Shopify local delivery: what it does and what it doesn't

What Shopify's local delivery setting actually does

Shopify defines local delivery as a delivery method a merchant sets up by distance from the store or by a list of postal codes: turn it on, draw the area, and customers inside it see a local-delivery option at checkout alongside shipping and pickup. It's built into every Shopify plan, configured from the store's own delivery settings, and it does exactly that one job. A store can run more than one local-delivery zone with different areas or different days, and Shopify shows the option only to customers whose address actually qualifies — someone outside the zone sees shipping or pickup instead.

Where local delivery sits among Shopify's fulfillment options

Shopify checkout can offer three kinds of fulfillment: shipping through a carrier, pickup at a location, and local delivery. A store can offer any combination, and which ones a customer sees depends on their address and what the merchant has turned on. Local delivery is the option built for a business delivering its own orders with its own vehicle — the order never goes to a carrier, and the cost and the timing are entirely the merchant's to plan. It still needs the same operational pieces any self-delivery business needs: someone deciding the zones, someone building the route, and someone telling the customer when to actually expect it.

What it doesn't do

Choosing local delivery at checkout only marks the order as one that should go on a van — it doesn't put the order anywhere. Shopify's setting doesn't work out which stops to drive first, doesn't split orders across more than one vehicle, doesn't know that a frozen order needs a different van than a dry one, and doesn't send a driver anything to follow. Marking an order fulfilled updates its status in Shopify, but nothing tells the customer their delivery is on the way, and nothing comes back to the order automatically if the delivery fails. All of that is a second piece of software's job, connected to the store.

The app landscape, and what a couple of options cost

The Shopify App Store lists a number of apps that plan routes and manage delivery for stores using local delivery, at a range of prices. Two examples, checked in September 2026: EasyRoutes Local Delivery rates 4.9 out of 5 across 287 reviews and starts at $39 a month; Zapiet's Pickup + Delivery rates 4.9 out of 5 across 1,874 reviews and starts at $49.99 a month. Neither of those figures is an endorsement — they're a starting point for what the category costs, and the App Store has other options worth comparing against your own order volume and vehicle count.

Price alone doesn't tell you much without your own order volume next to it. A modest monthly fee is cheap if it saves an hour of manual route-building every week, and expensive if it only reproduces a Google Maps link behind a nicer screen. Before comparing prices, list what each plan actually includes — route optimization, a driver app or link, customer notifications and status write-back are sometimes bundled together and sometimes sold as separate add-ons within the very same app.

What to look for in a Shopify delivery app

The App Store doesn't rank listings by what a delivery business actually needs, so it helps to bring your own checklist before you start reading reviews. Five things separate an app that saves a morning from one that just moves the same manual work into a nicer interface:

• Delivery dates or windows offered at checkout, driven by real zone and vehicle capacity — not just a date picker with no limit behind it.
• Routes built per vehicle, not one long list a person has to split by hand into what each van can actually carry.
• A way to get the route to a driver — a real driver app, or a texted link that opens without an account — rather than expecting the driver to read the merchant's own screen.
• Customer texts and a tracking page, so “where's my order” doesn't land back on the merchant by phone.
• Delivered and failed status written back to the order, so the store's own record is accurate without anyone updating it by hand that night.

How Porch Routes connects to a Shopify store

Porch Routes's Shopify connector brings orders in on its own: once it's set up, each Shopify order with a delivery address arrives in Porch Routes without anyone re-typing the address or the items, and you can limit it to orders with a tag or a local delivery shipping method. From there it goes through the same optimizer as any other order — planned onto a vehicle that can actually carry it, fit into a delivery window and a zone's delivery day, and dispatched to a driver over a link that needs no app or login. With write-back switched on, a delivered or couldn't-deliver outcome is added to the Shopify order as a tag and a note, so the store's own record stays correct without a manual update. Customers get texts and a tracking page under the store's name the same way they would for any other order.

1. 1

   Add a store connector

   In Porch Routes, open Integrations, choose Connect a store and pick Shopify. You get a private webhook link and a place for Shopify's signing secret.

2. 2

   Send Shopify's order webhooks to it

   In Shopify admin, add webhooks for order creation, update and cancellation with that link, then save the signing secret in Porch Routes. No theme changes are needed.

3. 3

   Orders arrive on their own

   Each order comes in with its address, items and any delivery date your delivery-date app recorded, labeled with the Shopify order number.

4. 4

   Plan and dispatch as usual

   The order goes through the same optimizer and delivery zones as any other order, and the driver gets it the same way: a link, with no app to install.

5. 5

   Shopify hears back

   With write-back on, which takes an access token from a Shopify custom app, delivered or couldn't-deliver is added to the Shopify order once the stop is complete.