Set up shipping for Shopify fulfilment

Learn how to match your Shopify shipping options and rates with Inkthreadable's

Updated over a week ago

Follow this step-by-step guide to configure your Shopify store to sell Inkthreadable products to anyone, anywhere in the world.


How do Shopify shipping profiles work? 🧐

Shopify offers two methods for handling shipping costs for your customers: price-based and weight-based.

We'll use weight-based rules as they allow you to mimic our shipping costs and ensure that customers always cover the postage cost.

Shipping costs vary by parcel weight and destination, so you'll be setting up a profile in Shopify to match Inkthreadable's pricing structure – easy peasy!

If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, don't panic – by the end of this guide, it'll all make perfect sense, and you won't ever have to do this again.

If you're feeling creative, nothing is stopping you from setting up Shopify shipping rates to match our own and then adding a few fun touches of your own.

For example, you could offer free shipping to the UK for orders over £50 – but we won't cover that in this guide since it wouldn't match our shipping costs.

Let's get to it and set you up with shipping rates for worldwide fulfilment.



Step 1: Change your default unit of weight 📦

Head to your Shopify dashboard, then click Settings > Store details to get started.

We will set the weight units to Kilogrammes (since this is used for the weight of Inkthreadable products).

Scroll down to the Time zone and units of measurement section and change the Unit System to "Metric System" and the Default weight unit to "Kilogram (kg)".

Click Save to apply the changes.

Changing these settings changes the default weights for calculating shipping.



Step 2: Assign a weight to Shopify products ⚖️

Since we're using weight-based shipping, you'll also need to make sure your products have weight values assigned to them.

If you're just getting started and don't yet have any products listed in your Shopify store, you can ignore this step (though it may be helpful to understand the method if you plan to create any products manually).

Any products exported from Inkthreadable to Shopify will automatically have the correct weight values assigned to them. We recommend syncing products from Inkthreadable to your store for this reason, and you can always edit the finer details afterwards.

But if you already have some products that you created manually in your Shopify store, follow the process in the drop-down below to ensure your shipping is calculated correctly:

Adding product weights.

Editing each product individually would be pretty time-consuming, but Shopify has a handy tool to help with that - the Bulk Editor.

To use this tool, navigate to your dashboard and click Products. Then, click the checkbox next to any (or all) of your products and click the Bulk edit button.

(If you have a lot of products, it might be worth filtering down to product types first and then selecting all of those to edit their weights in bulk.)

If the Weight field isn’t shown by default, click Columns and select the Weight checkbox.

Firstly, check which units your products are listed in. Changing the default in the last step will not automatically update your products, and if any are still displaying as lbs, select them and change the drop-down to grams (g) or kg now (either g or kg will work fine. When working in kg, make sure to convert all weight value, so 100 g becomes 0.1 kg).

To change the weights, click the cell for the first variant of your product. Then, hold shift and click the bottom row for the same product.

This will highlight the weight field for each variant of the product. Now, as you type, it'll input into each cell simultaneously.

The weight of a t-shirt is 100 g, so this is the value we've assigned to the All Over Print T-shirts in the example.

Most products are either 100 g or 200 g, but there are some exceptions:

Each product has a weight value assigned to it, and for each parcel shipped, these weights are combined to calculate the accurate shipping cost for any combination of products.

Working this way, you'll never pay too much or too little for shipping, and you can match the rates with Inkthreadable's to keep shipping costs for your customers as low as possible.

Use Shopify's bulk editor to assign the appropriate weight value in the table above to each of your products before moving on to the next step.



Step 3: Enable International markets 🌍

In the latest edition of Shopify, you must enable International markets before setting up worldwide shipping rates.

You may already have set this up during your Shopify onboarding, but we'll provide instructions for the most straightforward set-up that will allow you to ship to a worldwide market, just in case.

To get started, head to Settings > Markets.

Add International markets


If you're a UK-based seller, your primary market will be the United Kingdom.

Underneath, you'll see Other markets. If you don't have any of those activated yet, let's fix that to enable your store to accept orders worldwide.

First, we recommend adding the United States. This is our most popular international shipping destination, and over 40% of sales from UK e-commerce stores are shipped to the USA.

Keeping the USA separate from other International locations allows you to track how many sales are coming from the USA specifically (feel free to do this for any other markets you're explicitly targeting too).

Click Add market, then provide the name 'USA'. Click Add countries/regions, and search for the United States.

Check the box next to this result, click Done, then Save to apply changes.

Now, we'll enable your International market for all other countries.

Next to International, click Manage.

On the right-hand side, click Edit. Then Add countries/regions.

On this page, you'll need to select all regions which are not currently enabled. To enable worldwide shipping, you'll want the whole list checked, totalling 235 countries (yes, we can ship to all countries listed!).

We recommend selecting them by region to save time. The complete list is Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, North America, Oceania, Other and South America.

Click Done, then Save and go back to the previous page.

Finally, to enable the market, change the Market Status dropdown to Active.

Click Save once the market is activated.



Step 4: Creating your Shopify shipping rates 👈

Once you've assigned weights to each of your products and enabled the international market, we can move on to setting your shipping rates.

Before we get started, it's worth mentioning that your shipping rates don't need to match ours. We simply pass on the cost of shipping to you, and to keep this cost as low as possible, we don't make any profit ourselves from shipping your parcels.

You can charge your customers less to offer them cheaper shipping, more to increase your profit, or nothing if you want to offer free shipping. In each case, we'll still charge the rates listed on our site.

Please note: the prices in this guide were last updated in March 2023. We always aim to keep this guide updated, but we recommend following the rates from the shipping costs page if you view this in the future.

Head to your Shopify Dashboard > Settings > Shipping and Delivery to create your rates.

Then, click "Manage" next to General shipping rates.

If you plan to sell only Inkthreadable products, you'll need to check that the Inkthreadable Warehouse location is included in your General shipping origins. Scroll to Not shipping from, click "Add rates" next to Inkthreadable Warehouse and then "Use same rates as".

However, if you plan to sell products from a mixture of suppliers or even ship some yourself, we'll need to separate the Inkthreadable Warehouse location before adding new rates.

To do that, open up the Shipping Origins drop-down. Next to Inkthreadable Warehouse (App), click "Manage", then select "New rates for Inkthreadable Warehouse".

Click Done, then scroll down to the new profile that's been created for the Inkthreadable Warehouse App location.

Any products you link to Inkthreadable will be assigned to the Inkthreadable Warehouse App location. You can double-check this in your product details using the bulk editor.

Add rates for the UK 🇬🇧

To add new rates for your Inkthreadable products, click "Create Zone" (if you didn't separate the fulfilment location in the last step, delete any existing zones to start from scratch).

Then, name the zone "United Kingdom" and search for this region in the box below. Click the checkbox next to the United Kingdom, then Done to save the zone.

Your zone should look like this:

Next, we'll create a rate for the weight brackets available with each shipping method, starting with Royal Mail 48 Tracked.

Add Royal Mail 48 Tracked Shipping

  • Click Add rate and select 'Set up your own rates'

  • In 'Rate name' type: Royal Mail 48 Tracked

  • Enter the price of £2.12

  • Click Add conditions, based on item weight

  • Enter a maximum weight of 0.1kg (or 100g if your metrics are in grams).

  • Click Done

Now, you'll need to repeat those steps for several more rates following the table below:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Royal Mail 48 Tracked

£3.33

0.101kg

0.699kg

Royal Mail 24 Tracked

£2.76

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail 24 Tracked

£4.35

0.101kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£11.99

Optional: 0.7kg

6kg

DPD Courier*

£23.98

6.01kg

12kg

*This rate above 6kg+ will rarely be used but may be worth adding if you expect large orders on Shopify. It covers orders between 61 - 120 x t-shirts or 31 - 60 x hoodies.

You can change the rate names if you wish - however, the words "48 Tracked" / "24 Tracked" and "Courier" are keywords and must be included for the order to be received on the correct method via the integration. Learn more about keywords.

Once you're done, it'll look something like this:

Remember to click 'Save'. You've now set up your rates for the UK!

Add Europe shipping rates 🇪🇺

Next, click Create Zone. Add zone name Europe.

Then, you'll need to enter each European nation manually. The list is included below and, regretfully, cannot be copied/pasted in full since only one country can be entered at a time.

We suggest copying/pasting one country at a time and selecting the box; it should only take a few minutes!

  • Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City.

Once they're all checked, click Done and hit Save.

Now, let's add the rates to this zone. The steps are the same as previous rates, following the table below:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Europe Tracked

£5.82

0kg

0.1kg

Europe Tracked

£8.77

0.101kg

0.399kg

Europe Tracked

£12.65

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£23.89

Optional: 0.7kg

6kg

Once you're done, you'll have 4 rates within your Europe zone:

Add rates for the USA 🇺🇸

Next, we're going to create a zone for the USA.

Click Create Zone. Add zone name USA, and then add the United States under Countries.

Then, add the rates to this zone to match the following table.

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

USPS

£7.08

0kg

0.1kg

USPS

£11.64

0.101kg

0.149kg

USPS

£14.89

0.15kg

0.15kg

USPS

£11.64

0.151kg

0.199g

USPS

£16.14

0.2kg

0.399kg

USPS

£18.97

0.4kg

0.499kg

USPS

£23.45

0.5kg

0.599kg

USPS

£23.94

0.6kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

Once you're done, the zone will appear as follows:

You're halfway there! Click Save to apply the changes so far.

Don't worry if you notice the rate for 0.15kg is slightly higher than other weight brackets; it's not a mistake! We've ensured these prices are as cost-effective as possible, based on parcel size AND weight. This bracket will only apply to single mugs, which cost us more to ship to the USA than 2 x t-shirts at 200g.

Add rates for Australia 🇦🇺

Next up, we have our dedicated shipping method for Australia.

Click Create Zone. Add zone name Australia, and then add Australia under Countries.

Then, add all rates in line with this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Australia Tracked

£9.67

0kg

0.1kg

Australia Tracked

£16.75

0.101kg

0.299kg

Australia Tracked

£19.08

0.3kg

0.399kg

Australia Tracked

£23.83

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

This should now appear in your shipping profile as follows:

Add shipping rates for Canada 🇨🇦

Click Create Zone, enter the 'Zone Name' Canada and select the Canada region to include all 13 provinces.

Then, follow the process Add rate using the details of this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Canada Tracked

£7.92

0kg

0.1kg

Canada Tracked

£11.52

0.101kg

0.399kg

Canada Tracked

£12.96

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

Once complete, it'll look like this:

Almost there... All we need to do now is update your rates for the rest of the world.

Add shipping rates for the rest of the world 🌍

The last steps to finish your rates are to cover the rest of the world. All remaining countries will be covered under one zone.

Click the Create zone link one last time. This zone should be called Rest of World, and rather than searching or adding countries manually, you should check any box that isn't yet greyed out due to being included in a previous zone.

Then, using the Add rate process, follow the rates in this table:

Rate Name

Price

Minimum weight

Maximum weight

Royal Mail Regular

£6.67

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail Regular

£13.20

0.101kg

0.399kg

Royal Mail Regular

£17.66

0.4kg

0.699kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£14.90

0kg

0.1kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£20.14

0.101kg

0.399kg

Royal Mail Tracked

£23.34

0.4kg

0.699kg

DPD Courier

£37.80

0.7kg

6kg

Once done, it'll look something like this:

Don't forget to hit Save again to apply the changes.

And that's it. You've now created rates for all services shipping to all destinations!



Double-check your shipping rates 🤓

We recommend reviewing your shipping profile to double-check your condition columns and prices. It's so easy to accidentally type an extra 0 or forget to add a minimum weight, which could cause checkout errors for your customers.

We've provided screenshots to make it easy for you to check your profiles. Do it now!

WOOHOO! 🎉 Your store is now ready to start shipping worldwide. So, next time you get the message "do you ship to Brazil? 🥹" you can say, "YES, I ship everywhere!". That's pretty amazing, and we can't wait to send your orders.



Want to test out your shipping methods?

At this stage, it's a good idea to add some products to your basket to see the shipping rates in action. Test different product combinations and shipping destinations to ensure your store calculates the prices correctly. If not, see our troubleshooting article.


Did this answer your question?