How to change the return address on shipping labels to my PO box instead of my home adress?

DND
New Member
4 0 0

I need help changing the return address on orders to my PO box instead of my home address. All of my orders were made from my home location, and I just added a PO box and I want to change the address that appears on my shipping labels to that PO box instead of my address. I assume that if I could somehow change the orders' location from my home to the PO box then the return address on the shipping labels would say that PO box. Could someone help me through this if that's the right way to do it/and if its not, tell me how to otherwise change my return address? I have set my PO box as the default location in the locations section already but that didn't do anything. I would really appreciate any help with this, thank you.

 I've seen some old forum posts about this but they mention changing the "Shipping from" in the shipping section which I don't see. The posts were made in 2019 so I'm guessing they moved or changed this feature to somewhere else. 

Replies 8 (8)

Nia
Shopify Staff
537 38 79

Hi, @!

In order to change the return address on your shipping labels, you'll need to edit the "Shipping From" section in your Shipping settings.

Do you currently have two locations active in your location settings?

If you have two locations active, please follow the instructions below to edit this -

  1. Navigate to Settings > Shipping and Delivery
  2. Next to your shipping profile, click on Manage Rates.
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you should see the Not Shipping From section. 
     

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  4. Click on Add Rates next to the PO BOX location you have set up and click on New Rates for ____
  5. Set up your shipping rates for this location.
  6. You will want to remove the previous location from this section so click on Manage next to the location and Remove Rates.
  7. Remember to save!

If you still don't see any of the sections mentioned above, please send through a screenshot of your Shipping and Delivery settings page (feel free to blur out any sensitive information)and I'll continue to help you out!

We also have the holiday season approaching us so I want to see how your preparation is going for that time! Have you got your marketing strategies in place for this season coming?
We have a great guide on Boosting Conversion over the Holiday Season so definitely take some time to check it out and get ready for the crazy end of year madness!

Nia | Social Care @ Shopify 
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 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
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DND
New Member
4 0 0

Hi Nia, thanks for the quick reply. I tried what you said and nothing changed when I tried making a test shipping label, my home address was still the return address instead of my PO box. Heres a screenshot of my Shipping and Delivery settings page. The "Not Shipping From" section has my home address. 

 Shipping and Delivery settings.png

Also, I noticed when I was double checking my location settings to make sure everything was fine but when I saved I got a red error sign on the bottom of the screen saying "Failed to mark UPS return address on file out of sync". Do you have any idea what's up with that? Thanks for the help.

Nia
Shopify Staff
537 38 79

Hi, @!

I appreciate you sending that screenshot through. Have you deactivated all unnecessary locations within your Location Settings?

If you're only using the PO Box location, this should be the only location active within your settings.

In order to fully deactivate and delete a location within your settings, please follow the steps below -

  1. Navigate to Settings > Locations.
  2. Click on any locations that are not in use.
  3. Click on Deactivate location.
  4. Once the page has refreshed, click on Delete locations to completely remove this from your store.

Once you've completed the above, go ahead and double check your PO Box location settings. If the error message is still appearing and your return address has not changed, can you please contact our 24/7 Support team so our advisors can take a look into your Shopify admin. This may require an escalation to our Shipping support team but it is best to have our Support Advisors take a look into your Shopify settings to pinpoint exactly where the issue is!

Nia | Social Care @ Shopify 
 - Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Susie123
Visitor
1 0 1

Hi I'm just starting my business and currently get my courier company (Sendle) to pick up my products from only one location which is my home address. When I print my shipping labels I want my home address not to appear and it to be a virtual office I have set up. So if I change this address in my shipping profile to my virtual office address example ..123 High street, just so my customers won't see my actual home address on the shipping label, when I create the shipping label and fulfill the order within shopify, Will my courier company know pick up the goods from my home address and not virtual office address?

BTW - I'm using Sendle within Australia   

EricD
Visitor
2 0 7

The problem then becomes taxes.

This will change the return address, but then taxes will be calculated from the po box address. Since that is not the warehouse or office, it is not the legal nexus and cannot legally be the address where taxes are calculated from. This is the issue I’m having right not with Shopify.

 

Taxes and shipping have to become two separate address inputs for home based businesses to maintain privacy. I am amazed this is not available. For e-commerce retail, the taxes are calculated based on the customer location in relation to the business nexus.

 

If the address in Shopify is not the nexus (home owner in this case), then tax calculations will be wrong, regardless. Is there a work around? Shopify desperately needs to allow account owners to specify: nexus address, return shipping address, and ship from zip code.

 

My home is my nexus. My UPS personal mailbox (in the next town and county) is my public company physical return address, and I ship from the closest USPS to my home, which is in my zip code but NOT in the same county or city jurisdiction as my nexus (home) and not the same zip code as the UPS personal mailbox for businesses.

 

This is the best available options for me, because there is nothing in the same tax zone as my home, and many public legal filings will not accept a PO Box location. Anyone who does not live in a big city where there home is also the same jurisdictions as there anonymous mailbox (PO or PMB), is most likely running in to this same issue. Many probably don’t realize.

 

I realized because Shopify charged taxes for some customers who lived in another county and city (where my UPS PMB was) and I realized it was because I had made that my ship from address so the return address in the shipping label would be correct. But that is not where I ship from and it is certainly not my legal nexus for taxes. It is simply an anonymous public address for returns and correspondence. That’s it.

 

It’s a simple fix on Shopify end, but a major difficulty for us. I am forced to choose whether to let everyone know my home address OR have my Shopify taxes be correct. This is a ridiculous choice to have to make in order to use Shopify.

 

The ship FROM zip code is a USPS tracker and also needs to be manually correctable, because the ship from zip code is how USPS tracks the route needed for the package. According to my post master, shipping from a different zip code can cause a longer ship time because it can cause the package to be sent first to that zip code distribution center before being sent to its destination. Causing an extended route.

 

We need 3 entries with manual input for Shopify to populate labels and taxes from.

1) business nexus address (private- office presence, warehouse, for sales tax calculations)

2) return address (public- for shipping labels and any public notification to customers- packing slips, details on credit card purchase, etc.)

3) the ship from zip code for USPS tracking. (This populates on the shipping label, upper right, under package weight and is used by USPS for tracking.)

 

These options are available on other platforms. All it would take to build out is the input form in our settings, and that input be directed to the appropriate places already in the system for labels, taxes, etc. It’s a simple form change and re-route.

This is a huge problem for a home based business in a rural area and many owners are probably not aware. Please correct this. This is privacy and taxes. It is not something that should be left alone or wait for a certain amount of complaints before correcting. It was hard for me to figure out what was happening and I’ve seen MULTIPLE online questions being asked that relate to this. Just like this question. If anyone is asking about their return address being different from home address, then this is most likely the same problem for them. They may just not have realized the tax implications yet or they’re lucky their PO or PMB are in the same jurisdictions as their home.

Scent
Visitor
1 0 3

My issue is that my shipping labels have my PMB address, but not the PMB number. So if a package gets returned, I can only hope that my mail people will figure the correct box number.

pawniolopets
Visitor
1 0 1

Yes, we are running in to this issue as well. We live in a rural area where USPS does not recognize our physical address. That is a whole other set of issues. When we send packages out that USPS deems undeliverable, they then can not return the packages to us. Our local delivery driver got creative and has been dropping our packages off at our farmers market location.

Rinercl
Visitor
1 0 1

I second this as a serious problem. I am a brand new user. Privacy is important to me. I have spent hours trying to figure out how to scrub my personal address from my shipping labels. Why isn’t there a simple field to enter what we want there?