A shipping zone is a named area with its own shipping methods and prices. A zone can cover U.S. states, countries, postal-code ranges, or any place your other zones do not cover. A buyer’s address determines which zone applies, which shipping methods they can choose, and what they pay. This article explains how to create and manage shipping zones and set the address your packages ship from.
Prerequisites
- You need administrator access to Orders & Inventory setup.
Where to Find It
Go to Orders & Inventory › Setup › Shipping › Zones to see every shipping zone in your account, listed in order. Select Create Shipping Zone, or select a row’s edit or clone icon, to open the zone form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Any text | Empty | The zone name staff will see |
| ID | Suggested from the name | Generated from the name | The zone’s permanent identifier. You can edit it only when you create or clone a zone |
| Type | States / Countries / Postal Code / Rest of the World | States | The kind of area the zone covers. Rhythm shows and requires only the area control that matches this type |
| Status | On/off | On | Whether the zone is available. A disabled zone is hidden from the list unless you use (show all) |
| Override Shipping Product | On/off, with a product selector when on | Off | Records this zone’s shipping charges against a shipping product other than your account default. See Configure Shipping Products |
Defining the Area
The Type you choose controls which area details Rhythm asks for:
- States — choose one or more U.S. states from a searchable list.
- Countries — choose one or more countries.
- Postal Code — enter one or more ranges, each with a Start and an End. Select Add Range to add another range, and use the trash icon to remove any range after the first.
- Rest of the World — you do not define an area because this zone applies everywhere your other zones do not cover.
Warning
When you change an existing zone’s type, Rhythm keeps any states, countries, or postal-code ranges that were already saved, even though they no longer appear on the form. Rhythm does not remove the old area automatically. If you no longer need it, clear it before saving, or recreate the zone instead of changing its type.
Warning
After a Countries-type zone has been saved, removing one previously saved country while editing that zone does not always work. If you cannot remove one country from an existing list, delete the whole zone and recreate it with the country list you want.
Setting Up Shipping Methods for a Zone
Below the area, the Shipping Methods section includes separate cards for free shipping, flat-rate methods, methods priced by order total or weight, UPS, and in-store pickup. Each card has its own Enabled/Disabled switch. If you leave a card disabled, Rhythm does not save it with the zone. Each shipping method type, including its price rules and UPS account, is covered separately.
Tip
Shipping is turned on or off for a merchandise item, not for a zone or a store. That setting applies everywhere the item is sold, so you cannot disable shipping for one store while keeping it enabled for the same item in another.
The Default Ship-From Address
UPS needs the package’s starting address to quote a rate and print a label. Set this address once for your account, and every zone’s UPS method uses it unless that zone has its own override.
- On Manage Shipping Zones, select change beside the address, or select Specify one now if no address is set.
- Enter the address.
- Save.
To ship one zone’s UPS packages from a different address, turn on the ship-from override in that zone’s UPS method settings and enter the address there. If no ship-from address is set for the zone or for your account, UPS shipments for that zone fail.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Every zone and its methods live inside one shipping setup for your account. When you save any zone, including a deletion or reorder, Rhythm saves the whole shipping setup at once. You cannot change one zone without saving the record that holds all zones.
- No two zones can share an identifier, and no two shipping methods can share an identifier across every zone. If you try to save a setup with a duplicate identifier, Rhythm refuses the save. The Console warns you about a duplicate zone identifier while you type, but Rhythm checks for duplicates every time you save, from any zone or method.
- Method identifiers cannot start with
UPS:. Rhythm reserves that prefix for methods Orders & Inventory manages for UPS integration. If a method’s generated identifier would start with it, rename the method or edit its identifier before saving. - Reordering the zone list is available, by dragging a row’s grip. It is not established whether zone order affects which zone a buyer’s address matches, so use reordering to organize your list rather than control checkout behavior.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Switching a zone’s status to Disabled is reversible and keeps its area and methods in place. A disabled zone is hidden from the default list view, but it is not deleted. Deleting a zone removes the zone, its area, and its methods entirely, and you cannot undo it from this page. If existing orders still reference a deleted zone, the deletion does not fail immediately, but a later UPS shipment for one of those orders can fail because the named zone no longer exists.
Permissions
Creating, editing, cloning, deleting, and reordering shipping zones all require administrator access to Orders & Inventory setup. Setting the default ship-from address requires the same access. See Orders & Inventory Staff Access Policies for what each ready-made access level grants.
Validation and Errors
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Form Errors: a value for Name, ID, or the area | A required field is empty | Fill in the field |
| Please enter a valid starting/ending postal code range | A postal-code range is missing its start or end | Fill in both values, or remove the range |
| Unable to save Shipping Zone | The save failed on the server | Review the specific reasons below, or correct the field named in the message |
| Zone ID specified multiple times | Another zone already uses this identifier | Change the identifier |
| Shipping method id specified multiple times | A method in this zone has the same identifier as a method in another zone | Rename the method or edit its identifier |
| No shipping method IDs can start with UPS | A method’s identifier starts with the reserved UPS prefix | Rename the method |
| Unable to delete Shipping Zone | The delete failed on the server | Try again, or check that no other setting still needs this zone |