What are Shopify Delivery Functions?
Shopify Delivery Functions are the modern way to control how delivery options appear in checkout. With a delivery customization, you can rename, sort and hide the shipping methods a customer sees once they reach the payment step. Instead of a long, unstructured list, the customer gets exactly the options that make sense for their cart, their country and their order value.
The function runs as server-side logic directly inside Shopify checkout. That means the rules are enforced consistently, without heavy third-party apps that slow down the page or introduce extra points of failure. At Mercive, we see many brands moving from app-based solutions to Functions, precisely because the logic becomes faster, more stable and easier to maintain over time.
How does delivery on Shopify work in practice?
Delivery on Shopify is built on shipping zones and rates that you configure under Settings and Shipping and delivery. When a customer adds items to the cart and proceeds to checkout, Shopify calculates the relevant rates based on the delivery address and the contents of the cart. A delivery customization sits on top of this and adjusts what the customer is actually allowed to choose from.
It is worth knowing the boundaries. Delivery customizations apply to the shipping methods, that is, the rates that appear once the customer has chosen delivery. They are not designed to control the choice between ship and pickup, and they are not compatible with local delivery and local pickup in the same way. That distinction is crucial when you design the rules so they actually affect what the customer sees.
Hide, rename and sort delivery options
The three core actions in a Shopify delivery function are hiding, renaming and sorting. Hiding is typically used to remove express shipping for orders that do not qualify, or to hide pickup for customers outside a specific postal code. Renaming turns a technical rate label into something the customer understands, for example Delivery in 1 to 3 business days instead of an internal code.
Sorting is about order. If you want to put the most purchased or most profitable method at the top, you can control that with a function rather than hoping the default order fits. To change delivery options on Shopify, you activate the customization under Settings, Shipping and delivery in the Delivery customizations section, and connect it to the relevant function.
Can you add delivery instructions and payment rules?
Many people ask whether you can add delivery instructions on Shopify. The free-text field for a message to the driver is typically handled through a checkout extension or a custom field in the cart, while Delivery Functions handle the actual logic behind which methods are shown. The two work together and combine to form a well-considered delivery experience.
On the payment side, there is a corresponding mechanism. With payment customizations, you can hide, rename and sort payment methods, for example by hiding cash on delivery above a certain order value or moving your most used payment method to the top. Together, shipping and payment rules give you full control over the final, decisive clicks before purchase.
How Mercive approaches it
We start by mapping out the rules that genuinely affect conversion and logistics. Which methods confuse the customer, which ones cost you money on the wrong orders, and which should be highlighted? We then build the rules as Shopify Functions, so they are version-controlled, testable and independent of a third-party app subscription.
For brands with complex requirements, multiple markets or specific B2B conditions, we develop a dedicated function rather than stitching several apps together. That delivers a cleaner checkout, fewer errors and a solution that grows with the business. If you need multiple markets, rates and payment rules to work in concert, this is exactly where custom development pays for itself.
How Mercive can help
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