Configuring Pickup-Only Checkout Options in Shopify

How Shopify pickup-only checkout works

Shopify’s native pickup-in-store setup adds pickup as a checkout delivery choice for online orders.

Customers can choose Ship or Pick up and select a pickup location; pickup locations are limited to the customer’s country. Native checkout can also allow a customer to split an order between shipping and pickup, so offering pickup does not by itself define a pickup-only policy.

Start by writing down the intended rule in merchant terms: which products or customers should be pickup-only, and whether shipping should remain available for other carts. Then decide whether native pickup availability is sufficient or whether checkout must hide shipping options under specific conditions. Keep those decisions separate: location and inventory configuration governs whether pickup can be offered, while a delivery customization is for changing the options presented.

Enable pickup at locations that fulfill online orders

A pickup location is a store location where customers can collect an order, and pickup must be activated for each intended location. Begin by confirming that the store has an online-order-fulfillment location, then check the checkout version before configuring pickup.

A store needs at least one location that fulfills online orders to set up pickup. Pickup setup requires the latest checkout version; Shopify displays an upgrade notice in checkout settings if the store is not using it. Pickup must be activated separately for each location where customers can collect orders.

Treat each location as a deliberate eligibility decision rather than enabling pickup everywhere by default. Confirm that the location can actually fulfill the products you intend to sell for pickup, and document which locations should appear to shoppers. This avoids confusing the pickup rule with a shipping rule: a location may be configured for collection, but a particular cart still needs to qualify for pickup.

By default, pickup is available only when the entire order is in stock at the pickup location; store transfers can extend availability to inventory held elsewhere. Test inventory combinations that reflect how the business operates, including a cart with an item unavailable at the selected location. If transfers are part of the plan, verify that the expected pickup availability follows the intended process before relying on it.

Check shipping zones, profiles, and rates

Review shipping configuration after establishing pickup eligibility so you can tell whether an unexpected checkout option comes from shipping settings or the pickup rule. Shipping profiles and rates help determine the shipping choices available for a cart, so examine them alongside the products and locations in your test cases.

A pickup location needs an associated shipping zone, but the zone does not need to contain an actual shipping rate for pickup to work. Shipping options are checkout delivery choices with rates that can vary by product and location.

Do not add a shipping rate just to make pickup work; instead, confirm that the required zone exists and separately decide which shipping services the business intends to offer. Review profiles and rates against representative carts, especially carts combining products that may have different shipping rules. When several matching rates sit in a single shipping option, checkout applies the single highest matching rate rather than adding the rates together.

Shipping options by market is an early-access feature available only to certain stores. Until a store is upgraded, shipping remains configured in shipping profiles. Check which configuration model the store actually uses before changing rules or documenting a setup path. Do not assume that a market-based interface is available just because it is relevant to the intended design.

When to hide shipping with a Delivery Customization Function

A Delivery Customization Function is a checkout customization that can change delivery options, including shipping and pickup choices. Use it when the desired rule is about which options shoppers see, rather than when the underlying issue is an unconfigured pickup location, inventory eligibility, or shipping zone.

A Delivery Customization Function can rename, sort, or hide delivery options, including shipping and pickup choices. Shopify’s Delivery Customization Function API is the only API identified for customizing delivery options in checkout. Its run target returns operations that can be applied to the delivery options available at checkout.

For a pickup-only rule, be precise about the condition that should hide shipping and preserve the pickup choice where it remains eligible. Hiding too broadly can remove an option a shopper needs; hiding too narrowly can leave unwanted shipping visible. Shopify documents hiding delivery options for certain products or customers as a function use case.

A checkout or order may contain multiple delivery methods, so function logic should inspect every delivery group rather than assume one method applies to the whole order. This matters especially for mixed carts: evaluate each group against the rule, and test that a shipping group does not cause the pickup group to be treated as if it were shipping, or vice versa.

A store can activate no more than 25 delivery customization functions. Before building, check the store’s existing function setup and verify current platform requirements for the intended implementation. Keep the rule narrow, and decide how it should behave when a cart contains products with different pickup or shipping eligibility.

Verify the current setup before building

Verify the store’s current checkout and shipping configuration before investing in a delivery customization. This avoids implementing a rule against an assumed setup that the store does not use.

Check whether pickup setup presents an upgrade notice for the checkout version, whether pickup is enabled at every intended location, and whether each location has the required shipping zone. Then confirm which shipping configuration model the store uses before making changes.

For a function-based approach, review the store’s active function configuration before adding another customization. Write down the business rule in terms of products, customers, eligible pickup locations, and the delivery choices that should remain visible. If there are exceptions, record them now rather than trying to infer them from checkout behavior later.

Write down expected outcomes before implementation: the location that should appear, whether the cart qualifies for pickup, whether shipping should appear, and what should happen for a mixed cart. This gives the merchant and developer a shared acceptance rule without confusing an availability problem with a visibility rule.

Checkout test checklist

Test checkout with representative locations, cart contents, and customer countries, then compare the options shown with the intended pickup policy. Treat each test as a check of both eligibility and presentation: a pickup option must be available for the cart and location, and any hiding rule must leave the intended option visible.

• Check that pickup is active at each intended location and that each location fulfills online orders.
• Test a cart fully in stock at the pickup location, then test a cart with an item not in stock there; verify the expected effect of any store-transfer process.
• Test a mixed cart that includes items intended for shipping and pickup. Confirm whether checkout offers the intended split and whether each delivery group is handled according to the rule.
• Check that the pickup location offered to the shopper is in the shopper’s country.
• Confirm that the pickup location has an associated shipping zone, and review the shipping choices generated by the applicable profiles and rates or shipping-options-by-market setup.
• Compare the displayed options against the rule: pickup should remain available when eligible, and shipping should be hidden only in the cases the business intended.