Requirements and considerations for buying shipping labels

To buy shipping labels in Shopify, your business needs to have an eligible fulfillment location, accurate shipment details, and a printer set up to print shipping labels. You might be required to verify your personal information before you can buy labels.

Requirements for buying shipping labels

To buy shipping labels in Shopify, your business needs to have an eligible fulfillment location and for some carriers your store needs to be based in the same country as the fulfillment location.

For example, if you want to buy shipping labels from Evri or DPD, then you need to have a fulfillment location in the United Kingdom and your store's address needs to be based in the United Kingdom.

Depending on your fulfillment locations, you can purchase labels from the following carriers through Shopify's carrier accounts:

Carriers available through Shopify's carrier accounts in specific countries or regions
Fulfillment location	Shipping carriers
United States	USPS UPS (not available in Puerto Rico) DHL eCommerce (continental United States only) DHL Express (continental United States only) FedEx
Canada	Canada Post (domestic and international) DHL Express Canada (domestic and international) Purolator (domestic only) UPS (domestic only)
Australia	Australia Post
United Kingdom	Evri DPD Royal Mail Yodel DHL Express Europe
France	Colissimo Mondial Relay Chronopost DHL Express Europe
Germany	DHL Paket DHL Express Europe
Italy	BRT Bartolini Poste Italiane DHL Express Europe
Spain	Correos SEUR DHL Express Europe

Considerations for using shipping labels

Review the following considerations for using shipping labels:

Shipping labels are available to businesses with eligible fulfillment locations only. To learn more, refer to Review your business eligibility for shipping labels.
Shipping carriers have different policies and requirements. Review the details of specific carriers to make sure that they meet your business needs.

Buying DDP labels with shipping labels

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) labels are supported only for specific carriers when purchasing shipping labels through Shopify's carrier accounts. If you collect duties and import taxes at checkout, then you can purchase DDP labels for the following carriers:

If you use any other carrier with Shopify's carrier accounts, then you can't purchase a label for orders where duties have been collected. You need to purchase the label externally or refund the order.

Adding accurate shipment details

Shipping carriers the following information to determine the cost of a shipping label:

origin address
destination address
package dimensions
package weight

You need to add accurate details to your products, so the shipping carriers can calculate correct shipping rates for your packages. If the package details aren't accurate, then you can be charged for a price adjustment.

Product weights

Your products need to have accurate weights in their product details. Your product weight is combined with the weight of the box, envelope, or other shipping container that you use to ship your product. The combined weight is used to calculate the cost to ship your package to your customer.

To learn how to add weights to new or existing products, refer to Variants.

Package dimensions and weight

In your Shopify admin, you can add the dimensions and weight of the default package that you use to ship your products. The package dimensions and weight are used to calculate the shipping costs when your customer is checking out. Only the default package's dimensions are used in the checkout.

If you use multiple package types when shipping your products, then you can adjust the package dimensions when purchasing the shipping label. If you want a shipping carrier to calculate the shipping cost at checkout based on packages other than your default package, then you can use a shipping app.

Fulfillment location address

Make sure that your fulfillment location's address is accurate. To change your fulfillment location's address, refer to Setting up your locations.

Setting up your printer

Before you purchase your first shipping label, decide how you're going to print them. You can use a desktop printer or a shipping label printer. If you want to use a shipping label printer, then use one of the Shopify-supported label printers.

Label printers use labels that have an adhesive backing, which you attach to your shipments directly. If you print labels using a desktop printer, then attach them to your packages using a plastic sleeve or packing tape.

Review DDP and DAP shipping rates

With shipping labels, you have the option to offer shipping rates for both DAP (Delivered At Place) and DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) incoterms. DAP shipping rates and labels don't include international duties or import tax, and the responsibility for covering those costs falls on your customer. DDP shipping rates and labels include the costs for international duties and import tax, but require the collection of international duties and import tax at checkout, and are restricted to specific carriers. Learn more about buying DDP shipping labels with shipping labels.

For example, you have a market for the European Union where you offer DAP shipping. You also have a market for France that offers DDP shipping. In this case, the France submarket overrides your EU parent market, and checkouts for your customers in France only use your settings for France.

However, if you have a market for France that offers DAP as well as a market for France B2B that offers DDP, then neither market is a parent or a submarket, and neither market can override the other. In this case, both shipping rates are offered to customers that match both markets.

For this reason, if you have two markets with the same regional settings, then it's recommended to use the same incoterm for both, rather than setting one as DDP and the other as DAP.