Setting up international shipping can quickly expand the reach of your business, help you
stay competitive and open your business to more customers.
Today, we’ll discuss how to plan your international shipping strategy and how Shopify Shipping
can help you with this.
If you’re new to the channel, consider subscribing for new videos from the Shopify Help Center
every week.
You can find all related help articles for this video in the description below.
The first step of planning your international shipping strategy is to decide where your
want to ship your products.
Here’s a few tips to help you decide:
Start with familiar destinations.
Ship to countries nearby or places where you've shipped in the past so that you can set realistic
expectations for your customers on delivery times and rates.
Let’s say you live in the United States - start by shipping to both the United States
and Canada as a starting point.
Then once you’re comfortable with shipping orders, expand into more countries.
Keep watching for more details on how to set up your shipping zones and rates.
Track current demand.
Check out your store’s traffic analytics to see which countries are already visiting
your online store.
If you recently launched your online store, these analytics may not be available yet.
Try using Google Trends to see what people are searching for, and where, to make an educated
decision on your target markets.
Consider the main languages of any market for expansion.
Communication is essential when dealing with customers.
If you’re fluent in a few languages, consider expanding into these countries.
After you’ve decided where you want to start shipping, you need to edit your shipping settings.
Start on the Shopify admin and click Settings.
Next, click Shipping.
Here, you see your Shipping Profiles section.
Today, we’re going to create shipping zones and rates in the General Profile, which contains
all of the products in the AlyAthletics store.
Start by clicking Manage Rates.
In the Products section, you see all of the products listed in the profile.
In the Shipping From section, you see all of the locations where you ship products from.
In this example, we’re shipping products from our location in San Francisco.
If you’d like to learn more about shipping from multiple locations, see the video linked
above.
Next, click Create shipping zone, or select the three dot icon and click Edit Zone.
In the pop up give the zone a name.
Then, search for countries and select the checkboxes for what countries you’d like
to include in this zone.
In this example, we’re selecting Canada and the United States.
If you want to limit the shipping zone to certain areas within a country, click the
arrow beside the country name.
You can add or remove specific states or provinces using the checkboxes.
When you’re finished making changes, click Done.
Next, click Add rate and decide if you’d like to create your own manual shipping rates,
or if you’d like to use carrier calculated shipping rates, like this example.
In the dropdown menu, you see carriers available through Shopify Shipping; if you don’t qualify
for Shopify Shipping, there are third-party apps in the Shopify app store that can help
you offer calculated shipping rates.
Shopify Shipping displays calculated shipping rates to your customers at checkout.
Shopify Shipping is available for orders shipped from the United States with rates from USPS,
DHL Express, and UPS.
Orders shipped from Canada have rates available with Canada Post.
Calculated shipping rates show either domestic and international shipping costs automatically
at checkout.
Back in the Shopify admin, select the carrier or calculated shipping rates app you want
to use.
Then, in the Services section, check the shipping services you want to offer your customers.
With Shopify Shipping, you charge your customers the same amount that it costs you to ship
packages.
But, in the Handling Fee section, you can add a markup or markdown to the calculated
rate by entering a dollar or percentage value.
This section is optional, and used if you want to account for the cost of packing materials
or labour.
Click Done to finish.
You can continue to create new shipping zones and rates using the same steps just outlined.
When you’re finished making changes, click Save.
Back on the shipping settings page, you see a section called packages.
The default package listed in your shipping settings, is what’s used to calculate the
shipping costs.
Click Edit to make adjustments to the package’s weight and dimensions.
You can also add a new package, or set another saved package as the default to calculate
shipping costs.
You also need to ensure that every product has a weight value included so shipping rates
are calculated properly at checkout.
Consider using the bulk editor tool to efficiently edit your product’s weight values.
You can also use the bulk editor tool to edit product’s customs information, like the
HS tariff code and adding a country of origin.
HS tariff codes help expedite the customs clearance process by providing information
on the contents of the package.
If you prefer, you can edit customs information when you first add a product; or in the shipping
section of a product page, or variant page like in this example.
Select a country of origin and search for an HS code.
Enter the type of product you are shipping and choose the best match available for the
HS code to populate.
If you haven’t entered customs information on the product page, you can still do so when
you purchase an international label through Shopify.
After you click Edit customs information, enter the country of origin and HS tariff
code details.
Click the checkbox Save customs duties to product details so the customs information
saves to the product page.
Then, the next time this product is ordered, customs information is automatically included.
If you’d like, you can also add insurance to your shipment with Shopify Shipping before
you purchase your label.
For more in depth videos how to edit your shipping settings, subscribe now.
If you have questions, comment below or contact the Shopify support team at help.shopify.com/questions.