How Do I Configure Shipping Zones and Rates?
Build shipping zones for different countries or regions, attach flat-rate, weight-based, or free-shipping rules to each, and control exactly what customers see at checkout.
Shipping configuration is one of those areas where a little upfront structure saves a lot of confusion at checkout. VeloCMS uses a zone-first model: you define geographic zones, then attach rate rules to each zone. Customers at checkout only see the rates that apply to their delivery country, which keeps the experience clean and avoids the 'which of these 12 options should I pick?' paralysis.
Creating your first zone
Admin → Shop → Shipping is where everything lives. Click 'Add zone' and give it a name — 'United Kingdom,' 'Europe,' 'Rest of World,' whatever makes sense for your operation. Then add countries to the zone from the searchable dropdown. A country can only belong to one zone, so if you try to add France to 'Europe' after it's already in a 'France Only' zone, VeloCMS will warn you. The 'Rest of World' zone is special: you can flag it as a catch-all that automatically covers any country not explicitly assigned elsewhere.
You need at least one zone before any physical product can be purchased. If no zone covers the customer's country and there's no catch-all zone, they'll see an 'Unfortunately we don't ship to your location' message at checkout. Worth double-checking your zone coverage before launch.
Rate types
Three rate types are available within each zone. Flat Rate charges a fixed amount per order regardless of what's in the cart — simplest to set up, predictable for customers. Weight-Based Rate calculates cost from the total weight of the order; you set a price-per-gram (or per-kg, depending on your unit setting) and the system multiplies by the cart's cumulative weight at checkout. Free Shipping can be unconditional or threshold-triggered — 'free shipping on orders over $50' is a classic conversion booster and takes about thirty seconds to configure.
You can stack multiple rates within the same zone, which lets you offer both standard and express options. Name them clearly — 'Standard (3–5 days)' and 'Express (next day)' — and customers see both at checkout, picking whichever suits them.
Free shipping thresholds
When you add a Free Shipping rate and set a minimum order value, VeloCMS shows a progress indicator in the cart — 'You're $8.50 away from free shipping' — which nudges customers to add one more item. The threshold is per-order, after any discounts. Coupon codes that reduce the order total can push the cart back below the threshold, which is intentional: free shipping is a margin decision, not a customer loyalty reward that should be immune to discount stacking.
Digital products (downloads, courses, memberships) are automatically excluded from shipping zone checks — they have no physical weight and ship nowhere. Only products with 'Physical product' enabled in their settings trigger the zone logic.
Product-level shipping overrides
Individual products can override the zone rates by marking themselves as 'Free shipping' in the product settings. This is useful for a promotional hero product where you've baked the shipping into the price and want the cart to reflect that. The product-level override takes precedence over all zone rates for that line item only — other items in the same cart still use the zone rates normally.
Testing your setup
Use the 'Preview checkout' button in Admin → Shop → Shipping to simulate what a customer in a specific country would see. Enter a country, optionally a cart total and weight, and VeloCMS shows exactly which zone matched and what rates would display. Run through a few representative scenarios — domestic, a key export market, and something that should hit the catch-all zone — before going live.