Should I offer local delivery on Shopify?

See whether local delivery still beats the carrier label.

Shopify Local Delivery replaces a postage label with your time and miles. The usual pitch is “save the $5 label.” The missing piece is the run. The table keeps the same SKU, then compares buying the typed label, driving it over, and charging shipping while you still make the drop-off.

Order, label and the run

Shopify plan (fills illustrative US card defaults — edit them) Item price Shipping charged Shipping you pay Local delivery fee Minutes on the run Hourly rate Miles round-trip Mileage rate Shopify Payments (%) Shopify Payments fixed fee You paid for the item Packaging cost Other per-order cost Monthly Shopify plan Orders per month

Label vs local delivery

$—

extra kept by local delivery versus the label

Label leftover
Local-delivery leftover
Charge shipping, deliver yourself
Driver run cost
Run cost that still ties the label
Monthly gap vs the label

Same SKU, three ways it leaves the shop

Path	Charged	Fulfillment cost	Fees	Leftover	vs label

Card fees sit on whatever you charge for postage or delivery. The driver run is cash out either way. Transparent arithmetic from your inputs — not Shopify Local Delivery policy or a published mileage schedule.

What this checks

Merchants search “Shopify local delivery vs shipping” because a $5.00 label looks expensive and a neighborhood drop-off looks free. Twenty-five minutes at $18/hour is $7.50. Eight miles at $0.70 is $5.60. That $13.10 run is the postage.

On the defaults — $48 item, $6 shipping charged, $5.00 label, Basic 2.9% + $0.30, $14 cost, $1 pack, $39 / 100 plan, $8.00 delivery fee, 25 minutes, 8 miles — the label keeps $31.74. Local delivery keeps $25.59 ($6.16 less, −$615.80 / month). Charging the $6.00 shipping quote and still driving it over keeps $23.64. The run has to cost about $6.94 before local delivery matches. Cut the run to 12 minutes and 3 miles and local delivery keeps $32.99 ($1.24 more).

It does not tell you to turn Local Delivery on or off, and it is not tax or financial advice. Buying one label versus another is a different question — Shopify Shipping vs your own label. Pickup (they come in) is on pickup vs the carrier label. A counter tap is on POS vs online fees. A card-network pull is a different question — refund vs fight vs accept. Selling stored value is a different question — gift card vs selling the SKU now. Collecting duties at checkout is a different question — DDP vs DAP vs skipping international. The main Shopify fee calculator still compares Shopify Payments with PayPal.

Common questions

Should I offer local delivery on Shopify?

Local delivery replaces a postage label with driver time and miles. Card fees still sit on the delivery fee you charge. On the calculator defaults ($48 item, $6 shipping / $5 label, 2.9%+$0.30, $8 delivery fee, 25 minutes at $18/hour, 8 miles at $0.70) the label keeps $31.74 and local delivery keeps $25.59. The run has to cost about $6.94 before local delivery matches. That is arithmetic on your inputs, not advice to turn Local Delivery on or off.

Can I charge shipping and just drop the order off myself?

You can, but you keep the typed postage and still pay the driver run. On the defaults that path keeps $23.64 — worse than charging an $8 delivery fee — because you ate a $13.10 run and only collected $6.00 of postage.

When does Shopify local delivery beat a carrier label?

When the run is short. The same $8 delivery fee with 12 minutes and 3 miles keeps $32.99 — $1.24 more than the $5 label. Pickup (the buyer comes in) is a different comparison on the pickup page.