Shopify setup flow: codes, origin, shipping

Stage 1: HS codes

The harmonized system code tells customs what the item is. Every physical variant that crosses a border needs the six-digit international base, and it lives on the variant in the product shipping section.

1. Find the right six-digit code for each product typeStart with the goods you ship most. Material, finish, and use can move a product between headings, so look the code up in the official tariff for your main destination rather than guessing from a category name.Guide: How to add HS codes to your Shopify products
2. Enter the code on the variant, not just the productShopify stores the HS code per variant in the shipping section. A size or material change can shift the code, so fill it for each variant that ships, and let digital or service items stay blank.
3. Match the code to the destinations you ship toSix digits works everywhere. Some lanes ask for longer national codes, applied by the broker at entry. Check what each destination expects before you store anything longer.Guide: Customs setup tool by destination
4. Sweep the whole catalog for gapsThe missing codes are almost never in the product you just edited. Connect the store read only for the full catalog audit, which lists every variant with no code.

Stage 2: Country of origin

Country of origin is where the goods were made or last substantially transformed, not where you ship from and not where your business sits. Customs reads it on the commercial invoice, and it drives duty rates and marking rules.

1. Confirm the origin for each product lineAsk your supplier where production and the last substantial transformation happened. A catalog that mixes suppliers usually mixes origins, so record it per product, not as one store-wide answer.Guide: Shopify country of origin guide
2. Fill the origin field per variantCountry of origin sits next to the HS code field on the variant. Fill both in the same pass so no variant carries one without the other.
3. Check the marking matches the declarationSeveral destinations require imported goods to be marked with their origin so the buyer can read it. The declared origin and the label on the item must agree, or parcels can be held.
4. Keep evidence for preferential claimsIf you claim a trade agreement rate, you need a statement on origin and records that support it. Declare only what you can evidence.Guide: Customs and tax setup by country

Stage 3: Shipping profiles

Shipping profiles decide which rates a buyer sees and which products can go to which destination. They need to match how you actually fulfill, or checkout shows the wrong price or blocks an order that should work.

1. List how you actually ship before touching settingsWrite down the packages, carriers, and delivery promises you really offer per destination. Profiles that copy a template instead of your reality produce surprise costs and abandoned checkouts.Guide: Shopify shipping and fulfillment guide
2. Split products into profiles by how they shipOversized, fragile, or made to order items belong in their own profiles with their own rates. One general profile with everything in it hides the products that cost more to send.
3. Give every physical variant a real weightRates and duty estimates both read weight. A zero weight produces wrong prices at checkout and failures at the label stage.Guide: How to weigh a product without a scale
4. Check each destination has a rate that worksA market you sell to with no rate, or a rate that excludes half the catalog, turns ready buyers away. Walk each destination as a buyer would and confirm a rate appears.
5. Verify the setup before you call it doneRun the shipping settings check and the full connected audit to catch profiles with no rate, products in no profile, and variants with no weight.Guide: Shopify shipping settings checker

Common questions