Gapscout · Shipping guides
Why are shipping rates not showing up at checkout?
When checkout shows no shipping rate, Shopify found no rate that covers every item in the cart for that address. It's almost always a gap in your shipping setup, not an outage. Check these in order.
1. The country isn't in a zone of the product's shipping profile
Every product belongs to exactly one shipping profile: the general profile or a custom one. A rate can only apply if the customer's country (or region) is in one of that profile's zones.
- Open Settings > Shipping and delivery, then the profile that holds the product.
- Check each zone's countries. A product moved into a custom profile only ships where that profile ships.
2. The cart is outside every rate's conditions
Rates can have conditions on weight or order price. If your highest weight band stops at 20 kg, a 21 kg cart gets nothing. The same goes for a price band that starts at $50 when the cart is $30.
- Make the top band open-ended, or add one that is.
- Make the first band start at 0.
3. Product weights are missing or wrong
With weight-based rates, a product with no weight adds nothing to the cart weight. A product with a typo'd weight can push the cart past your top band. Check the weight on every variant, not only on the product.
4. One item in the cart can't ship there
If a cart mixes products from different profiles, and one of those profiles doesn't cover the country, checkout can't offer delivery for the cart. Test with each product alone to find the one that's blocking.
5. The stock sits at a location that doesn't ship to that zone
Rates only apply to stock at locations that ship to the customer's zone. If the only location with stock doesn't ship there, there's nothing to ship from.
- With shipping profiles: in Settings > Shipping and delivery, open the product's profile and check that the location with stock is grouped with the zone for that country.
- With market-driven shipping: open Markets, then the market. Under Shipping, each option lists the products and locations it covers. No locations means it ships from nowhere.
6. Carrier-calculated rates returned nothing
With live carrier rates or a shipping app, the carrier or app can return no quote for an address, a weight or a package size it doesn't support. Add a flat backup rate in the same zone so checkout never ends up empty.
7. Market-driven shipping
If your store has opted in to market-driven shipping, rates are set per market. Settings > Shipping and delivery then shows that shipping has moved to Markets and lists each market's options. A product needs a rate in that market that includes it. See products sold out in a new market.
How to confirm the fix
Start a new checkout with a real address in the affected country and the heaviest cart you sell. An existing checkout can keep its old rates.
Checking all of this at once
These gaps hide because nothing warns you when you save the setting. Gapscout is a read-only app that runs every one of these checks across your products, countries and cart sizes. It lists each gap with a link to the setting to fix. It never changes your shipping settings. See Gapscout on the Shopify App Store.