Understanding Shipping profiles and Zones in Shopify for Market related preorders

To fully utilize STOQ’s location-aware and market-specific preorder capabilities, your Shopify Shipping settings must be properly configured. STOQ relies on your native Shipping Profiles and Shipping Zones to determine which warehouse serves which customer, ensuring that preorders are only offered when appropriate for that specific market.


What Are Shipping Profiles and Zones?


In Shopify, your shipping setup dictates where your products can be sent and how much it costs.


  • Shipping Profiles: These act as overarching rules for your products. Most stores use the default "General shipping rates" profile for all their items.
  • Fulfillment Locations: The physical warehouses, retail stores, or dropshippers where your inventory is held (e.g., US Location, Canada, India).
  • Shipping Zones: The specific countries or geographical regions you ship to within a profile (e.g., USA, North America, Europe).


Example Scenario


A store has two physical warehouses and sells globally:

  • US Location: Serves only the United States.
  • UK Location: Serves only the United Kingdom.


If a customer from the UK visits your store, STOQ traces their region to the UK Shipping Zone, identifies the UK Location as the designated fulfillment source, and checks the Available inventory exclusively at that UK Location to decide whether to show "Add to Cart" or "Preorder."


Why Shipping Zones Matter for STOQ


Because STOQ strictly follows Shopify's native fulfillment routing, aligning your shipping zones correctly is essential for cross-border selling.


Benefits


  • Accurate Preorder Triggers: Customers only see a "Preorder" button if the warehouse assigned to their specific country is out of stock.
  • Seamless Checkout: Prevents customers from reaching checkout only to find out the item cannot be shipped to their address.
  • Automated Routing: Ensures the order is automatically assigned to the correct regional warehouse for fulfillment.


Considerations


Before configuring your zones for STOQ, consider:


  • You do not need to create a custom Shipping Profile just for preorder items; STOQ works perfectly with your "General" profile.
  • If multiple locations ship to the exact same zone, STOQ will respect Shopify's default location priority rules.
  • If a location has zero inventory and is accidentally assigned to a global shipping zone (like "Rest of World"), STOQ may incorrectly trigger the Preorder button for those countries.


Aligning Shipping Zones with Markets


To ensure STOQ functions correctly for markets, your Shipping Zones must align directly with the Shopify Markets you have set up.


Accessing Shipping Settings


  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings.
  2. Click on Shipping and delivery in the left menu.
  3. Under the Shipping section, click on your active profile (usually General shipping rates).


Configuring Zones for Regional Preorders


  1. Scroll down to your list of Fulfillment locations (e.g., US Location, INDIA, CANADA).
  2. Look at the Shipping zones listed directly under each location.
  3. Ensure that the correct geographical zone is paired with the correct location (e.g., your "US Location" block should list "USA" under its shipping zones).
  4. If a location does not have the correct zone, click Create zone or edit the existing zones to match your target markets.
  5. Ensure each zone has at least one active shipping rate (like Standard or Free Shipping).



Note: If a location holds your preorder inventory but is listed under the "Not shipping from" section at the bottom of the page, STOQ cannot route the order. Click Add rates next to that location to activate it.


How STOQ Uses This Data


Once your shipping zones and locations are aligned, here is what happens when a customer shops.


On the Product Page


  1. Customer visits your store from Canada.
  2. STOQ detects the customer's region based on their IP or market selector.
  3. STOQ checks your Shopify Shipping settings to see which Location fulfills the Canada Shipping Zone.
  4. STOQ checks the available inventory at that specific Location.
  5. If inventory is 0, STOQ displays the Preorder or Notify Me button.


At Checkout


  1. Customer adds the preorder item to their cart and proceeds to checkout.
  2. Shopify calculates the shipping rate based on the standard rules in your Shipping Profile.
  3. The order is automatically routed to the correct Fulfillment Location based on your Shipping Zone setup.


Best Practices


Follow these recommendations for successful shipping management with STOQ.


Keep Profiles Simple

Unless you need to charge drastically different shipping rates for preorder items (e.g., heavy furniture), keep all your items in the "General" shipping profile. STOQ does not require separate profiles.


Regularly Audit Locations

If you add a new warehouse or fulfillment center, always remember to add it to your Shipping Profile and assign it the appropriate Shipping Zones so STOQ knows it exists.


Match Zones to Markets

Ensure your Shopify Markets directly mirror your Shipping Zones. If you have a specific Market set up for Europe, you should have a corresponding Shipping Zone for Europe attached to the correct fulfillment location.


Known Limitations


  • STOQ relies entirely on Shopify's native location routing. If Shopify's routing rules assign an order to a location you didn't intend, STOQ will follow that same rule.
  • STOQ cannot split a single item's fulfillment across multiple locations (e.g., fulfilling half an order from the US and half from Canada).


Troubleshooting


If you encounter issues with regional preorders or checkout errors, use this guide to resolve common problems.


Symptom

Likely Cause

Fix

"Cannot ship to this address" error at checkout

Location has no active rates for the customer's zone

Go to Shipping settings and ensure the location has an active shipping rate for that market

Preorder button showing for the wrong country

Location assigned to a "Rest of World" zone

Remove the "Rest of World" zone from that location or specify exact countries

Location holding stock is ignored by STOQ

Location is in the "Not shipping from" list

Click "Add rates" next to the location at the bottom of your Shipping Profile


FAQs


FAQs


Q : Do I need to create a custom shipping profile just for preorder products?

A : No. STOQ works with your existing shipping profiles. You only need a custom profile if you want different shipping rates specifically for preorder items.


Q : If a customer buys an in stock item and a preorder item together, how is shipping calculated?

A : Shipping is calculated at checkout based on your standard Shipping Profile rules. Even if you use Split Fulfillments, the customer pays only the single shipping fee calculated by Shopify at checkout if they select As soon as possible option in preorder offer. If they use other shipping setting in Preorder offer like Not sure or specific date, shopify will take it as a seperate shipment and add duplicate charges to it


Q : What happens if two locations ship to the same shipping zone?

A : If multiple locations ship to the same zone, Shopify follows its native location priority rules to assign the order. STOQ respects this priority when showing the preorder button.


Q : Does STOQ work with third party calculated shipping rates like FedEx or UPS?

A : Yes. STOQ uses Shopify’s native checkout and shipping system, so carrier calculated rates such as FedEx or UPS will work normally during preorder checkout.


Updated on: 24/02/2026

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