Multiple merchants are requesting the ability to assign shipping profiles directly during product creation in Shopify Admin, rather than through the current multi-step process in Settings.
Current workflow issues:
Users must create products first, then navigate to Settings > Shipping > select profile > Manage Products > find and add each item individually
Process is time-consuming and error-prone, especially for stores adding 100+ products monthly
Easy to forget, resulting in products assigned to incorrect shipping profiles
Proposed solutions:
Add a dropdown field in the product creation interface to select shipping profiles (preferred method)
Allow collections to be assigned to shipping profiles, automatically applying to all products in that collection
Business impact:
One merchant evaluating Shopify migration from WooCommerce considers this a potential “non-starter” for their business model (antique furniture with 5 different shipping profiles). Another user notes WooCommerce handles this functionality easily.
Status:
No official Shopify team response provided. Users note recent admin interface improvements suggest attention to the system, but shipping profile workflow remains unchanged. Shopify Flow app does not currently support this automation.
Summarized with AI on October 31.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I was wondering if there were any plans to create a drop-down field in the product creation area of the Shopify Admin to select a shipping profile?
Along the same lines, is there a way that we could add a collection to a shipping profile and then have it apply equally to every item in that collection?
Currently, when you have multiple shipping profiles, it is extremely tedious to have to go in and change the profile on each separate product after you’ve created them. I carry 4 product lines and have 4 different shipping profiles. Having a way to select the profile as I create the product or just adding it to a collection that will automatically assign the profile would be much, much more time-effective.
I wanted to bring this post back to life. It would be great if someone from the Shopify team would respond. This process as it stands today is screaming for improvement. Having the ability to select the shipping profile during product addition is the most efficient, common-sense method.
I have three different shipping profiles, so every time I add a product I have to stop, open up settings, go to the shipping section, select the shipping profile, click on Manage Products, find and select the item I just added, click Save, then back out of settings. Add the next product, then rinse and repeat. Does that seem like the best way to manage that process? It’s also easy to forget, and as a result products end up in the wrong shipping profiles. As Dan mentioned in his post, either selecting the shipping profile when adding the product (preferred), or assigning collections to each profile, would be a major improvement.
I might be wrong, but it seems as though from a programming perspective this should be a relatively minor modification to implement. Again, it would be really nice if someone from the Shopify team could respond as to whether or not this is in the que, and if no, why not? It would be a very worthwhile improvement.
I agree! It’s such a tedious process! It would be fantastic if you could assign the right shipping profile right in the Product Organization panel when adding a new product. Any plans to implement this, Shopify?
We’d also like to see improvements here. I noticed that the admin interface recently improved, so this indicates there is some attention being given to this system. But the ability to work with Delivery Profiles is beset with tedium.
I’m evaluation moving from Woocommerce to Shopify and currently within the trial. We sell one-off items (only ever 1 of each) but a lot of them - antique and retro furniture and other homewares. We have 5 different shipping profiles/rates - our main one is Collection Only for the items of furniture. I can create the profiles ok but can’t believe that I can’t set the profile when adding the product, To have to go into the Shipping Profile itself and add the product (once I’ve added the product details) will be way too time consuming for us to do - we add over 100 products a month to our store. This is so easy to do in WooCommerce - if this can’t be done in Shopify then unfortunately its a non-starter for us.
Your assessment comports with my understanding of the current capabilities of Shopify. I checked to see if this is something the Shopify Flow app can do automatically, and it does not seem to be able to do this. I suggest checking the app store for something that does what you’re describing… Let me know if you find anything.
Some thoughts on WooCommerce versus Shopify:
I’ve developed quite a few stores of both types, and heavily customized both platforms. Not being able to tinker with the internals of a SaaS platform made me initially cautious to use Shopify, but the trade-offs are staggering. When you’re running WooCommerce, you’re living under the constant threat of, among other things, a.) Vulnerabilities in the plugins your store depends upon, including WooCommerce itself, b.) Server stability issues, including server security, and c.) Unforced error in terms of code you introduced to production that caused regression.
Not having to worry about these things and knowing that the server isn’t going to crash, your customer data isn’t going to get pillaged because of a 3rd party plugin, and your ability to add-to-cart and checkout won’t randomly break is worth having to work around some of the limitations that Shopify has.
Disclosure: I’m not paid by Shopify to say this, I’ve been developing database driven web applications for over 20 years at agencies and private enterprise, and I’m a “build it yourself” type of person.