Split shipping in Shopify Checkout

If a cart includes items which can't be fulfilled in a single shipment, then fulfillment splits into multiple shipments. For example, if a customer adds a preorder item to their cart, then your checkout displays that the preorder product ships separately from available items. The customer can select an available shipping option for each shipment.

An order is split into multiple shipments when it includes any the following types of items:

preorders
subscriptions
Buy with Prime products
products shipping from different locations
products from different shipping profiles

The Shipping method section of a checkout with multiple shipments displays how many shipments the order is split into, and the available shipping methods for each shipment. Your customer can select from the available shipping options for each shipment.

Incompatibility considerations for split shipping at checkout

Certain apps and features are incompatible with split shipping at checkout. Review the following considerations:

Split shipping at checkout can't be applied to checkouts from draft orders or B2B draft orders
Shopify Shipping Scripts can't access split shipping at checkout. Learn more about migrating from Shopify Shipping Scripts.
If the entire cart can be shipped by local delivery, then checkout won't display multiple shipments.
A customer can't choose how the products in their cart are split. Consider adjusting your shipping profiles and checking your location fulfillment settings to make sure that any products that can ship together aren't split.
By default, split shipping in checkout selects the lowest total shipping cost for all shipments in the order.

Select shipping for each shipment

By default, available shipping methods for each shipment are automatically grouped into the following options for ease of customer selection:

Lowest price: The least expensive shipping method for each shipment is selected. This option is selected by default.
Fastest: The fastest shipping option for all shipments is selected.

Each option displays the total shipping cost for all shipments, as well as the following details for each shipment:

the shipping method name
estimated delivery time
shipping rate
how many items are included in that shipment

Your customer can click More shipping options to display all available shipping methods for each shipment, and then select a different shipping method for one or more of the shipments. For example, if your customer wants one shipment to arrive faster, then they can select a faster shipping method for that shipment, and keep the least expensive shipping methods for the other shipments.

Steps:

In the Shipping method section of the checkout, click More shipping options.
Select an available shipping method for each shipment.
Click Save to change the shipping methods.

Example of a split shipment from different locations

For example, your store sells shirts. You have two different store locations: Location A and Location B.

A customer wants to buy a green shirt and a red shirt as gifts. The customer adds a red shirt and a green shirt to their cart. Location A has the green shirt in stock, but the red shirt is unavailable. Location B has the red shirt in stock, but not the green shirt. At the checkout, each shirt is split into a different shipment with the following shipping methods available for each shipment:

a Standard shipping method with a 5–8 day delivery time for $10 USD
an Express method with a same day delivery time for $20 USD

The Lowest price Standard shipping method is selected by default for both shipments. The red shirt is a gift for a birthday party in two days, so the customer selects the Express shipping method with a 1 day delivery time for that shipment instead. The other shirt is a gift for a relative who is visiting in two weeks, so the customer keeps the Standard shipping method selected for that shipment. The red shirt will be delivered to the customer that day, and the green shirt will be delivered in 5–8 days.