How to Set Up Shopify Shipping Rates, Weights and Zones

Shipping setup on Shopify starts in Settings › Shipping and delivery, but the order of the work decides whether the price at checkout is right. The country has to be in an active market, the product needs a weight and the store needs a default package before a weight-based or carrier-calculated rate can charge the right amount. This guide follows that order, then adds the rates, then tests the checkout.

Shopify is moving every store from shipping profiles to shipping options by market, and the two systems put rates in different places. The first section shows how to tell which one your store is on, so you can follow the steps that apply to it.

Which Shipping System Is Your Store On?

Shopify's page on upgrading to shipping options by market gives one check: go to Settings › Shipping and delivery in your Shopify admin. If your shipping is organized in shipping profiles, with shipping zones and rates, your store uses the current system. If it is organized by market, in a Shipping options section, your store has been upgraded.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery

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As of November 2026, Shopify says most stores still use shipping profiles and keep their current setup until they are upgraded. The table shows where the two systems differ while you set up rates.

Both systems share the next section, What to Set Up Before Your First Rate. After it, stores on shipping profiles continue with zones and rates, and upgraded stores skip to shipping options by market.

Shopify scheduled market-driven shipping to start rolling out on October 1, 2026, and every store will be on the new system by July 1, 2027. The rollout is gradual, and no Shopify page we read in November 2026, across the Help Center's shipping pages and Shopify's developer changelog, gives a date for an individual store. As of November 2026 the Help Center still labels shipping options by market as early access, available only to certain stores.

In our development store on November 5, 2026, the Shipping and delivery page showed a banner saying shipping is moving to Markets on July 1, 2027, the date by which Shopify says every store will be on the new system.

When your store is upgraded, Shopify migrates your shipping setup for you, so you don't need to recreate your rates. Stores that use shipping apps might be upgraded later, after those apps become compatible. If shipping options by market is available for your store, you can also opt in to early access before the automatic upgrade.

After an upgrade, an opt-out window lets you switch back to shipping profiles from Settings › Shipping and delivery where it is available for your store. Switching back permanently removes any shipping changes made after the upgrade, and once the window closes you can't switch back. What else moves on that day is covered in what happens on upgrade day.

What to Set Up Before Your First Rate

Shopify spreads these requirements across separate help pages. The table is our summary of them, in the order this guide sets them up.

Countries reach shipping only through Markets. On shipping profiles you can add a country to a zone only once it belongs to a market, and on both systems customers order only from regions in an active market. If you are adding a new country, set up its market first.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Markets

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Locations and the Ship-From Address

Shopify's shipping setup overview says to add your locations first, because order routing uses the locations that you set up. Each location's address matters beyond routing: an unverified address can prevent you from offering local delivery or buying shipping labels in the Shopify admin.

The default location also matters for carrier rates. If shipping rates aren't shown at checkout, Shopify's locations page says to confirm that your default location supports the selected carrier: USPS rates, for example, require a default location address in the United States.

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1. Settings
2. Locations
3. Location

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Product Weights

You enter a product's weight in the Shipping section of the product details page, and the Weight field is displayed only when the Physical product setting is activated, according to Shopify's packages and weights page. In the admin:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Products.
2. Click the product. If it has variants, click the variant in the Variants section.
3. In the Shipping section, make sure that the Physical product setting is activated.
4. Enter the weight in the Weight field.
5. Click Save.

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1. Products
2. Product

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A product with no weight is treated as weightless, so a cart can fall into a lower weight tier than you expect. Shopify also says you need accurate product weights for accurate carrier-calculated rates at checkout and for pricing shipping labels.

The Store Default Package

By default, the store default package is used to determine the rate you charge at checkout when you use weight-based or carrier-calculated rates; the rules below the steps list the exceptions. To choose it, following Shopify's packages page:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings › Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping section, click Packages.
3. For the package that you want as the default, open its menu and click Set as default.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery

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Six rules decide what that package does at checkout:

• You can have only one store default package that's used to calculate rates at checkout.
• With weight-based rates, the package's weight is added to the weight of the products to decide which rate applies.
• A package selected for a product variant overrides the default for that variant, but only for single-item orders.
• Shopify's packages page says a packed product size gives more accurate carrier-calculated rates: the items in each shipment are packed into the smallest of your saved boxes that fits them; the store default package is still used in some cases, for example when any product in the shipment is missing a packed product size. Shopify's label requirements page, by contrast, says only the default package's dimensions are used in the checkout.
• If the default is a carrier package, your checkout displays rates only for that carrier and the services that fit that package type.
• Measure the outside of your boxes, since advertised dimensions might refer to the inside. Dimensional weight applies to some shipping services when length × width × height exceeds 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches).

Shopify's own 2023 walk-through below runs the same sequence: rates, product weights, package types, then labels. The rate screens in it have since been renamed, and the rate form now opens from Add shipping option, so follow the steps in the next sections for rates and use the video for weights and packages.

Digital Products and Services

If you sell a digital download or a service, remove shipping for that product: in its Shipping section, make sure that the Physical product setting is deactivated, as Shopify's digital products page describes. The checkout won't return shipping rates for products marked as digital products or services, because they don't require physical shipment.

Set Up Zones and Rates in Shipping Profiles

Each Shopify store comes with a general shipping profile by default that applies to all products. You open it from the Shipping profiles section of Settings › Shipping and delivery, and its Fulfill from section (Fulfillment locations in Shopify's Help Center) lists the locations that ship the profile's products.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery
3. General profile

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One general profile is enough while every product ships on the same terms. Different rates for different products need a custom shipping profile, and you can create up to 99 custom shipping profiles; a product or variant can be in only one profile at a time.

Add a Shipping Zone

A shipping zone is a group of countries or regions that have the same shipping rates. Shopify's zones and rates page starts every rate the same way:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings › Shipping and delivery.
2. In the Shipping profiles section, click the shipping profile that you want to add rates to.
3. To add a new zone: in the Shipping zones section (labeled Ship to in the admin as of November 5, 2026), click Add zone, enter a Zone name, select the countries and regions in the Regions section, and then click Done.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery
3. General profile

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Two rules shape that list. On Shopify's shipping zones page, countries and regions can be added to a zone only when they belong to a market. And within a group of locations in a shipping profile, a country or region can exist in only one shipping zone, so you remove it from one zone before adding it to another.

Add a Flat, Order Amount or Weight Rate

Each zone holds one or more shipping options, and the rate type is a field of the option form, not a separate screen. The numbering continues from Add a shipping zone: open the profile first, and skip step 3 if the zone already exists.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery
3. General profile

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4. For the zone, click Add shipping option, and then:
   • In Name, enter the name customers see at checkout.
   • From the Rate type drop-down menu, select Flat, Order amount or Weight.
   • For Flat, enter a Price. For Order amount or Weight, enter a Minimum, a Maximum and a Price for each range, leaving the Maximum empty on your highest range, and click the plus icon to add another range.
   • Optional: add delivery details or a transit time, or select Offer free shipping and enter the minimum order amount that qualifies.
5. Click Done.
6. Click Save.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Settings
2. Shipping and delivery
3. General profile

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Which type fits your products is a pricing decision, covered in which rate type fits your catalog. Two mechanics matter while you fill the form: by default, flat rates apply one time per order, and a price left empty or set to 0 makes the rate free.

Order amount rates read the cart value after discounts and before taxes, so a discount code can move a cart into a different rate.

Add Carrier-Calculated Rates

Carrier rates use the same Add shipping option form, at step 4 above:

1. From the Rate type drop-down menu, select Carrier or app calculated.
2. Click Choose carrier and apps, select a carrier or app, and select the services you want customers to see.
3. Optional: in the Handling fee section, enter a percentage or a fixed amount to add to the carrier rate.
4. Click Done, then Done on the option, and then Save.

These rates use Shopify's built-in carrier integrations and are available on all plans. Australia and France don't appear in that table; Australia Post is one of the carriers whose own account you can connect for Australian locations.

Showing rates from your own carrier account takes third-party carrier-calculated shipping, which is included on Advanced and Plus, available on Grow for an additional monthly fee or with annual billing, and unavailable on other plans. How app and carrier-account rates reach your checkout is covered in app rates at your checkout.

If you adjust a carrier rate with both a percentage and a flat fee, the percentage is calculated before the flat fee is added. Backup rates apply by default wherever you have calculated rates, and they are used only when all calculated rates for a shipment fail and no other eligible rate is available.

Set Up Shipping Options by Market

This section applies once your store has been upgraded. Staff who set up shipping options need the Markets permission, which isn't granted automatically and isn't included in existing staff roles. Shopify's shipping options page gives the path:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Markets.
2. Click the market that you want to set up shipping for.
3. Click Shipping.
4. Click Add shipping option.
5. Fill in the form: a Name, a Rate type and a price or ranges. Optional fields, depending on the rate type:
   • add delivery details and a transit time
   • limit the rate to specific collections under Applies to or to certain locations under Ships from
   • add another rate
   • turn on Offer free shipping over a minimum order amount
6. Click Done.
7. Click Save.

Set the Minimum to 0 on your lowest range and leave the Maximum empty on your highest. If an order's total or weight falls outside your ranges, no rate applies and the customer receives a shipping error at checkout. To make any rate free, set its Price to 0 or activate Offer free shipping over a minimum order amount.

When a cart matches more than one rate in the same shipping option, the highest matching rate is charged instead of the rates being added together, and prices across different shipping options are added. Shipping profiles work the other way: matching rates are added together.

A child market inherits its shipping from its parent market by default; to override it, open the child market, click Shipping, and then Customize. If an address belongs to more than one of your markets, checkout shows the shipping options from all of them, and rates from a shipping app or carrier appear alongside your own.

Local Delivery and Pickup

Pickup in store needs at least one location that fulfills online orders, and you turn it on location by location; the steps, the pickup time and the ready email are in our local pickup guide.

Local delivery needs a verified location address, because an unverified one can prevent you from offering it. Delivery areas, prices and minimums are in how to set up local delivery.

Buying Labels With Shopify Shipping

To buy shipping labels in Shopify, your business needs an eligible fulfillment location, and for some carriers your store needs to be based in the same country as that location. Shopify's label requirements page gives an example: Evri or DPD labels need a fulfillment location in the United Kingdom and a store address based in the United Kingdom.

Depending on your fulfillment locations, labels come from Shopify's carrier accounts in ten countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. Which carriers each country gets is in where Shopify sells you a label.

Labels need accurate product weights. Shopify's label requirements page says only the default package's dimensions are used in the checkout, while its packages page says a packed product size gives more accurate carrier-calculated shipping rates, with each shipment packed into the smallest saved box that fits.

If you use shipping labels to display rates at checkout, the stock must be available at a physical location, not an app or custom fulfillment location. You buy each label from its order; the steps are in how to buy and print a label from an order.

Dropshipping and Print-on-Demand Apps

Shopify documents three ways these apps touch your shipping setup:

• Some dropshipping apps create an app location when you install them but don't configure shipping rates for that location, so its products can show as out of stock until you add rates for it.
• Some fulfillment apps, such as on-demand custom printing apps, are added as a location to your shipping profile automatically and can alter your shipping settings.
• App locations don't have a physical address, so carrier-calculated rates can't use them.

Even though you don't ship the products yourself, your suppliers usually still charge you shipping fees. Shopify's dropshipping shipping guide suggests adding up those fees and dividing by the number of orders to find the flat rate that covers them. The supplier-by-supplier setup is in shipping around a supplier.

Test the Checkout Before You Launch

Customers aren't offered any shipping rates until they enter a delivery address, so the only way to see what they see is a checkout. Shopify recommends a test order once your rates or shipping options are set:

1. Turn on Shopify's Test payment gateway or Shopify Payments test mode, following the test orders page.
2. Start a new checkout with an email address that ends in @example.com.
3. Enter an address in each zone or market you set up, and compare the rates offered with the ones you entered.
4. Enter an address in a region you don't ship to, and check that the customer sees the notice that no shipping is available.
5. Turn test mode off: customers can't place live orders while your payment providers are in test mode.

Checkout

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Start each run from a new checkout rather than one you opened before you changed the rates:

In a development store you can't test using real transactions. The payment side of a test order is in how to place a test order on Shopify.

If the Rates Look Wrong

Every cause of a Shipping not available message, checked in order, is in why Shopify says shipping isn't available for an address.

Set Up Shipping in This Order

Steps one to five and step eight are the same on both systems. Step six happens in the section for your system, zones in a shipping profile or shipping options in each market, and step seven applies only if you use carrier rates or buy labels. Carrier rates are a rate type on both systems; the step-by-step form for shipping profiles is in Add carrier-calculated rates.

The Bottom Line

The rate fields take minutes. What takes care is the groundwork under them: a market for every country, an address for every location, a weight on every product and one honest default box.

Frequently Asked Questions