Decide who actually ships
- Self-fulfillment: you pack and post from home. Cheapest to start and full control, but it ties you to your desk and does not scale past a certain volume.
- Third-party logistics (a 3PL): a warehouse stores and ships for you. Worth it once packing eats your week, though there are minimums and per-order fees.
- Dropship or Shopify Collective: the supplier ships directly. No inventory to hold, but you control less and the customs and weight data arrives incomplete, which is why the checks matter.
- For most launches, start with self-fulfillment and move to a 3PL when volume forces the change.
Charge shipping so it does not eat your margin
- Free shipping is a price decision, not a gift. Build the cost into the product price or set a minimum-order threshold.
- Flat rate is the simplest to run solo. Pick a rate that covers most parcels.
- Carrier-calculated rates quote live prices at checkout, but they need an accurate weight and dimensions on every variant.
- The mistake that costs money is quoting a rate lower than what you actually pay. Weigh a real packed parcel and compare it to what checkout charges.
The unglamorous supplies that make solo shipping fast
- A few box and mailer sizes that fit your products, not one giant box for everything.
- A thermal label printer once you pass a handful of orders a week. It removes the biggest time sink.
- Filler, tape, and a simple, repeatable way to weigh parcels.
International adds three things, not one
When you ship abroad you also owe an HS code, a country of origin, and the right duty and tax setup. Since the 2025 and 2026 rule changes, missing any of these holds parcels. Decide early whether you will ship internationally at launch or add it later, because it changes your setup.
Set expectations on the storefront
- State your processing time, how long before an order ships, not just the transit time. "Ships in 3 to 5 business days" is a promise a solo shop can keep.
- Make the shipping policy match your actual settings. Contradictions between the policy page, the product page, and checkout are a top cause of cart abandonment and support tickets.
Check your work
Run the free shipping settings check to catch enabled markets with no rates, products with no shipping profile, and gaps that block checkout for a whole region.
Common questions
Do I need a 3PL to launch a Shopify store?
No. Most solo founders start by self-fulfilling from home and move to a third-party logistics provider only once packing eats too much of the week. Start simple and switch when volume forces it.
How should a small store charge for shipping?
Flat rate is the simplest to run solo, free shipping works if you build the cost into the price or set a threshold, and carrier-calculated rates need accurate weights on every variant. The rule that matters: never quote a rate lower than what you actually pay.
What do I need to ship internationally on Shopify?
Beyond a rate for the destination, you need an HS code, a country of origin, and the right duty and tax setup on each product. Missing any of these can hold parcels at customs.
Free · Beta · Read-only
- Free to use, in beta.
- The free check reads only your public storefront. No access to your store required.
- The connected audit uses Shopify's official read-only permissions. Storecheck can look, never write, place orders, or change anything.