How to hide, rename and reorder shipping methods in Shopify checkout

Shipping methods are the part of checkout most merchants never touch. The names come from the carrier or from a settings page written years ago, every rate shows to every buyer, and the cheapest option often sits last. Each of those is a small tax on conversion, and each is fixable with a rule that runs inside Shopify's own checkout.

Why the default shipping list costs you orders

A buyer at the delivery step is asking one question: when will it arrive? "Standard Shipping" does not answer it. "Economy" and "Express" side by side, with no dates, push people back to the cart to compare, and some never return. Add a courier that cannot deliver to their region, or a heavy-goods rate showing on a cart of socks, and the list starts to look untrustworthy. None of that needs a redesign. It needs three small rules.

The three actions

• Rename. Change what a rate is called without changing the rate. "Standard Shipping" becomes "Arrives in 3–5 working days". "DHL Express" becomes "Next-day delivery, order by 2pm".
• Hide. Remove a rate when it does not apply: a pallet rate on a small cart, a domestic courier for an international address, a Saturday service on a Sunday order.
• Re-order. Move a rate to a fixed position, so your preferred option is first regardless of how Shopify sorted it.

These run as a Shopify Function, which means they work on every Shopify plan, not only Plus, and they survive theme changes and checkout updates because they act on the delivery options after Shopify has calculated them.

Scope the rule to the right kind of option

Shopify presents several kinds of delivery option in one list: shipping rates, local delivery, carrier pickup points, local pickup locations and retail. A rule in Smart Checkout Widgets has an Apply to setting that limits it to one of those. This matters more than it sounds. A store with a "Warsaw" pickup location and a "Warsaw Warehouse" shipping rate can rename one without touching the other only by scoping the rule. Leave it on "All delivery options" when you genuinely want everything matched.

How name matching works

Rules match on the option's displayed name, case-insensitively, anywhere in the name. "Express" matches "Express Shipping" and "Express Saver", and every matching option is affected, not just the first. Use * to match everything in scope, which is the quickest way to hide every carrier pickup point in one rule.

Add conditions so the rule only fires when it should

Each rule can run always, or only when any, all, or none of its conditions are met. The conditions cover:

• Cart: total, subtotal, quantity, weight in grams.
• Customer: tag, logged in or not, order count, total spent.
• Products: has a digital or physical product, product tag, collection.
• Address: country, state or province, city, postcode, with "starts with" for postcode areas.
• Date and time: day of week, date, in your store's local time.

Text conditions accept comma-separated lists, so "country is PL, DE, FR" is one condition. Customer conditions only match a signed-in buyer; a guest checkout never matches a tag or order-count rule. And a condition on data checkout has not collected yet is false, including negative ones, so "city is not Warsaw" is false until the buyer has typed a city.

Five rules worth setting up this week

1. Rename every rate with a delivery window. Buyers choose faster when the answer is in the name.
2. Hide express above a weight. If your courier will not take it, do not offer it and then cancel.
3. Hide same-day after the cut-off. A day-of-week and date condition handles weekends and holidays.
4. Put free shipping first once the threshold is met. Pair it with a cart progress bar so the buyer saw it coming.
5. Show a trade rate only to tagged customers. Tag wholesale accounts and hide the pallet rate from everyone else.

Pickup locations

Local pickup locations reach checkout as ordinary delivery options named after the location, so they can be renamed and hidden individually. Scope the rule to "Local pickup locations only" and match the name. One limit applies to every app, not only this one: Shopify does not allow hiding the "Pick up" tab itself. You can hide every location inside it, but the tab may still show, empty.

Test it like a buyer

Open checkout on a phone with a real address in each market you ship to and read the list out loud. If any option needs explaining, rename it. If any option should not be there, hide it. Then place a test order to confirm the rate that reaches the order is the one you expected.