How to Set Up Shipping on Shopify (2025 Guide + Video)

Most Shopify stores don’t realize they’re losing money on shipping.
Not because they’re overpaying couriers, but because their settings are wrong.

The defaults seem harmless: flat rates that don’t match real costs, zones that lump every region together, no carrier integrations to keep prices accurate.

Each small error chips away at margin until a sale that looks profitable quietly turns into a loss.

The worst part? You won’t see it in your dashboard. You’ll just notice shrinking profit and more carts left behind.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to set up Shopify shipping the right way, so every order lands fast, accurate, and profitable.

Prefer to watch? Here’s the full video tutorial from yours truly at ECD.

When all three line up, checkout feels smooth and predictable.
When one’s off, even slightly, you get missing options, wrong prices, or lost orders.

That’s why understanding the structure matters before you start changing anything.

Once you know how these parts connect, you can adjust shipping without risking broken checkouts or unhappy customers.

Step 1: Open Shipping & Delivery in Shopify Admin

All your shipping logic lives in one place inside Shopify. It’s just buried deeper than most expect.

From your Shopify admin, go to:
Settings → Shipping and delivery.

This is where you’ll manage every piece of the puzzle: your profiles, zones, and rates.
It’s also where most mistakes start.

If you’ve ever duplicated a product, tested an app, or added a new fulfillment location, Shopify might have quietly created extra rules behind the scenes.

Opening this page is how you see it all—what’s active, what’s redundant, and what needs to be cleaned up before you change anything else.

Look for:

• Duplicate or outdated profiles from old apps.

• “Orphaned” products that aren’t assigned anywhere.

• Overlapping conditions that create conflicting rates.

Cleaning this up gives you control. It ensures every product has one clear path out the door—and that every rate customers see at checkout is intentional, not accidental.

Step 3: Build Shipping Zones (Domestic & International)

Zones decide where you’ll ship and how much it’ll cost.

By default, Shopify lumps every region into one big zone. That might work at first, but it’s where profit starts slipping through the cracks.

Shipping across town shouldn’t cost the same as shipping across an ocean.
That’s why every store should separate:

• Domestic zones — your main market (for most U.S. stores, that’s the United States).

• International zones — every country or region outside your base.

From Settings → Shipping and delivery, open your profile and scroll to Shipping to.
Click Create zone, name it (like “U.S. Domestic” or “International”), and select which regions apply.

If some states, like Hawaii or Alaska, are expensive or restricted, deselect them from your domestic zone. Then create a separate zone with its own rates or carrier settings.

It’s a small step that prevents checkout errors and keeps your rates aligned with reality—so you’re never eating unexpected shipping costs again.

Step 4: Add Rates (Free, Flat, Price‑Based, Weight‑Based, Carrier‑Calculated)

This is where you decide what customers pay to get their orders.
Shopify gives you a few ways to do it, and each one fits a different strategy.

Free shipping:
Best for stores that can bake costs into pricing or hit a threshold (“Free shipping over $50”). It increases AOV and makes checkout feel frictionless.

Flat rate:
Simple and predictable. Great for small catalogs or stores with consistent product sizes (“$5 Standard Shipping”).

Price-based:
Adjusts rates by cart value (“Orders under $50 = $7 shipping”). Helps protect margin on smaller checkouts.

Weight-based:
Ideal for bulky or heavy items. Shopify combines the total cart weight and applies your set rate per range.

Carrier-calculated (recommended):
Pulls real-time rates directly from USPS, UPS, or FedEx so you’re never over- or under-charging.
You can even connect your own carrier accounts if you’ve negotiated better pricing.

Dynamic rates usually perform best. They keep margins clean and give customers confidence they’re paying a fair price.

Once your rates are set, review how they appear in checkout to make sure the math feels right from the buyer’s side.

Step 5: Add Backup/Fail‑Safe Rates

Nothing stops a checkout faster than “No shipping options available.”

It usually happens when your rate conditions don’t match the cart. Wrong weight range, missed price bracket, or an excluded zone. The fix? Always have a backup.

Add one simple flat-rate option that applies to every order, no matter what.

Even if it’s slightly higher than average, it keeps the order moving and gives you a safety net when rules don’t trigger as expected.

Think of it as insurance for your checkout: customers always see something instead of nothing.

ECD Can Fix Your Shopify Setup

Shipping setup isn’t just logistics. It’s conversion strategy.

When it’s wrong, customers feel the friction.
When it’s right, sales move fast and profit stays clean.

We’ve rebuilt hundreds of Shopify stores weighed down by bloated themes, broken logic, and outdated settings.

Our rebuilds cut load times by 40–60% and lift conversions 25%+, because structure drives performance.

If your checkout feels slow or unpredictable, it’s not a creative problem. It’s a setup problem.

We’ll review your configuration, find the friction points, and show you how a cleaner backend can turn browsers into buyers.