Setting up shipping rates

You can set up free, flat, or calculated shipping rates that are displayed in the checkout for your customers. Learn more about the different types of shipping rates.

Before you create any shipping rates, make sure to get familiar with shipping zones and shipping profiles. Shipping zones are a group of countries or regions that you create for your shipping rates and shipping profiles let you set up shipping rates for specific products and locations.

Note: To sell to a country or region, it needs to be included in an active market. For example, if a country is in an inactive market in your Market settings, then customers from that country can’t place an order even if the country is in a shipping zone with available shipping rates. Learn more about shipping zones and markets.

Create flat shipping rates

Flat shipping rates charge a specific amount for shipping at checkout. You can create flat shipping rates for any order within a shipping zone, or only for orders whose weight or price is within a certain range. For example, in a shipping zone for Europe, you could set a flat rate of $10, and another flat rate of $5 for orders that are over $50.

When combining price-based shipping rates, Shopify combines rates that apply to the total price of the cart. When combining weight-based shipping rates, Shopify combines rates that apply to the weights of the individual products, with your store default package weight added to each product. Learn more about combined shipping rates.

For example, suppose that you have a shipping rate called Discounted shipping for $5 in two different profiles. This rate is available on orders over $50. If an order contains a combination of products from both profiles and has a total of $55, then the checkout displays the Discounted shipping rate at a cost of $10.

Instead, suppose that you have a shipping rate called Discounted shipping in two different profiles that gives cheaper shipping on orders over 5 kg. To receive this rate, customers would need to order 5 kg of products from the first shipping profile and 5 kg of products from the second shipping profile to qualify for the Discounted shipping rate.

When you create shipping rates, a preview is provided so that you know exactly what is displayed to your customers at checkout.

Caution: If you set up price or weight based shipping rates, then you need to define your weight or order value conditions accurately. Learn more about price and weight based rates.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to add shipping rates to.
3. Next to the zone that you want to add a rate to, click Add rate.
4. Select a transit time, or select a custom flat rate to name the rate.
5. Optional: If a custom flat rate is selected, then enter a delivery description such as Tracked shipping or Ships next day. For optimal display, use 25 characters or fewer for your delivery description.
6. Enter the shipping rate.
7. Optional: Add weight-based or price-based conditions.
8. Review the checkout preview to ensure that your shipping rate is displayed as expected.
9. Click Done, and then click Save.

You can also set up price-based or weight-based conditions for your shipping rates.

Create shipping rates in local currencies

Note: Only stores using Shopify Payments can use this feature. Refer to the list of supported countries to find out if Shopify Payments is available to you.

You can create flat shipping rates in local currencies for customers from different markets. An example could be offering a $10 USD flat rate shipping for customers in the United States, but offering €15 EUR flat rate shipping for customers in Europe.

To offer flat rate shipping in local currencies, all countries within a shipping zone need to share the same currency, and local currencies need to be activated for their market. For example, if you have a Europe market that contains France, Germany, and Sweden, then you should have one shipping zone that contains France and Germany (where the currency is the euro) and another shipping zone that contains Sweden (where the currency is the Swedish krona). You need to activate local currencies in your International settings before you can set up shipping rates in local currencies.

When you create shipping rates, a preview is provided so that you know exactly what is displayed to your customers at checkout.

Steps:

10. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
11. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to add shipping rates to.
12. For the zone that you want to add the rate to, click Add rate.
13. Select a transit time, or select a custom flat rate to name the rate.
14. Optional: If a custom flat rate is selected, then enter a delivery description such as Tracked shipping or Ships next day. For optimal display, use 25 characters or fewer for your delivery description.
15. Enter the shipping rate, and then select the local currency for the country or region.
16. Optional: Add weight-based or price-based conditions.
17. Review the checkout preview to ensure that your shipping rate is displayed as expected.
18. Click Done, and then click Save.

You can also set up price-based or weight-based conditions for your shipping rates.

Create calculated shipping rates

Calculated shipping rates are determined at checkout by a third-party shipping service based on the details of the order. This helps you charge your customers the exact amount that a shipping carrier, such as UPS or FedEx, will charge you when you purchase a shipping label.

Carrier-calculated rates are available to stores in the following scenarios:

• If you’re in the United States and use Shopify Shipping, then you can add calculated rates from USPS, DHL, and UPS.
• If you’re in Canada and use Shopify Shipping, then you can add calculated rates from Canada Post.
• If the carrier-calculated shipping feature is on your store’s Shopify subscription plan, then you can add rates from your own account with USPS, FedEx, UPS, and Canada Post, as well as any calculated rates from any shipping apps. Before you can add your own rates from any shipping carriers, you need to add your carrier accounts to your shipping settings in Shopify. Learn about Third-party carrier-calculated shipping rates.
• If you’re in Australia and use Shopify Shipping, then you can add calculated rates from Sendle for both domestic and international shipping. The postcode and suburb of the fulfillment location need to match for you to generate a quote. You can check and edit this in Settings > Locations.

When you add carrier-calculated shipping rates, you also need to enter accurate weights for each of your products so that you can provide accurate shipping rates to your customers at checkout.

Carrier-calculated shipping rates often display expected transit time next to the shipping rate at checkout, but they don’t include your processing time. You can display delivery dates at checkout that include your processing time and transit time. To learn more, refer to Setting up delivery dates.

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Steps:

1. From the Shopify app, tap the … button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Shipping and delivery .
3. In the Shipping section, tap the shipping profile that you want to add carrier-calculated rates to.
4. Next to the zone where you want to add a rate, tap Add rate.
5. Select Use carrier or app to calculate rates.
6. Tap the shipping service, and then from the drop-down menu select the shipping service that you want to add calculated rates for.
7. In the SERVICES section, select the shipping methods from that shipping service that you want to provide as options for your customers at checkout.
8. Optional: In the FUTURE SERVICES section, choose whether to automatically offer any new services that the shipping service makes available.
9. Optional: In the HANDLING FEE section, add any handling fee that you’d like to be added to the calculated rate.
10. Tap Done, and then tap Save.

Mark up or discount calculated rates

You can adjust calculated shipping rates to mark up or discount the rates that are displayed to your customers at checkout. For example, if the rate is too high to attract customers, then you could discount it by a certain percentage to increase sales. Instead, if for example the rate is too low to cover your packaging and handling costs, then you can increase it.

You can mark up calculated shipping rates by an additional flat fee or by a percentage of the total shipping rate. If you adjust a calculated shipping rate to include both an additional flat fee and a percentage markup, then the percentage is calculated before the flat fee is added. For example, a $5.00 rate with 50% markup and a $1.00 flat fee costs the customer $8.50, not $9.00.

If you want to offer discounted shipping, then enter a negative value. For example, -5% or $-2.50.

Note: When activating USPS calculated rates, you can activate the more expensive USPS retail rates instead of USPS commercial rates.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Next to the rate that you want to adjust, click the … drop-down menu and then Edit rate.
4. In the Handling fee section, set the rate adjustments.
5. Click Done, then click Save.

Note: Your store default package dimensions are also used by your carrier to calculate shipping rates.

Creating free shipping rates

You can add free shipping rates to any shipping zone, so customers don’t pay anything for shipping at checkout. You can set up free shipping to be the only shipping rate on your store, or offer free shipping when specific criteria are met. These criteria can be based on orders over a certain value or on orders over a certain weight.

Offering free shipping is a common business and marketing practice, because it reassures customers that they won’t be charged a surprise high shipping fee when they place their orders.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. For each shipping zone, add the free shipping rate:
   1. Click Add rate.
   2. Enter the name for the rate.
   3. Make sure that the value of the Price field is 0.
4. Click Done, and then click Save.

Free shipping over a certain value

To offer free shipping on orders over a certain value, such as 50 USD, 75 EUR, or 8000 JPY, you need add a price-based condition to your free shipping rate.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Add the shipping rate to each shipping zone where you want the free shipping rate:
   1. Click Add rate.
   2. Enter the name for the rate.
   3. Make sure that the value of the Price field is 0.
   4. Click Add conditions.
   5. Select Based on order price.
   6. Enter a minimum price.
   7. Click Done.
4. Click Save.

Free shipping over a certain weight

To offer free shipping on orders that are over a certain weight, such as 10 lb or 50 kg, you need add a weight-based condition to your free shipping rate.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Add the shipping rate to each shipping zone where you want the free shipping rate:
   1. Click Add rate.
   2. Enter the name for the rate.
   3. Make sure that the value of the Price field is 0.
   4. Click Add conditions.
   5. Select Based on item weight.
   6. Enter a minimum weight.
   7. Click Done.
4. Click Save.

Free shipping for specific products

You can add a free shipping rate that applies only to certain products. Before you start, you need to create a custom shipping profile with products on which you want to offer free shipping.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Next to the zone where you want to add a free shipping rate, click Add rate.
4. Enter the name for the rate.
5. Make sure that the value of the Price field is 0.
6. Optional: Add weight-based or value-based conditions.
   1. Click Add conditions.
   2. Select whether to base the condition on order weight or value.
   3. Enter the minimum and maximum value for the condition.
7. Click Done, and then click Save.

Free shipping for specific customers

You can offer free shipping to specific customers by creating a free shipping discount. Customers who are eligible for the discount can enter the discount code during checkout, and then free shipping is applied to their order.

If you want the customer to receive both a monetary discount and a free shipping discount, then create a draft order for your customer.

Edit a rate

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Next to the rate that you want to edit, click the … button.
4. In the drop-down menu, click Edit rate.
5. Make any changes, and then click Done.
6. Click Save.

Delete a rate

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click the shipping profile that you want to edit.
3. Next to the rate that you want to delete, click the … button.
4. In the drop-down menu, click Delete.
5. Click Save.