How do I set up shipping with Shopify?

Shopify sellers can choose from several shipping setup options, and we’ve listed some recommended ones below.

In this article:

• Publish the Printify shipping rates to Shopify
• Set up the Printify Shipping Calculator for Shopify
• Set custom shipping rates (e.g., free shipping)
• Estimated Delivery Time

Publish the Printify shipping rates to Shopify

The easiest option for Shopify sellers is to publish the Printify flat rates directly to Shopify. This ensures that the shipping rates charged to your customers align with the rates you pay for fulfillment, eliminating the need for any additional setup steps.

Additionally, if your store’s currency differs from United States Dollars (USD), rest assured that Shopify will automatically convert the shipping rates to match your store’s currency.

Set up the Printify Shipping Calculator for Shopify

If you have an Advanced/Annual Shopify plan or have carrier-calculated rates enabled for your Shopify account, you can choose the Printify Shipping Calculator for Shopify. 

Set custom shipping rates (e.g., free shipping)

You also have the option to set custom shipping rates for some or all of your products. This will be required if:

• You want to offer free shipping (shipping will need to be included in the product price)
• You sell product bundles

To set up free shipping, follow these steps:

1. In Shopify, edit the “General Profile” and set the price to 0.00 (for one country only, e.g., the United States). Note that you can also use another shipping profile to enable free shipping, in case you are using multiple shipping profiles within your store.
2. Next, navigate to the My Products section in Printify and click on the product.
3. Click Edit under the Shipping section and select the “General Profile” from the drop-down menu. 
4. Go down to Publishing settings and ensure that the checkbox for Shipping profile is marked.
5. Click Publish to sync the changes with your store.

To use a custom shipping profile, follow these steps:

1. Create a shipping profile in Shopify.
2. Next, navigate to the My Products section in Printify and click on the product.
3. Click Edit under Shipping section and select the shipping profile you’d like to use from the drop-down menu. We recommend using unique naming to distinguish your shipping profile by.
4. Go down to Publishing settings and ensure that the checkbox for Shipping profile is marked.
5. Click Publish to sync the changes with your store.

If you chose one of the two options described above, and would like this shipping profile to be your default profile in Printify moving forward, please adjust your store’s shipping settings under Shipping profiles.

Estimated Delivery Time

In Shopify, the shipping time displayed to customers depends on the preferences set up in Shopify admin → Settings → Shipping and delivery → Delivery expectations → Estimated delivery dates.

Shopify offers three settings for displaying estimated shipping/delivery times during checkout:

1. "Off" (Recommended):
   • Customers see the shipping time based on the rate description in the shipping profile (e.g., "Standard Shipping (2-5 business days)").
   • This is recommended for merchants using Printify's shipping profiles or the Shipping Calculator, as this relies on the static text descriptions provided by Printify.
2. "Automated":
   • Displays a specific delivery date range based on fulfillment history.
   • This can be useful for merchants with a large volume of orders with sufficient historical data for Shopify to make accurate predictions.
3. "Manual" (Not Recommended):
   • This setting combines a custom fulfillment time (set by the merchant) with the transit time from the shipping profile to calculate a delivery date.
   • This isn't recommended when using Printify's shipping profiles or the Shipping Calculator, shipping times are provided as text descriptions, not number values that Shopify can use for this calculation. This can lead to inaccurate delivery estimates.