Unfortunately we tried that as well. It’s selected first and apparently people don’t read. We had to take it off completely and that was one thing we offered locals that we were really excited about. Seems so silly that Shopify can’t rectify this by making the options sortable by the owner.
Topic summary
Merchants want control over the checkout order of shipping methods because Shopify auto-selects the cheapest rate, causing customers to mistakenly choose free Local Pickup. Requests include: set a default method, disable any default, or manually sort rates.
Official status: Shopify staff acknowledge the need, have logged a feature request, and provide no timeline. The thread remains unresolved; updates would appear on the Changelog.
Impact: repeated customer errors, manual follow-up to collect shipping fees, poor customer experience, and operational burden (worsened by express checkouts like Apple Pay/Google Pay/PayPal skipping the shipping step). Safety concerns also raised about exposing pickup addresses.
Workarounds shared:
- Make Local Pickup less attractive (rename to “FREE PICKUP,” move to state-only zones, or set a high pickup fee with an instruction/discount code).
- Remove/limit express checkout buttons; emphasize “LOCAL PICKUP” in titles/descriptions.
- Use Shopify’s Local Pickup/Local Delivery (separate tabs) where compatible.
- Third‑party apps (e.g., Intuitive Shipping, Zapiet) to conditionally show pickup; many require the Carrier Service API (CCS) and added cost.
- Niche hacks: product variants for “Courier vs Collection.”
Most recent development: a newly released free app claims to reorder shipping rates without CCS. The core native capability is still missing; discussion is ongoing.
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