Shipping speeds
You can add shipping speeds to your shipping rates at checkout to help customers feel more confident when purchasing from your store. It helps customers understand the value of selecting faster and more expensive shipping options, which helps you make sales with customers who want their goods quickly. Clear speeds can also help you prioritize your order fulfillment.
Considerations
Before you add shipping speeds to your shipping rates, review the following considerations.
Shipping speeds don't account for order processing times
Processing time means the time from when your business receives an order, to the time when a shipping carrier collects the shipment. Shipping time means the time from when your shipping carrier collects the shipment, to when the shipment arrives at your customer's address. The shipping speeds feature accounts only for shipping time.
For more information on processing times, refer to Understanding and reducing processing time.
To let your customers know about your processing times, refer to Addressing processing times.
Shipping zones must be exclusive to specific areas
Shipping speeds are based on services that are to and from specific areas of the world. To add shipping speeds to shipping rates, the shipping zone must contain countries and regions that belong to specific areas. All shipping zones must be either for domestic shipping destinations, or international shipping destinations. The following would be examples of shipping zones that could use shipping speeds:
- only Canada or only Canadian provinces
- only the United States or only US states
- only international countries
For example, if a shipping zone contains Alberta, Ontario, and Manitoba, then you can add shipping speeds to shipping rates in that shipping zone because it contains only Canadian provinces. However, if your shipping zone contains the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala, then you can't add shipping speeds to that shipping zone because it contains both the United States and other international countries.
If you are in the United States, then you can either add Canada to a zone on its own, or add it to a zone with other international countries and regions. If you add it to a zone with other international countries and regions, then shipping speeds will show the longer international shipping speeds instead of the faster shipping speeds to Canada.
If you are in Canada, then you can either add the United States to a zone on its own, or add it to a zone with other international countries and regions. If you add it to a zone with other international countries and regions, then shipping speeds will show the longer international shipping speeds instead of the faster shipping speeds to the United States.
For more information on shipping zones, refer to Setting up shipping zones.
Combined shipping rates don't show a shipping speed
If different shipping rates are combined at checkout due to two products receiving shipping rates from different shipping profiles or groups of locations, then shipping speeds are removed from the combined rate. For more details on how shipping rates can be combined, refer to Combined rates at checkout.
Locations in a Shipping location group have to be in the same country
Shipping speeds are available in the United States and Canada only. When you set up your general shipping profile, or any custom shipping profiles, any location groups you create within them must contain only Canadian locations, or only United States locations.
For more information on setting up shipping profiles, refer to Shipping profiles.
Set up your locations and apps before you set up shipping speeds
Shipping speeds rely on shipping averages to and from specific countries and regions. If you have only one location when you set up shipping speeds and then add a second location, then that second location is automatically added to your shipping settings. Certain apps, such as Oberlo, are also added as locations when you install them onto your Shopify store. While apps are added as a location in your settings, apps have no physical location within a country or region. When apps are added to a group of locations in your shipping settings, shipping speeds are hidden from customers in your checkout until you remove the app from the group of locations in your shipping settings.
For more information on restoring shipping speeds in your checkout, refer to Troubleshooting.
Add shipping speeds
When you add a shipping speed to a rate, the shipping speed title becomes the shipping rate title that customers can choose at check out.
Add a shipping speed to a new shipping rate
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
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Go to your shipping rate settings:
- If you haven't made any custom shipping profiles, then next to General shipping rates click Manage rates.
- If you have made custom shipping profiles, then next to the shipping profile where you want to add a shipping rate to, click Manage rates.
Next to the zone that you want to add a rate to, click Add rate. Make sure that the location group that your zone is in contains locations in only Canada or only the United States.
Choose a shipping speed.
Enter an amount for the rate.
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Optional: Add weight-based or price-based conditions.
- Click Add conditions.
- Select whether to base the condition on order weight or price.
- Enter the minimum and maximum value for the condition.
Click Done, and then click Save.
Add a shipping speed to an existing shipping rate
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
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Go to your shipping rate settings:
- If you haven't made any custom shipping profiles, then next to General shipping rates click Manage rates.
- If you have made custom shipping profiles, then next to the shipping profile where you want to add a shipping rate to, click Manage rates.
Next to the rate, click the ... button, and then click Edit rate.
In the Shipping speed drop-down menu, select a shipping speed.
Click Done, and then click Save.
Add a new shipping rate with no shipping speed
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
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Go to your shipping rate settings:
- If you haven't made any custom shipping profiles, then next to General shipping rates click Manage rates.
- If you have made custom shipping profiles, then next to the shipping profile where you want to add a shipping rate to, click Manage rates.
Next to the zone that you want to add a rate to, click Add rate.
In the Shipping speed drop-down menu, select Custom flat rate (no shipping speed).
Enter the name and amount for the rate.
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Optional: Add weight-based or price-based conditions.
- Click Add conditions.
- Select whether to base the condition on order weight or price.
- Enter the minimum and maximum value for the condition.
Click Done, and then click Save.
Services that match shipping speeds
The shipping speeds are based off of available shipping carrier options in each country.
United States
| Destination | Available shipping speeds | Matching services |
|---|---|---|
| Within the US | Economy (5 to 8 business days) |
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| Standard (3 to 4 business days) |
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| Express (1 to 2 business days) |
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| Canada | Economy International (6 to 10 business days) |
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| Standard International (2 to 3 business days) |
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| Express International (1 to 2 business days) |
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| International | Economy International (6 to 18 business days) |
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| Standard International (6 to 12 business days) |
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| Express International (1 to 5 business days) |
|
Canada
| Destination | Available shipping speeds | Matching services |
|---|---|---|
| Within Canada | Standard (3 to 9 business days) |
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| Express (1 to 2 business days) |
|
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| US | Standard International (4 to 8 business days) |
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| Express International (2 to 3 business days) |
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| International | Economy International (20 to 60 business days) |
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| Standard International (6 to 10 business days) |
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| Express International (4 to 7 business days) |
|
Troubleshooting
Review the follow situations to learn how to solve them.
Shipping speeds are not showing at checkout
If shipping speeds are not showing at checkout, then it's likely that your shipping rates were combined at checkout, or a location or app has been added to your Shopify account and is interfering with your shipping zones.
Combined shipping rates
When two products in a checkout receive different shipping rates from different shipping profiles or different groups of locations within a shipping profile, the shipping rates can be combined. When shipping rates are combined, the shipping rate is called Shipping and shipping speeds are removed from the combined rate.
For more information on shipping rates being combined, refer to Combined rates at checkout.
A location was automatically added to a group of locations in your shipping settings
Within your shipping profiles, you can specify your shipping zones and rates based on the locations that you add in your Shopify admin, so that orders fulfilled my each location charge different shipping rates. If you have only one location, then all shipping zones and rates apply to that location. However, if you add a second location, then you can give that location separate zones and rates, or have them be the same.
By default, when you have only one location and then add a second, that second location gets added to the location group with your first location in all your shipping profiles. This means that both locations now share the same shipping zones and rates. If the second location is in a different country or region that the first location, then shipping speeds can't be calculated correctly, and are hidden from your customers at check out.
To restore shipping speeds being shown at check out, remove the second location from the location group in your shipping settings.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
Next to the shipping profile, click Manage rates.
In the Shipping from section, click Show details.
Next to the location that was added, click Manage.
Choose to create new rates for that location or remove it from the location group, then click Done.
Click Save.
An app that is considered a location was added to your Shopify store
Apps that act as a fulfillment service, such as Oberlo, are counted as a location in your Shopify admin. If you have only one location at the time when the app is added, then the app is added automatically to your shipping profiles as another location that your shipping zones and rates apply to. Apps have no location, and so shipping speed estimates are removed from your checkout.
To restore shipping speeds being shown at checkout, remove the app from the location group in your shipping settings.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Shipping and delivery.
Next to the shipping profile, click Manage rates.
In the Shipping from section, click Show details.
Next to the app that was added, click Manage.
Choose to create new rates for the app or remove it from the location group, then click Done.
Click Save.
A country is added to a zone that has different shipping speeds than the countries already in the zone
To use shipping speeds, the countries in a shipping zone must be in the same region. If you add a country to a zone that isn't in the same region as the original countries in the zone, then an error will display. For more information on the countries that can be grouped together in the same zone, refer to Shipping zones must be exclusive to specific areas.