Set the default delivery provider

Choose which delivery provider your shipments start with, keep each provider's details up to date, and switch off or remove a provider you no longer use. All of it happens on the Delivery providers page. To add a provider, see Add a delivery provider.

Delivery providers are on every plan. To change them, your role needs the Manage shipping rates and delivery providers permission, which the Store owner and Store manager roles have. Sales staff can open the page and read every card, but a change they try to make there is refused and nothing changes. Make default, the switch, a saved edit and Delete show You do not have permission to do this. The switch springs back to where it was. See Staff roles: what each one can see and do.

The provider cards, default first

In the sidebar, under Operations, open Delivery providers, or open your delivery providers (opens in a new tab).

The Delivery providers page: Total providers 4, Active providers 3, Default provider Rawabi Express, then the cards of Rawabi Express with its Default badge, Nujoom Cargo and Sahm Delivery, each with its tracking link, phone, email, notes, Active switch and buttons — The default provider comes first, with its Default badge. Its card has no star button: it is already the default.

Three figures sit across the top:

Figure	What it shows
Total providers	Every provider you have added, active or not.
Active providers	The providers that are switched on, which rates and shipments can use.
Default provider	The name of your default provider, or No default when you have none.

Each provider has a card:

The name, and a Default badge with a star on your default provider.
Tracking URL template: the provider's tracking link in full, so you can check that {trackingNumber} sits where the tracking number goes. A provider without one shows a warning here instead. See A provider with no tracking link.
Contact phone, with its country code, as a link you can tap to call, and Contact email as a link that opens your email. Your customers never see these.
Notes, written for your team. Details you left empty are not shown.
At the bottom, the switch that reads Active or Inactive, then the buttons: Make default (a star, only on an active provider that is not the default), Edit (a pencil) and Delete (a bin). Point at a button to see its name.

The cards come in this order: the default provider, then your other active providers, then the inactive ones, each group from A to Z.

The whole Delivery providers page for Layal Boutique: Rawabi Express (Default), Nujoom Cargo and Sahm Delivery are Active, and Madar Couriers, with the note Used for the first month. Replaced by Rawabi Express., is Inactive at the end — Inactive providers come last. Their cards have no star, because only an active provider can be the default.

While a change on a card is saving, that card's switch and buttons are greyed out for a moment. If the page cannot load your providers, it shows Could not load providers and a Try again button.

Make a provider the default

The default provider decides where a new shipment starts. When you create a shipment on an order's Fulfilment tab, its Delivery provider list is already set to:

the provider of the shipping rate the customer chose at checkout, if that provider is still active
otherwise your default provider
otherwise the first active provider in the list, from A to Z

So the default is the provider for orders whose rate names no provider (Any provider on the rate). In the list it carries (Default) after its name. You can always choose another provider for a shipment. See Ship an order with a tracking number.

The default does not change checkout, your rates, or shipments you have already created.

To change the default:

In Delivery providers, find the card of the provider you want as the default.
Select Make default, the star at the bottom of its card.

Nujoom Cargo is now first, with the Default badge, and Default provider at the top reads Nujoom Cargo; Rawabi Express is second with a star button, and Default delivery provider updated. shows at the bottom of the screen — The badge and the first place move to the new default. The old default stays active.

Default delivery provider updated. appears. The Default badge moves to that card, the card moves to the front, and Default provider at the top shows its name. Your previous default stays active; it only loses the badge.

You can also make a provider the default from its form: tick Use as the default delivery provider and select Save. That box only counts on an active provider. If Active is unticked, the provider saves without becoming the default.

To have no default at all, edit your default provider, untick Use as the default delivery provider and save. Default provider then reads No default, and shipments for orders with no provider start on the first active provider, from A to Z.

When you change delivery company

Add the new company and tick Use as the default delivery provider as you save it. See Add a delivery provider.
In the sidebar, open Shipping rates. Edit each rate that names the old company and choose the new one, or Any provider. See Delivery provider: any, or one.
Back in Delivery providers, switch the old company to Inactive. See Deactivate and activate a provider.

Parcels already with the old company keep its name and tracking links, and you can still update their shipments' status as they move.

Edit a provider

On the provider's card, select Edit, the pencil.
Change what you need. The form is the same as when you added the provider, with the title Edit provider.
Select Save.

The Edit provider form for Rawabi Express: its tracking link with a green Preview, the phone +962 725550148, ops@rawabiexpress.example, a note about pickups and cash-on-delivery money, and both Active and Use as the default delivery provider ticked — Editing your default provider. Both boxes at the bottom are ticked.

Delivery provider saved. appears and the card shows the new details. Cancel closes the form without saving.

What a change reaches:

You change	What happens
Name	Checkout shows the new name at once on the rates that use this provider. Orders already placed and shipments already created keep the name they had. Another provider in your store cannot have the same name.
Tracking URL template	Shipments you create from now on get links built from the new template. Shipments already created keep the link they got.
Contact phone, Contact email, Notes	Only your team sees these, so change them whenever you like.
Active	The same as the switch on the card. See Deactivate and activate a provider.
Use as the default delivery provider	See Make a provider the default.

The form checks your changes the same way as when you add a provider: a name is required, a tracking link must start with https:// or http:// and include {trackingNumber}, and an email must be a full address. Each message and what to do about it is in What the form flags.

A provider with no tracking link

A provider saved without a tracking URL template shows No tracking URL — shipments will not get tracking links. on its card, where the link would be.

Sahm Delivery's card with an amber warning, No tracking URL — shipments will not get tracking links., in place of its tracking link, beside Rawabi Express and Nujoom Cargo, which show theirs — Sahm Delivery has no tracking link, so its shipments will carry the tracking number only.

Shipments with this provider still have their tracking number. Your customer sees the provider and the number on their order page and in the email that says their order has shipped, but no link to follow, and the email's button opens their order instead. You can still paste a link into one shipment's Tracking URL when you create it.

Some delivery providers have no tracking page, such as a motorbike delivery service inside Amman. Then the warning is only a reminder and you can leave it. If the provider does have a tracking page, add it:

On the provider's card, select Edit.
In Tracking URL template, type the provider's tracking link with {trackingNumber} where the number goes. If the number goes at the end, type the link and select Insert {trackingNumber}.
Check the green Preview: line under the field: it shows where a tracking number will land.
Select Save.

The card now shows the link. Shipments you create from now on get a tracking link; shipments already created keep the number only. For how to find the template, see The tracking link and {trackingNumber}.

Deactivate and activate a provider

Deactivate a provider you have stopped using. It stays in your store with its history, and one switch brings it back.

On the provider's card, select the Active switch.

Rawabi Express, Nujoom Cargo and Madar Couriers above, and Sahm Delivery at the end switched to Inactive, with Delivery provider deactivated. at the bottom of the screen — Sahm Delivery is switched off and joins Madar Couriers among the inactive providers, in A to Z order.

Delivery provider deactivated. appears, the switch reads Inactive, the card moves down among your inactive providers, in A to Z order, and Active providers counts one fewer. While the provider is inactive:

Shipments. It is not in the Delivery provider list when you create a shipment. On an order whose customer chose a rate with this provider, the list starts on your default provider instead. If no active provider is left, the order shows Add an active delivery provider before creating shipments.
Shipments already created keep this provider, and you can still update their status.
Shipping rates. Every rate that names this provider leaves checkout, and comes back when you switch the provider on again. On the Shipping rates page those rates still show its name, with no sign that checkout skips them. Saving one of them is refused with Shipping rates can only be assigned to active delivery providers. until you choose another provider in it.
The default. If it was your default, it stops being the default and Default provider reads No default. Choose a new default with Make default.
Your setup list. If it was your only active provider, the Add a delivery provider task on your Dashboard opens again. A store that has never published cannot open the Storefront Studio until it is done. See The setup list before your first publish.

Warning

If every rate in a shipping zone names this provider, the zone has nothing left to offer, and customers at its addresses cannot check out. Move those rates to another provider or to Any provider before you switch the provider off. See Edit, deactivate or delete a rate.

To switch a provider back on, select its Inactive switch. Delivery provider activated. appears, the provider is offered for shipments again, and its rates return to checkout. It does not become the default again by itself: select Make default if you want it to be.

Delete a provider

Delete a provider only when you added it by mistake or never used it.

On the provider's card, select Delete, the bin.
The prompt Delete delivery provider? says This deletes the provider unless a rate, shipment or order still uses it. Select Delete to go ahead, or Cancel.

The Delete delivery provider? prompt: This deletes the provider unless a rate, shipment or order still uses it., with Cancel and Delete — Delete works only on a provider that nothing in your store uses.

If nothing uses the provider, Delivery provider deleted. appears and its card goes. This cannot be undone: to use the provider again, add it again. If it was your default, Default provider reads No default.

If something uses it, nothing is deleted and Delivery provider is used by shipping rates, shipments, or orders. appears at the bottom of the screen:

Used by shipping rates only, including inactive rates: edit each of those rates to choose another provider or Any provider, or delete them. Then delete the provider again.
Used by a shipment or an order, even a cancelled one: the provider stays, because your order history names it. Deactivate it instead.

Tip

Deactivating is the safe way to retire a provider you have used. It takes the provider out of checkout and the shipment form just as deleting would, keeps your past orders' details intact, and one switch brings it back.

Next, add a new delivery provider, or create a shipment with your default provider.