Shopify Shipping: What It Is and How It Works

Shopify Shipping is a set of shipping tools embedded in the Shopify admin that simplifies how online sellers buy postage, generate shipping labels, offer carrier-calculated rates at checkout, and track shipments. It bundles several practical features—label purchasing, discounted carrier rates, package presets, fulfillment workflows, and tracking notifications—so merchants can manage shipping without switching between multiple third-party carrier websites.

At a basic level, Shopify Shipping lets you buy and print shipping labels directly from your order page. When you mark an order as ready to ship, Shopify uses the order weight, package dimensions and the destination address to give you a list of available carrier services and prices. You can then select the service you prefer, pay for the label, and print it. Because Shopify negotiates rates with partnered carriers, many merchants see discounted postage compared with retail rates—especially for domestic carriers in supported countries.

Key capabilities most merchants encounter when using Shopify Shipping include:

• Discounted carrier rates — Shopify passes through negotiated postage discounts from supported carriers (availability varies by country).
• Label purchasing and printing — Buy and print labels, including return labels and customs forms for international shipments.
• Multiple package presets — Save common box sizes and weights to speed up label creation and ensure consistent pricing.
• Carrier-calculated shipping at checkout — Show live carrier rates to customers (availability may depend on your Shopify plan and region).
• Tracking and delivery notifications — Automatically add tracking numbers to orders and send status updates to customers.
• Protected shipments and insurance — Purchase optional insurance or add delivery protection where supported.

Which carriers you can use through Shopify Shipping depends on the merchant’s country and Shopify’s partnerships in that region. Typical carrier partners include national postal services and major couriers (for example, postal carriers and well-known couriers such as USPS, Royal Mail, Canada Post, Australia Post, UPS, and others in supported markets). Shopify’s list of supported carriers shifts over time, so it’s a good idea to check the Shopify admin or help center for the latest list for your country.

How Shopify Shipping fits into a merchant’s fulfillment flow can be illustrated by a simple example

Imagine you receive an order for a pair of shoes. You confirm inventory in your warehouse, pack the shoes into a saved box preset (dimensions and weight already saved), and go to the order in Shopify. Shopify suggests available shipping services and rates for the package and destination. You select an appropriate service—perhaps a two-day express option—pay for the label with funds attached to your Shopify billing, print the label, attach it to the package, and mark the order as fulfilled. Shopify then automatically sends tracking information to the customer and updates order status in your store.

For merchants who use third-party fulfillment providers or multiple warehouses, Shopify Shipping supports multi-origin shipping profiles and third-party carrier accounts in certain configurations, enabling more complex fulfillment networks. Additionally, many merchants combine Shopify Shipping with shipping apps from the Shopify App Store to enable multi-carrier comparisons, advanced rate rules, or international customs automation.

For beginners, the biggest benefits of Shopify Shipping are convenience and time savings

Labels and tracking are managed inside the same admin used for orders, returns, and customer communications; fewer manual steps mean fewer mistakes; and negotiated rates can lower postage costs. However, it’s important to remember that features, rates, and available carriers vary by country and plan, and some advanced capabilities (like certain carrier-calculated checkout rates) may require a particular Shopify plan or a third-party configuration.

In short, Shopify Shipping is designed to make shipping easier for online merchants by centralizing label buying, rate calculation, and shipment tracking in one place—helping sellers spend less time on logistics and more time on growing their business.