Solo-Order Products: Require a Product to Be Purchased Alone

Solo-order products are items that must be purchased alone—with nothing else in the cart. Use the Mixed Cart Rule feature in DC Order Limits to enforce this restriction.

When to use this

Common reasons to require a product to be purchased alone:

• Bulky or oversized items — Large furniture, equipment, or freight items that require special shipping
• Restricted products — Items with legal or compliance requirements that can't be combined with other orders
• Custom or made-to-order items — Products with unique fulfillment needs
• Subscription products — Items that should be purchased separately from one-time products

How it works

You'll create a Mixed Cart Rule that blocks checkout when a customer tries to add any other product alongside your solo-order product. When a customer has your solo-order product in their cart and tries to add something else (or vice versa), they'll see a message explaining why these items can't be purchased together.

Setting up a solo-order product

To require a product to be purchased alone:

1. Go to DC Order Limits in your Shopify admin
2. Click Create rule and select Mixed Cart Limits
3. Enter a Title for the rule (e.g., "Solo-order: Heavy Equipment")
4. Under Trigger Options, select Selected products and choose your solo-order product
5. Under Target Options, select All products
6. Under Restrictions, select Block target products
7. Save the rule

Once saved, customers will be blocked from adding any other product to their cart when the solo-order product is present—and vice versa.

Customizing the customer message (optional)

After creating the rule, you can customize the message customers see when the rule blocks the cart. This is managed through your theme's Edit locales settings.

For full steps, see Customizing and Translating Error Messages in DC Order Limits.

Example message:

"{trigger_title} must be purchased separately. Please remove other items before adding {target_title}."

Testing your rule

Visit your storefront and verify the rule works correctly:

• Add the solo-order product to the cart
• Try adding another product — you should see the block message
• Also, test the reverse: add a different product first, then try adding the solo-order product

Tips

• Multiple solo-order products? Create a separate Mixed Cart Rule for each one, or tag them all with "solo-order" and use the tag-based trigger.
• Variant-specific? You can select specific variants instead of the entire product if only certain options need to be purchased alone.
• Clear messaging: Help customers understand what to do next—suggest completing the solo order first, then coming back for other items.

Related articles

• Setting up mixed cart limits in Shopify with DC Order Limits — Full guide to all mixed cart rule options.
• Customizing and Translating Error Messages in DC Order Limits — Customize or translate the messages customers see.
• Setting up order limits and cart limits in Shopify — Control quantity and price limits per order.