Shipping Options - change order they are displayed

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

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.

Summarized with AI on January 7. AI used: gpt-5.
98

Hi

Im just checking if there is any solution to this issue? I do offer Click&Collect so we have free shipping option. However some customers don’t put much attention and when going via express checkout they dont check the shipping. I have to hunt them down later on for the shipping costs (we have more local pickups than the missed shipping cases). Is there any way to sort this issue? I see it goes back to 2013 at least so thought someone might have actually look into in.

Thanks

Agata

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