Enhancing Shipping Precision with Custom Shipping Groups in Adobe Commerce/ Magento

Three things matter the most when it comes to eCommerce shipping: speed, accuracy, and flexibility. Customers expect their orders to be delivered asap and transparent & fair shipping costs, while businesses need a system that adapts to their operational complexities.

Unfortunately, out-of-the-box shipping extensions/ solutions often fall short, especially when businesses require advanced shipping calculations based on unique parameters like product type, quantity, and fulfillment location.

This was precisely the challenge faced by one of our clients.

The Challenge: No Support for Shipping Groups in Magento/Adobe Commerce

Our client, custom printed books on order and required a dynamic shipping solution that would help them calculate shipping rates based on the product, order quantity, and the fulfillment locations.

• Allow product-specific shipping charges.
• Charge customers based on the warehouse where the product will be printed and shipped from.
• Apply shipping costs dynamically for multi-location fulfillment (i.e., if an order had multiple items fulfilled from different locations, shipping charges from each location needed to be considered).

Why Standard Shipping Extensions/ Solutions Fall Short

Standard shipping calculations usually rely on factors like weight, dimensions, and distance, but our client’s criteria were different. They needed a tailored solution that no off-the-shelf module could provide.

After careful deliberation, i95Dev arrived at a solution for this. The client’s challenge could be addressed by creating shipping groups, associating shipping charges criteria with each group, and mapping each product to a shipping group.

Magento and Adobe Commerce offer powerful eCommerce features. However, Magento/Adobe Commerce does not natively support the creation of shipping groups or dynamic shipping rules at this level.

This limitation prevents businesses, like our client, from setting product-specific shipping charges, leading to inaccurate costs and lost revenue.

The Solution: The Power of Custom Shipping Groups in Adobe Commerce/ Magento

To overcome this challenge, we developed a custom shipping extension that allows businesses to define and manage shipping rules based on multiple criteria. This extension provided:

• The client could create shipping groups and predefine charges based on product types/ categories, fulfillment locations, or any custom-defined parameters.
• Extend the product/ item module in Adobe Commerce/ Magento to associate shipping groups with each product/ item.
• Extend the order and cart module to leverage rules define in shipping group to dynamically calculate the shipping costs at the cart level.
• If an order was split across multiple warehouses, the system calculated and applied shipping charges accordingly.

This ensured that

• The client could define different shipping rates based on custom conditions that standard solutions did not support.
• This provided greater control over pricing, reducing unnecessary costs and improving customer satisfaction.

Real-World Benefits: Precision, Fairness, and Efficiency

By implementing this solution our client was able to achieve the following benefits:

• Reduce Cart Abandonment/ Improve Conversions – Offer more transparent shipping charges, reducing cart abandonment caused by unexpected costs.
• More Accurate Shipping Costs – Ensure shipping costs aligned with their operational needs rather than forcing a compromise with standard solutions.
• Minimize Losses – Prevents revenue loss from flat-rate shipping.
• Multi-Warehouse Support – The ability to apply multiple shipping charges when items were shipped from different locations.
• Custom Rules Beyond Standard Criteria – Unlike traditional weight- or distance-based pricing, this method enables shipping calculations tailored to specific business needs.

Other Common Use Cases & Industry Applications

We realized that this problem is not limited to our client or the client’s specific industry. There are several use cases where businesses, across industries, can benefit from a dynamic shipping solution – adjust rates based on factors like product type, quantity, and shipping location. For example, a solution like this could be beneficial for:

• Retail businesses managing diverse product categories with unique shipping rules.
• Manufacturing businesses that handle bulk order discounts and tiered shipping pricing.
• Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals businesses that ship medical supplies that require special handling.
• Automotive businesses managing region-specific logistics costs for heavy parts and equipment.
• Drop Shipping businesses – for businesses drop shipping orders from multiple vendors.
• And more.

Future Enhancements & Scalability

As businesses grow, so do their shipping complexities. Future improvements to this extension could include:

• Real-Time Shipping Rate Integration – Connecting with logistics providers for accurate pricing.
• User-Friendly Rule Management UI – Simplifying the configuration of shipping rules.
• Broader Market Applications – Expanding this feature into a fully managed shipping solution.

Final Thoughts

Many eCommerce businesses assume they have to work around platform limitations, but that’s not always the case. Custom development can bridge the gap.

As we have seen, a custom shipping extension for Adobe Commerce/ Magento bridges the gap between rigid standard solutions and the need for business-specific flexibility. Whether you need to charge per product, location, or quantity, this approach ensures accurate costs and improved operational efficiency.

Need a tailored shipping solution for your Adobe Commerce, Magento, Shopify, or BigCommerce store? Contact us to explore how we can help!