Setting up local delivery areas and fees

BySupport Admin

Local delivery helps you serve your immediate community without the high costs of traditional couriers. By defining specific areas where you or your team can personally drop off orders, you can offer faster service and lower shipping rates to your neighborly customers.

How to set up local delivery zones

WooCommerce uses "Shipping Zones" to determine who sees which delivery options based on their address.

  1. Go to Shipping Settings
    Log in to your WooShop dashboard. In the left-hand menu, go to WooCommerce > Settings and click the Shipping tab at the top.

  2. Add a New Shipping Zone
    Click the Add shipping zone button. Give your zone a clear name, like "Local Neighborhood" or "5-Mile Radius." This name is only for your internal reference.

  3. Define Your Area by Zip Code
    Under Zone regions, select your state or province. To get specific, click the link that says Limit to specific ZIP/postcodes. Enter the zip codes you service, one per line. You can also use wildcards (e.g., 902*) to cover all codes starting with those digits.

  4. Add the Delivery Method
    Click Add shipping method within that zone. Select Flat Rate from the dropdown and click Continue.

  5. Customize the Fee and Name
    Click Edit on the new Flat Rate method.

    • Method title: Change this to "Local Delivery" so customers see it at checkout.

    • Cost: Enter your delivery fee. Enter 0 if you want to offer free local delivery.

    • Click Save changes.

Common scenarios

Free delivery for the closest neighbors
You might want to offer free delivery to your immediate zip code but charge $5 for the rest of the city. Create two separate zones. Put the "Free" zone at the top of your list. WooCommerce checks the list from top to bottom and stops as soon as it finds a match for the customer’s address.

Minimum order amount for delivery
If you only want to offer local delivery on orders over $30, you can add "Free Shipping" as a method within your local zone. In the settings for that method, choose "A minimum order amount" and set your threshold.

Troubleshooting tips

Customers can’t see the local delivery option
Double-check your zip code formatting. If you have any spaces or typos in the zip code list, WooCommerce won’t recognize the match. Also, ensure the customer’s address matches the region (State/Province) you selected for that zone.

The wrong shipping price is showing
Check the order of your Shipping Zones. If a customer lives in an area covered by two different zones, WooCommerce will only apply the one that appears highest on your list. Use the "three-bar" icon to drag and drop zones into the correct priority.

"Local Pickup" is appearing instead
"Local Pickup" is a separate built-in method where the customer comes to you. If you want to go to them, make sure you are using the Flat Rate method and renaming it to "Local Delivery."

Quick Recap

Setting up local delivery involves creating a Shipping Zone, narrowing it down by zip code, and adding a Flat Rate method. This ensures only customers in your vicinity see your custom delivery pricing.

Next steps:

  • [Setting up Local Pickup for your store]

  • [How to print packing slips for local orders]

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