What this means
A shipping profile is one folder of shipping rules for a set of physical products. Inside it, you choose the fulfilment locations, customer destinations, and prices that apply to those products.
What you need to know
Every store has a General profile. It automatically contains new physical products and every physical product not assigned to a custom profile. General cannot be renamed or deleted.
Create a custom profile only when some products need different rules. Good examples are jewellery that needs insured shipping, furniture that costs more by weight, or fragile products sent only from one warehouse.
A physical product belongs to one shipping profile at a time. Adding it to a custom profile moves it from its old profile. Removing it from a custom profile sends it back to General. Digital products and services cannot be assigned because they do not use physical shipping.
The structure is:
- Profile: which physical products follow the rules.
- Location group: which fulfilment locations share one set of rules.
- Shipping zone: where customers may receive shipments from those locations.
- Shipping rate: the names, prices, and delivery times customers may choose at checkout.
If a profile has no usable rate for a customer's order and destination, the customer has no shipping rate from that profile to choose.
Simple example
Keep ordinary products in General with standard India shipping. Create a Heavy furniture profile, assign only furniture to it, and add weight-based rates from the warehouse that can pack those items.
Deleting a custom profile also deletes its rules and moves its physical products back to General. Review General afterwards so those products do not accidentally use the wrong price.