How Redirect Priority Works

When a customer completes an order, ThankRedirect checks all your redirect rules and decides which one to use. Understanding the priority order helps you design your redirect rules correctly and predict exactly where each customer will land.

The Priority Order

ThankRedirect checks rules from most-specific to least-specific. The first rule that matches the order is used, and all remaining rules are ignored.

1. Product Variation Redirect (Pro only): Does the order contain a specific product variation?
2. Product Type Redirect (Pro only): Does the order contain a specific product type (simple, variable, digital, grouped)?
3. Product Tag Redirect (Pro only): Does the order contain a product with a specific tag?
4. Product Brand Redirect (Pro only): Does the order contain a product from a specific brand?
5. Payment Method Redirect (Pro only): Was a specific payment method used?
6. User Role Redirect (Pro only): Does the customer have a specific user role?
7. Product Redirect: Does the order contain a specific product?
8. Category Redirect: Does the order contain a product in a specific category?
9. Global Redirect: Catches everything that didn’t match above

How to Think About It

The priority order goes from most specific → least specific. The more granular the rule, the earlier it’s checked.

Think of it like a series of filters:

• Is this a specific variation? → check first
• Is this a specific product type? → check second
• …and so on down the list…
• Does nothing match? → use the global redirect as a fallback

Practical Example

Say a customer buys a product called “Blue Running Shoes (Size 10)” which is a variation of “Running Shoes”, tagged “sale”, in the “Footwear” category.

ThankRedirect checks:

1. Is there a rule for the variation “Blue Running Shoes (Size 10)”? → Yes → use that rule, stop checking

If no variation rule exists:

2. Is there a product type rule that applies? → check…
3. Is there a tag rule for “sale”? → check…
4. Is there a brand rule? → check…
5. Is there a payment method rule? → check…
6. Is there a user role rule? → check…
7. Is there a product rule for “Running Shoes”? → check…
8. Is there a category rule for “Footwear”? → check…
9. Use global redirect

Orders with Multiple Products

When an order contains more than one product, ThankRedirect checks the rules against all products in the order. The first match found across all products wins.

For example, if an order contains “T-Shirt” (no specific rule) and “Premium Course” (has a product redirect rule), the product redirect for “Premium Course” will fire, even though T-Shirt has no rule.

Tips for Designing Your Rules

• Start with the global redirect: always set this first as your fallback
• Use category rules for broad defaults: great for large catalogues
• Use product rules for exceptions: when one product needs a different destination than its category
• Use Pro rules for precision: when you need to differentiate by variation, payment method, or customer type

Pro tip: If a redirect isn’t firing the way you expect, work through the priority list from top to bottom and check if any higher-priority rule might be matching your test order unexpectedly.