldwide and matches every address.

When a shopper’s address matches more than one of a method’s rate areas, the most specific one wins: a postcode match beats a state match, which beats a country match, which beats Worldwide. So “USA” at country level plus “Alaska and Hawaii” at state level gives you a mainland price and an island price without overlap.

3. Rates — what the method charges there

Each rate area carries its own rates. For a Manual method that is one price. For a Table rate method you pick what the table depends on — Weight condition (pounds), Price condition (the order subtotal) or Items condition (the number of items) — and add one band per range: From and To, with the last band set to “and up” so nothing falls through. Each band’s price can be a fixed amount or, under Surcharge / Discount, a percentage of the subtotal.

Weight condition
0 – 2 lb        $5.99
2 – 10 lb       $9.99
10 lb and up    $14.99

Two rules to know: if a cart falls outside every band (say it weighs 12 lb and your last band stops at 10), the method is simply not offered — always end with an “and up” band. And if you add more than one rate to the same rate area, they are added together: a base rate plus a weight surcharge is a legitimate way to build “$5 plus $2 per band”.

4. Free shipping

A method whose rate calculation is Free shipping is offered at $0 wherever it is active — it has no rate areas and no conditions, and only the method’s Weight limit narrows it. For free shipping with a condition, use one of these instead:

Free above an order value — a Manual method with a Price condition table: $7.99 from 0 to 49.99, then $0 from 50 and up.
Free in one region only — a Manual method with a $0 rate in that rate area.
Free with a coupon — a promotion with the free-shipping bonus (Pro; see Promotions & coupons). The promotion zeroes the shipping line on whichever method the shopper picks.

5. Live carrier rates (Pro)

A method set to USPS, UPS or FedEx asks the carrier for a quote at checkout, from the package weight and dimensions to the shopper’s address. On the Additional Settings tab, click Configure and enter the carrier’s API credentials (client ID and secret, and the account or shipper number), then under Package Settings set the shipper name, the package and pickup type, the default box dimensions in inches, and for UPS whether to use negotiated rates. Tick the Shipping services you want to offer — USPS Ground Advantage, UPS Ground, FedEx 2Day and so on — each becomes its own line at checkout. Use Test Rate Calculation with a test address to confirm the credentials before you rely on them; Test mode points the method at the carrier’s sandbox.

The origin of every quote is the address under Settings → General Settings → Company, so fill that in first. Quotes are cached for 15 minutes per package and destination, so repeated checkout loads do not hammer the carrier.

6. What the shopper sees

At checkout, once the shipping address is known, TitanCart gathers every active method whose rate area matches, drops any whose weight window or rate bands the cart falls outside, adds live carrier quotes and any free-shipping method, and lists them cheapest first. If the Checkout setting Estimate shipping cost on cart page is on, the same list appears on the cart page too. If nothing matches, the shopper sees “No shipping methods available for this address.” and cannot place the order — §8 covers that.

7. Product fields that shipping reads

On the product editor’s Shipping tab:

Weight — used by Weight condition tables, weight limits and carrier quotes. Enter it in the unit shown; TitanCart converts to pounds internally.
Box dimensions — length, width and height, used by carrier quotes.
Requires shipping — untick it for services and virtual goods. When no item in the cart requires shipping, checkout skips the shipping step and charges nothing. Digital downloads already skip it.
Free shipping — marks the product for the storefront’s Free shipping product filter. In this release it does not change what is charged at checkout; use a free-shipping method or a promotion for that.
Per-item surcharge — stored on the product but not read by the shipping calculation in this release. Put oversized-item surcharges in a weight-based table instead.

Gift cards: if you sell physical gift cards that are mailed, the Physical card shipping charge under the Gift Cards extension settings is added once to every shipping method on orders that contain one. See Gift cards.

8. Troubleshooting

“No shipping methods available for this address.” No active method has a rate area matching the address, or the cart falls outside every method’s weight window or rate bands. The safety net: one Manual method with a Worldwide rate area and an “and up” band, so something always matches.
A method shows the wrong price in one region. Two rate areas overlap at the same level (two country-level areas both containing CA, say). Remove the duplicate; only same-level ties are ambiguous, since a more specific area always wins.
A method’s price doubled. Two rates in the same rate area — they are summed. Keep one unless you mean it.
Free shipping shows everywhere. By design: a Free shipping method is not limited by rate areas. Use a $0 Manual rate for a regional free option.
Live rates return nothing. Run Test Rate Calculation: it shows the carrier’s own error. Usual causes are credentials, a product with no weight or dimensions, or an incomplete Company address.