How Shipping Works on a UK Squarespace Store
A customer in the Scottish Highlands orders a cast iron casserole dish on your £3.95 flat delivery rate. You've lost money before the parcel leaves the building.
Shipping is rarely anyone's favourite part of opening a shop, and badly set rates cost money on every awkward order. Squarespace gives UK stores more delivery options than many owners realise, including live courier rates for UK orders, so an hour spent setting it up properly pays for itself quickly.
There are five ways to charge for delivery on Squarespace: flat rate, weight-based, carrier-calculated, local pickup and local delivery, and most shops end up combining two or three of them. The one worth knowing about is carrier-calculated, which quotes live rates for UK deliveries from DPD, Evri, Parcelforce, UPS and DHL on Core, Plus and Advanced plans, and can use your own DHL, FedEx, UPS or Royal Mail account on Advanced. It only works for domestic orders, so anything crossing a border falls back to flat rate or weight-based zones. Those zones are where the useful detail sits, because a UK zone can carry separate rates by region, city and postcode, with up to 999 postcodes in a single rule. That is how most shops handle Highlands and Islands surcharges without charging everyone in Birmingham for the privilege.
The shipping options Squarespace offers
Squarespace has five ways to handle delivery:
Flat rate. A fixed charge you set. It's also one way to offer free delivery, the other being a free shipping discount.
Weight-based. Charges that change with the weight of the order.
Carrier-calculated. Live rates from couriers, worked out from the parcel and where it's going.
Local pickup. Free collection from your premises.
Local delivery. Your own deliveries to postcodes you choose.
Squarespace's guide to shipping rates walks through setting up each one.
Carrier-calculated shipping for UK orders
This is the option plenty of UK shop owners haven't come across. On Core, Plus and Advanced plans, carrier-calculated shipping can pull live rates for UK deliveries from DPD, Evri, Parcelforce, UPS and DHL.
On the Advanced plan you can connect your own carrier accounts instead, which adds DHL, FedEx, UPS and Royal Mail. If you've already negotiated business rates with a carrier, connecting your own account is the way to use them. Squarespace notes that new Royal Mail connections can take two to three days to process, so don't leave it until the night before launch.
Before you switch it on:
Every product needs a weight and dimensions. Without them, rates can't be calculated.
It's domestic only. Carrier-calculated shipping can't be used for cross-border orders, so international customers need flat rate or weight-based options.
Carts are capped at 150 items while carrier-calculated shipping is on, to keep estimates accurate.
Measure the packed parcel. Rates are only as accurate as the weights and dimensions you enter, and a product in a box is bigger and heavier than the product on its own.
Zones, regions and postcodes
Flat rate and weight-based options use shipping zones. You add the countries each zone covers, and "Rest of the World" catches everywhere else.
For the UK you can go further, with options for specific regions, cities and postcodes, and up to 999 postcodes in a single rule. That comes in handy for:
charging more for Highlands and Islands postcodes, where couriers often add surcharges
setting a different rate for Northern Ireland
offering a cheaper or faster option close to your shop
Local delivery areas are defined by postcode too, and local pickup is free, which suits businesses with premises customers can visit.
UK pricing rules that affect delivery charges
Delivery costs fall under the drip pricing rules in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, in force since 6 April 2025. The CMA's guidance on prices is specific:
mandatory delivery charges must be included in the invitation to purchase
if you can reasonably calculate them, they must be included in the total price too
optional delivery charges, such as next-day delivery, can be shown separately
if a customer has to choose between delivery options, include the cheapest until they pick a different one
The CMA can fine businesses up to 10% of turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater, so this deserves more than a shrug. For most small shops that means showing mandatory delivery charges alongside prices on product pages, including them in the total wherever you can work them out, and keeping a delivery page that matches what checkout charges. As with anything legal, check the guidance against your own situation.
Being upfront is also commercially sensible. Baymard Institute puts the average documented cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, based on 50 studies, and when shoppers are asked why they abandoned during checkout, 40% say extra costs such as shipping, tax and fees were too high. Another 20% blame slow delivery and 12% say they couldn't work out the total cost upfront. A delivery charge that appears for the first time on the payment screen is doing more damage than the same charge shown on the product page.
Sending parcels to EU customers
Carrier-calculated rates won't help with EU orders, so you'll be relying on flat rate or weight-based zones. Two points matter here. The EU's Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) lets sellers collect EU VAT at checkout on consignments worth up to €150, and businesses in Great Britain need an intermediary to use it. Since 1 July 2026, the EU has also applied a temporary €3 customs duty on low-value parcels, charged per type of item rather than per parcel.
Rules for cross-border parcels keep shifting, so check GOV.UK's IOSS guidance and your courier before quoting EU delivery prices.
For a smaller shop, the practical question is whether EU orders are worth the admin at all. If you sell a handful of parcels a month to Europe, a flat rate that covers the worst case and a clear line on your delivery page about duties being the customer's responsibility may be enough. If Europe is a real part of your revenue, IOSS registration through an intermediary starts to pay for itself, because customers see the VAT-inclusive price at checkout and nothing extra is demanded of them on the doorstep. The middle ground, where customers get an unexpected charge from a courier before they can collect a £40 order, is the one that generates refund requests and the kind of review you can't delete.
A setup order that avoids most headaches
Weigh and measure your products as they'll be packed.
Decide what you'll charge for mainland UK, Highlands and Islands, and Northern Ireland.
Use carrier-calculated rates for UK orders if you're on Core or above, or set up flat rate and weight-based zones if not.
Add international zones with flat rate or weight-based rates.
Write a delivery page that states costs and timescales, and link to it from product pages.
Place test orders to a few different postcodes before launch.
We covered VAT, payments and returns in our guide to setting up a Squarespace store in the UK. If you'd rather hand the whole thing over, our online store setup service is the obvious next step, or tell us what you sell and where it goes.
FAQs
Can Squarespace calculate Royal Mail shipping rates?
Yes, on the Advanced plan, by connecting your own Royal Mail account, which also brings in your negotiated business rates. Squarespace notes that new Royal Mail connections can take two to three days to process, so set it up before launch week rather than during it. Without your own carrier account, UK stores on Core, Plus and Advanced plans can still use carrier-calculated rates from DPD, Evri, Parcelforce, UPS and DHL. Either way, every product needs a weight and dimensions entered before rates can be calculated, and carrier-calculated shipping only covers domestic orders.
Does Squarespace carrier-calculated shipping work for international orders?
No. Carrier-calculated shipping only works for domestic deliveries. International orders use flat rate or weight-based shipping zones instead.
Can I charge different shipping rates by UK postcode on Squarespace?
Yes. For flat rate and weight-based shipping, UK zones can include region, city and postcode-specific options, with up to 999 postcodes per rule. Local delivery areas are also set by postcode.
Do UK online shops have to show delivery costs upfront?
Under the drip pricing rules in force since 6 April 2025, mandatory delivery charges must be shown when you invite customers to buy, and included in the total price where they can reasonably be calculated. If customers have to choose a delivery option, the cheapest should be included until they choose another. Check the CMA's guidance for your own situation.
