How can I change the default shipping option on my online store?

[darioospina90]

I've the following situation on my store neojuicery.com :

* Users can select either free pickup or delivery at a calculated rate

* Users select many times the delivery option but they change their mind when they see the fee.

* Once they are on the checkout page, they should be able to make a final decision, they already know the fee of the delivery but they still have the free pickup option, however the Shopify algorithm seems to select by default the free pickup option, even though they selected the delivery option.

* I was told that if there're two options, Shopify will always select by default the lowest one, in this case the free pickup option.

* All I want is to change the default option from "Free pickup" to "Delivery fee", but still show the two options in case the user change their mind.

I hope this is clear, I would really appreciate any help on this.

Thank you in advance. 

[Dirk · Accepted solution]

Hey, @darioospina90 

At this time, the checkout system is going to display the shipping rates in order of cheapest to most expensive. This isn't something that can be customized at this time. If you would like, I'd be happy to pass along this feedback to our development team for potential future implementation.

Alternatively, I would suggest editing the name of 'Free Pickup' to something such as 'In-Store Pickup (Address)' and just leave the price as free. That way people will have a better distinction between the two shipping options.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[darioospina90]

Thank you Dirk for your contribution.

[Dirk]

Happy to help, @darioospina90 

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[PGF]

HI there,
have the same issue but only with costumers using ApplePay - where the default option (Free) is selected. Please, will do something about ? 

[_charlie_]

But you did NOT help! All you did was say you could NOT solve the problem!

[_charlie_]

WHAT useful contribution did he make?!

All he essentially said was 'NO, your problem can NOT be fixed, and we have no intention of fixing it anytime soon'! How the hell is that even remotely beneficial?!

[hwojner]

Hello,

We currently ship most orders, but have some local customers who prefer local pickup.  Since this defaults to local pickup, we have at least one order a day where a customer who needs the order shipped, chooses local pick up in error.  It's extra paperwork and time every day.  Can you please pass this along to the development team for future implementation?

Or if you have any other recommendations, please let me know.  For now I will remove local pickups (which will also require more refunds, but will be less paperwork).

Thanks

Heather

[SaltySoirée]

Hello,

we are having the same exact issue. @Dirk please update us on the status of the request to be able to choose a default shipping method. I work in software development and this is a very simple change. Please pass along to the team again. This is a very unnecessary pain point for people. 

[darioospina90]

Hello @Dirk, quick question, if my account is not Shopify Plus, can I still make modifications on the checkout page?? I only want to add a text below the header "Shipping method", is that possible??? Can I modify the DOM from the "Additional scripts" box located in Settings > Checkout???

Thanks in advance.

[Dirk]

Hey, @darioospina90 

You would not be able to add additional text to the checkout page as that would be considered a modification that is locked under non-plus plans.  You could use the edit languages feature of your theme (Admin > Online Store > Themes > Action > 'edit languages' to add some additional text to the 'shipping method title:

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[darioospina90]

Hello @Dirk, I have an ongoing issue with the file "products-images.liquid". I opened a new discussion https://community.shopify.com/c/shopify-design/product-images-liquid/m-p/1554965#M413159 asking about it, I was wondering if you could help me with that.

Thanks in advance,

Dario

[RainbowsFairies]

Hello

Just wanting to check if there is a plan to allow modification of the default shipping?

Our site is new to Shopify and am loving everything except the default shipping. 

I need the checkout to default to the paid option.

Any help appreciated

Thanks

Tracey

[Odette_2]

I am also looking for this feature.  I want to offer a free pickup option but need the paid option to be selected by default.

[adviseneeded]

Hi Dirk, 

I would also like to see this option modified. to highest option first instead of lowest.

Thank you

[darioospina90]

Hello @Dirk, it seems there are many people struggling with the same. If you could reach the development team again showing them that this feature would be a relevant enhance for many users, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[web_at_ambi]

Still very, very interested in allowing us to sort the order of the shipping methods (so that it's not from cheapest to most expensive).  Now that the pandemic is "over" the free curbside pickups are going to decrease, but apple pay and other auto-payment options are still defaulting to the "cheapest option" which is actually almost always the wrong option.  😭!!!

[Danny31]

Just had the same question and now wondering why there's so much bureaucracy to have this one small change we've been asking for years that can instantly add $100s in revenue per day in some cases for a lot of merchants

[dmmortimer]

+1 vote for this feature. We also have a free pickup option that is selected by default and shows first in the list of shipping methods and is usually NOT what the customer wants when they've chosen Ship as the delivery method. (Don't get me started on why the local pickup options have to appear under the Ship option - that's a different feature request to allow one central inventory location with multiple pickup locations. We're using free shipping rates as a workaround.) We've chosen the name of the shipping rate carefully but customers  don't read closely. Feature request: make the default selection and ordering of shipping methods configurable.

[dmmortimer]

Replying to myself with an update - we're now using BSure Checkout Rules and it's solved our problem. The free pickup option now appears last in the list of shipping methods and doesn't get chosen accidentally any more. Not great that Shopify doesn't build in this feature but glad that a developer has put together a reasonably-priced add-on to do it.

[Tom_Wolfenden]

We would also like to see this feature enacted ASAP. Each day we are having to manually invoice a number of people who have selected the default (free) shipping but need delivery. Please look into this and fix ASAP - it's obvious that this is really needed.

[AndersAlmgren]

100% the same issue for us. 

[MuskokaGeek]

The accepted answer is no longer true in 2023.

You can easily use BeSure Checkout Rules app to add a rule to reorder shipping methods based on order total, address, product tags, customer tags etc.

This app uses the latest Shopify functions api, which means no impact to your store speed at all. You can setup the app in a few minutes, very easy to do so. Works even for non plus stores. 

You can Reorder shipping methods in a fixed ranking or by delivery type or by price. You can even create a rule to first sort by, for example, delivery price and then sort again by shipping rate name.

[mstill63]

I think the BeSure Checkout Rules app can only change the order of the Shipping methods and not change which method is selected by default?  It still means the cheapest shipping option is selected by default whether its at the top middle or bottom of list - so this will not resolve our issue

[Avi303]

That is incorrect in my experience. If BeSure reorders the shipping methods, the top one will be selected. But, if someone changes the method and leaves checkout, it will be set to the method they chose and not to the top one when they come back to checkout. You can confirm this behavior by opening an incognito browser session. 

[Sam9516]

@Avi303 is right. Since you opened your checkout before, so Shopify caches your shipping selections in cookies. You need to clear out all your cookies or try incognito mode or try different browser, to see what customers will see on your checkout. Then you will see the top most shipping method becomes the default option.

[enthousiaste]

This issue is causing us major headaches, constantly. It would have to take shopify about 5 seconds to fix it - absolutely infuriating! Why can't we just have it default to no selection, and make it a mandatory field to fill that turns red and angry if the customer tries to go to the next page without filling it in? With the new checkout, it's not even clear that it's a changeable field and no one is noticing the arrow to make a new selection. We're having to invoice the delivery charge separately for every order! i.e. not via shopify. Maddening. 

[mstill63]

Totally agree - the new checkout single page is less intuitive than the previous version & the drop down arrow ridiculous - we are chasing incorrect shipping payments all the time - come on Shopify !!!

[LostTreasuresAU]

Hi Dirk,

Has this been resolved? It's so frustrating having "Store Pickup" as the default option. We have to call up every second customer to get shipping payment off them... so time consuming. How hard would it be to have a "set to default" option for us? Cheers

[Avi303]

I just had opening day on my Shopify Plus store, and over 5 customers left pickup (even though it was named with exact address of pickup) instead of choosing a shipping method when they needed to. Thanx to reading other solutions below, I installed BSure Checkout Rules and for $5 a month I'm able to move the pickup options to the bottom like i had on my magento store. Wish shopify just had a way to order the options.

[_charlie_]

Thanks for that, I'll check it out.

I guess as so often is the case (as Shopify apparently couldn't care less about its customers), we have no option but to pay for a third-party app to do what Shopify SHOULD be doing as part of its regular service.

[tallrob007]

Hi Dirk,

I'm very grateful for your 10 month old response, but it does absolutely nothing to move this 10 year old problem forward.

The "Accepted Solution" isn't a solution at all. It's a vague suggestion to try and reduce the problem.

The "ACTUAL Solution" (the ability to reorder shipping rates in whichever order we choose) could be put in place by the Shopify coding team in less time than it takes to read this thread.

Perhaps that would be worth pursuing? Anything else is just a waste of everybody's time.

So please, please Dirk, could you pass along this thread's feedback to the Shopify Development team for potential future implementation and then come back to us with an actual response from that Department?

It has been an issue for your Shopify customer base for over a decade! I would have thought in a time frame that long, we had earned a response directly from the Development team as to what progress is or isn't happening, and why Shopify appears to be so resistant to making this very small change, which affects probably 100's of thousands of Shopify Merchants on a daily basis.

If we could have such a response, we would at least know that Shopify Inc isn't just a corporate monolith, but actual cares and listens to the views and concerns of its customers.

Come on Dirk, come on Shopify. This is easy. Just make it happen and prove you're on our side.

[ANorendnzayan]

Dont mark this as solved as there is no solution given.

This is becoming a headache

[Charlotte14]

This isn't a solution - Shopify need to look at this!! We should be able to decide what is which shipping option is pre-selected to customers.

[ksabolovic1]

Has this been added to a roadmap somewhere? Looks like this request is years old but still needed. We'd like to be able to set the default option to local pickup. 

[Sophia]

Hello! We're not able to share the status of feature requests, but we will share feedback with our developers for consideration in future updates. Any feature requests that are released as new or updated features will be posted to the Shopify Changelog.

[Justin_Molnar]

Would love to see this as a feature as well. We are having to do 4-5 manual fixes each day to for paid postage for customers that accept the default pickup option.

[_charlie_]

Shopify couldn't care less about solving customer problems because there's no money in it for them, so they want people to use third-party apps instead. Because app developers who sell apps on the Shopify App Store pay 20% in app revenue to Shopify, so it's another revenue stream for Shopify - at the expense of their customers, of course.

[tallrob007]

Why is the facility to select a "Default Shipping Option" seemingly impossible for Shopify Developers to implement? This apparently simple coding change has been requested by Shopify Customers on the Community Forums since 2013, almost 10 YEARS!!!!
I'm not a Liquid coder, but his seems such a easy change for your developers to do and yet no-one at Shopify HQ seems to have any understanding of the massive inconvenience the lack of this feature is causing to many 1000's of Shopify store owners.
Every time a customer fails to change the Default Shipping method from the cheapest option (which is always the Automatic Default), we have to email them and ask them for an additional Postage payment to cover the shortfall. This is hugely embarrassing, very unprofessional, time-consuming for the Shopify Store owner and leaves a very bad taste in the customer's mouth. Judging by some of the emails we have received in response, we fully expect some of these customers will never buy from us again, exclusively for this reason.
So why are you so unwilling to fix this? If you don't understand the problem please message me and I can explain the implications in great detail. And please don't suggest some over-priced monthly App subscription, this is a fundamental part of any sensible e-commerce software and should be included "out-of-the box". ( I checked 3 British web store software providers, and they all allow the Store owner to choose the default shipping method as a standard setting.)

I look forward to hearing from you.

[Koennn]

It would be very helpful to be able to select the preferred shipping option. We have multiple free shipping options, and I would like to select one as the default. Now, there's no way to do this. Please implement this feature. 

[Fiona_Tarr]

Still having issues with this lack of functionality.  Would love to see some improvement here, seems like quite a small change could be made as this is a huge QOL feature for many of us.

[Ally14]

i also find this super frustrating. I have taken the free pickup option off due to customers not reading the shipping options. So many orders going through as free pickup when in reality they want delivery. I wonder whether another option would be to make the customer pick their delivery preference at checkout rather than Shopify automatically pre-selecting the cheapest.

[Sam9516]

The accepted answer is no longer true in 2023.

You can easily use BeSure Checkout Rules app to add a rule to reorder shipping methods based on order total, address, product tags, customer tags etc.

This app uses the latest Shopify functions api, which means no impact to your store speed at all. You can setup the app in a few minutes, very easy to do so. Works even for non plus stores. 

You can Reorder shipping methods in a fixed ranking or by delivery type or by price. You can even create a rule to first sort by, for example, delivery price and then sort again by shipping rate name.

[MuskokaGeek]

This is True. This App works perfectly for reordering or hiding Shipping Options, and ordering and hiding payment methods, with many options for conditionals.

[enthousiaste]

Does the free plan on BeSure Checkout Rules app  allow you to reorder shipping profiles? Or only payment profiles? 

[MuskokaGeek]

You can reorder both shipping profiles and payment methods.

[TomTranzistor]

https://apps.shopify.com/delivery-app-3

Yes now with apps like ShipConvert, you can order modify and translate shipping labels ! have a look 

[dmmortimer]

Can confirm, we're now using BSure Checkout Rules and it's solved our problem. The free pickup option now appears last in the list of shipping methods and doesn't get chosen accidentally any more. Very pleased with the app, It Just Works.

[Key-Library]

BSure no longer works.

Please upgrade your plan!

This rule is only available for PRO plan. You won't be charged for the first 3 days even after upgrading plan.