Why isn't Shopify charging shipping rates on my orders?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: Orders below the free‑shipping threshold were completing without any shipping charge or shipping method selection (free shipping set over £20; items were £10). This occurred across accelerated checkouts (Apple Pay, PayPal, Shop).

Troubleshooting and findings:

  • Shipping profile included the products, but screenshots weren’t visible to support. Store link was shared; support could see shipping rates for some products and asked for exact product mixes.
  • Root cause found by the original poster: the affected item was marked as “doesn’t ship,” likely changed when editing (e.g., putting on sale). Updating this resolved their issue.

Additional resolution shared by another merchant (important general fix):

  • If a product (or its variants) has “This is a physical product” unchecked, Shopify treats it as a digital/virtual item, so no shipping or delivery fees are charged. Fix by editing the product/variant and checking “This is a physical product.”

Current status:

  • Original case appears resolved after correcting the product’s shipping/physical settings.
  • Another merchant reports the same symptom and shared their site; no final confirmation yet. Thread remains open with a clear recommended fix: verify product/variant shipping/physical flags.
Summarized with AI on January 7. AI used: gpt-5.
9

Finally resolved an issue I was having with shopify sometimes bypassing the delivery fee! We have the option for free store pickup or $40 local delivery. Sometimes an order will come through saying delivery, and showing a selected delivery date, however there will be no delivery fee charged to the customer. We have never offered any free delivery promotions.

After searching through all delivery and pickup settings, and trying to put through an order in which I was able to bypass the delivery fee, I was finally able to figure out the issue. Two orders happen to come through for the same product and they both had gotten free delivery. I realized at this point, the issue is NOT with the delivery/shipping settings in shopify, but with the actual product settings.

Here is how I fixed the issue:

  1. Check which products are on the order that is not charging the customer shipping

  2. Go to products, search for those products and open them

  3. Once in the product settings, look for a line that says “this is a physical product” make sure this box is checked! If this box is not checked, shopify thinks this is a virtual/digital product that does not require shipping, and it will not charge for it.

If you have variants on a product, you will need to scroll down to the list of variants, and click on edit, next to one of your SKU’s. The next page will show this box.

I really hope this helps other shopify users out there! This issue was driving me crazy for almost two years, before I figured it out.

  • Jessie