How to block hazmat products shipping to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico on Shopify

Short answer: Stop orders containing hazardous-materials products (aerosols, batteries, flammables) from shipping to regions that require air freight. In Checkpost, choose “No hazmat items to non-contiguous regions” from Templates, adjust the values, test it, then save and enable the rule.

The problem

Aerosols, lithium batteries, perfumes and flammables often have to travel by ground. Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and US territories need air transport, so carriers reject these parcels or return them.

How to set it up

1. Install Checkpost from the Shopify App Store.
2. Open Templates and choose No hazmat items to non-contiguous regions.
3. Tag hazmat products and adjust the region list.
4. Use Try this rule to test a sample cart, then click Save rule.

The rule

Checkout is blocked when all of these conditions are true:

• Cart contains products tagged hazmat
• State / province is any of AK, HI, PR, GU, VI

Shoppers see: “Some items can only ship by ground and can't be delivered to this address.” at the state / province field, once they reach checkout.

{
  "name": "Hazmat: ground-only regions",
  "match": "all",
  "conditions": [
    {
      "kind": "cart_contains",
      "filter": {
        "productTags": [
          "hazmat"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "kind": "text",
      "field": "ship_province",
      "op": "equals_any",
      "values": [
        "AK",
        "HI",
        "PR",
        "GU",
        "VI"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "message": "Some items can only ship by ground and can't be delivered to this address.",
  "target": "provinceCode",
  "runOn": "checkout"
}

Where this rule works

These are cart and checkout validations, including supported accelerated checkouts. They are current-cart policies; they do not track previous purchases of a SKU. Shopify excludes POS, recurring subscription orders and native pre-order/Try Before You Buy flows from this API. See Shopify's validation compatibility.

Tips

• Tag hazmat products (e.g. hazmat or ormd) and keep the tag in your product import templates.
• Include AK, HI, PR, GU, VI and the APO/FPO state codes (AA, AE, AP) if they apply to you.
• Name the restricted items in the message so shoppers know what to remove.

FAQ

What if I ship hazmat by air with a specialist carrier?

Add a Delivery method name condition so the rule only fires for standard methods.

Does it check the billing address?

No. Hazmat rules check the shipping address, because that's where the parcel goes.

Related rules

Add no hazmat items to non-contiguous regions to your store