Selected countries in the same shipping zone show incorrect error message on checkout page

[Darabara365]

Not sure if any shop owner has encountered this before or not. I've recently found out that a few countries in a same shipping zone (Asia) is showing the error message "Shipping not available", prior to submitted a shipping address, and when customers populate the full address, the shipping rates then loads. I believe a Shopify support staff mentioned to me it's a known bug.

BUT! Then I started doing some testings, removing and adding marketings, creating and deleting shipping profiles, adding and removing zones and rates, etc. And I randomly added additional regions to the markets, specifically added Vatican City and Macao, after that I went to shipping profiles and mapped the two regions separately into EU zone and Asia zone. Then only Macao is showing this incorrect error message, choosing Vatican city does not.

I've created a ticket with Shopify Support and they are investigating the issue. I don't know why only some shipping destinations in the shipping profile are showing the error message, but some other destinations just work fine.

Plan is Shopify basic. But yea, if anyone has seen similar glitches, please kindly share your experience and thoughts.

 Before populating shipping address 

 After populating the shipping address 

[MandasaTech]

Hey @Darabara365 

Yes, we’ve seen this issue pop up in a few stores recently — especially when multiple regions are mapped under the same shipping zone, and customers haven’t fully entered their address yet.

What you’re experiencing seems to be related to how Shopify dynamically loads shipping rates after the full address is entered. Some regions like Macao or Vatican City may not be matched correctly by Shopify's geolocation API until the full postal code or province is entered — which triggers that “Shipping not available” message prematurely.

A few things you can try or consider:

1. Double-check how Macao is defined in your market settings vs shipping profile — sometimes there’s a mismatch in naming conventions between the Market settings and the Shipping Profile.

2. Avoid mixing too many different country types in a single shipping zone (e.g. EU + Asia) when possible. Create cleaner, region-specific zones to isolate the issue.

3. Try using the "Rest of World" option as a fallback with a standard flat rate just to avoid dead ends in the checkout process temporarily.

4. Keep the support ticket open — this sounds like an edge case bug, and Shopify may need to escalate it to their technical team to fix at the platform level.

We’ve helped many merchants sort these types of glitches with a bit of trial + cleanup on market/shipping configurations. You're not alone here — hopefully
Shopify patches this soon.

Would love to know what their support comes back with!

[jenetmarry]

Hello @Darabara365 

I have encounter this before but i get helped by my shopify marketing agency. you can try them out

[Channelwill]

Hi @Darabara365,

Yes, this is something we’ve seen too. It seems like a Shopify display glitch where the “Shipping not available” error appears before the full address is entered, even though valid rates do load after.

It’s good that you’ve already raised a ticket. In the meantime, here are a few things that might help reduce friction:

• Test affected countries and move them into a separate shipping zone temporarily, sometimes isolating them bypasses the glitch.

• Use address autocompletion tools if possible, this can help prompt Shopify to trigger shipping logic faster.

• Add a cart note or checkout message like:
  “If shipping says 'unavailable,' please complete your address and wait a few seconds, rates should appear”

If you're using ParcelPanel Order Tracking, that's already a great step, it helps keep customers updated post-checkout when these kinds of errors might shake trust.

Hope Shopify resolves this bug soon!
And if it solves the issue, feel free to mark it as a solution so others can find it too.