Shipping and Taxes: zones, rates, and honest checkout pricing

Shipping and taxes decide whether the price a customer sees at checkout matches your intent. This guide covers the shipping model (zones and rates), how checkout picks a quote, tax configuration, and the multi-currency detail at the end of an order. ## Shipping zones: the model Shipping is configured in **Configure → Shipping**. The model has two layers: - **Zones.** A zone is a set of countries (or regions) you ship to. Start with one zone covering your main market — for example, your home country — and add more as you expand. - **Rates.** Each zone holds one or more rates. A rate is a price the customer pays for shipping when their address falls in that zone: a flat fee, or a free option you may name something like Free delivery over a threshold. A practical starting setup: one zone for your home country with a flat rate, plus a second rate offering free shipping above a basket value you can afford. Customers see both and choose — free-above-threshold is the single cheapest conversion lever in shipping. ## How checkout quotes shipping At checkout, the customer’s shipping country is matched against your zones from the most specific to the least. The matching zone’s rates are offered at the shipping step, and the chosen rate is added to the order total before payment. Two rules to know: 1. **No matching zone means no quote.** If the customer’s country is not in any zone, checkout cannot quote shipping and will say so honestly rather than guessing a price. Add a zone that covers the country to sell there. 2. **The quote is what you configured.** The platform never invents shipping prices. If a rate looks wrong on checkout, fix the rate in the zone — the storefront follows your numbers. > Note: Rates are entered in your store’s settlement currency. If customers browse in a display currency, the shipping line is converted for display the same way product prices are. ## Taxes: configuration and display Tax settings live alongside shipping in **Configure → Shipping and Taxes**. You configure: - **Tax rate.** A single percentage applied at checkout, per your local rules. - **Inclusive or exclusive.** Inclusive means your product prices already contain tax and checkout shows the tax as part of the price. Exclusive means tax is added on top at checkout. Pick the one your customers expect — inclusive is common for consumer retail, exclusive for business trade. Order records keep the tax line separate from the subtotal either way, so your accounting sees both numbers even when shoppers saw one price. ## Multi-currency at the final step Customers can shop in a display currency while the store settles in its base currency. Product prices, shipping, and tax are all shown in the display currency consistently, and the order record keeps both: the display currency the shopper saw, and the settlement currency you are paid in. Refunds and invoices reference the same two numbers, so nothing drifts between what the customer saw and what you booked. > Tip: If you serve a market with strong local expectations (prices ending in round numbers, tax always included), set the display currency and inclusive tax for that market’s zone before launch, not after the first orders. ## Value-conscious setup for our merchants The platform is built so you keep every sale — plans are flat and we take no commission. Shipping and tax are the two places where merchants often leak margin by accident: - Price shipping from your real carrier cost, not a round guess; then offer the free-above-threshold option only above the basket where the margin survives. - If you run charitable round-ups or zakat-aware reporting, both work alongside any shipping and tax configuration — see the Shariah-conscious commerce settings. ## FAQ **Can I charge different shipping per product?** Not today. Rates are per zone. For heavy-item surcharges, price it into the product or use a second zone for the heavy market. **Why does checkout say shipping is unavailable for a country?** That country is not in any zone. Add it to a zone with at least one rate. **Do I need tax if I am below the registration threshold?** Set the rate to 0 or leave exclusive taxation off — an explicit zero keeps the order records clean for when you register. ## Related guides - [Payments: providers, wallets, and the inline checkout](/docs/payments) - [Orders: fulfil, refund, and track every order](/docs/orders) - [Getting Started: from zero to a live store](/docs/getting-started)