Postal code sub-zone allow you to create specific zones within a zone using postal code ranges.
This feature is generally used for charging higher shipping using flat rates for rural areas, or charging less for local area deliveries, or getting more specific zones within countries that don't have provinces in the Shopify shipping settings.
What is great about this feature within our app is that it will allow you to charge different rates for sub-zones for just some groups of products. Or, it will allow you to offer shipping methods only for some products within a sub-zone.
Once a sub-zone is created it works similarly to a regular a zone, in that every product group will now have that sub-zone as an option to add different shipping methods to.
Create a sub-zone
- Go to Settings > General
- Locate the section Shipping Zones
- Click the Add Subzone button that shows when you hover the the Zone Title. ( Use the “...” on mobile to reveal the button )
- In the modal that appears, give the sub zone a title.
- Add a comma separated list of postal codes that constitute the zone. You can use the * symbol to specify a wildcard character.
- Click Add Subzone.
- Now that new subzone will appear within the parent zone for every product group. ( It will not show up in the zones list under a product group, it will be inside the
- You will need to go an set-up rates for that subzone in each and every product group. If you have set-up the sub-zone for just one group of products, and have a bunch of other groups, you do have to complete the chore of adding the same rate from the parent zone into the subzone for all the groups.
Using wildcards
If you are targeting a geographic area, you do not need to add every single individual postal code. Instead we recommend using postal code wild cards.
DO THIS:
- 1234*, 123**, 12***, 1****
- ABC DE*, ABC D**, ABC ***, AB* ***, A** ***
DON'T DO THIS:
- 1234*, 123*, 12*, 1*
- ABC DE*, ABC D*, ABC *, AB*, A*
You need to use a Asterix for each character slot.
For postal codes with spaces, you can either add the space or not add the space. When we match postal codes, the app strips the spaces.
When you delete a zone
When you delete a zone in the Shopify admin, any subzones that were created within that zone will be deleted.
If the same postal code are in different zones
Right now the app doesn't validate that you have put unique postal codes into each sub-zone. If you create multiple sub zones and have conflicting postal code matches, the app will find the first match within the first created subzone.
If a postal code is in a sub-zone doesn't existing the parent zone.
The app also does not validate that the postal codes you add within a sub-zone exist in the parent zone.
Sub-zone postal matching only occurs within the parent zone.
Example:
- You have two zones, US and Rest of World.
- You add a subzone to US and add a UK postal code.
Outcome:
- Someone add a match to the UK postal code, shipping to the UK
- Because the UK postal code is in the US zone, the rules for the subzone you set-up within the US that contains the UK postal code, will not trigger a match.
Put another way, sub zones and their postal codes are scoped by their parent shipping zone.