Set up delivery zones and rates

When a basket holds something you post, the checkout asks Delivering to and offers only the delivery options for that country. You set this up once with zones (groups of countries) and rates (the options inside a zone, each with a price). Zones and rates belong to your whole account, so every store you run shares them.

Before you start

• A store. See Open a store.
• A list of where you post to and what each option costs. For example, Wick & Ember Candle Co. in Bristol posts to the UK and Ireland at £3.95, free over £40, and to Europe at £12.

Steps

1. Open Sites › Stores, press Open store on your store, and choose the Settings tab.
2. Scroll to Delivery. Under Shipping zones and rates, press Add a zone.
3. In Add a shipping zone, type a Zone name (for example "UK and Ireland"), tick the countries, and press Add zone. Use Search countries to find one fast, or Select all to take a whole region. A country already in another zone is greyed out and says which zone it is in.
4. Inside the new zone, press Add a delivery option.
5. Fill in What the shopper picks (for example "Standard, 3–5 days"), the Price, and, if you want, Free over (the basket total at which this option becomes free). Each field saves when you click away from it.
6. Add more options to the zone if you offer them, such as "Next day".
7. Repeat for each zone. For anywhere not in a zone, add options under Everywhere else. Leave it empty if you do not post anywhere else.
8. Under Where you post from, fill in your address. It is shown to buyers at the checkout beside your policies.
9. Tick Tell shoppers how close they are to free delivery if you want the "spend £12 more for free delivery" line in the basket and at the checkout.
10. Press Save settings at the bottom of the page to keep the address and the tick box.

What happens next

• A buyer whose country is in a zone is offered that zone's options. A country in no zone gets the Everywhere else options. A country with neither is not in the Delivering to list, and the note under the list says you do not deliver there yet.
• The delivery option and address are chosen on Stripe's payment page, and the delivery price is added there. The store's pay button says + delivery so the buyer knows.
• A basket with only digital things (downloads, courses) skips the country question and pays no delivery.
• If you have set no rates at all, buyers are not asked for a country and pay for the basket only.
• The free-delivery line only appears once a delivery option has a Free over amount. When only some zones have one, the line names the zone rather than promising free delivery to everyone.
• A Free postage discount code is another way to take delivery off. See Create discount codes.

Things to know

• Rates are flat prices per option. A product's weight is stored, but it does not change the delivery price.
• Stripe shows at most five delivery options on one payment page, so only the first five options in a zone are offered. The screen warns you when a zone has more than five.
• A blank Free over means the option is never free. It is not the same as free over nothing.

For agencies

Zones and rates belong to each client's account. Set them up inside the client with Sub-accounts › Open.

Troubleshooting

A zone says "No delivery option here yet — a shopper in this zone cannot check out". The zone has countries but no options. Press Add a delivery option, or delete the zone.

A buyer's country is not in the Delivering to list. It is in none of your zones and you have no Everywhere else options. Add the country to a zone, or add an option under Everywhere else.

The checkout says "We are not delivering anywhere just now, so an order cannot be placed". Your zones have no countries buyers can choose. Check each zone's countries and options.

I cannot tick a country. It is already in another zone. A country can only be in one zone, so remove it from the other zone first.

The free-delivery line does not show. Either the tick box is off, no option has a Free over amount, or the basket holds nothing to post.

Related

• How checkout works
• Find and fulfil orders
• Set up your store's settings