Executive summary
- What: staff can create a local delivery order at checkout in Shopify POS, rather than asking the customer to reorder online or leaving a note on the order.
- Why: it removes a manual handoff on the shop floor and keeps the delivery address, fee and fulfilment inside the original transaction.
- Who: retailers on POS Pro running local delivery from store locations. Requires POS 11.16 or later and local delivery configured for the location.
What changed
Local delivery now appears as a shipping option inside the POS cart. When you add shipping and the customer's address falls inside one of your existing delivery zones, the local delivery rate shows up alongside your other rates. Staff select it, confirm the phone number, add delivery instructions and complete the sale. The address and the delivery fee appear in the cart, on the receipt and on the customer-facing display, and the order is then prepared and fulfilled in POS the same way an online local delivery order is.
Critically, this reuses the zones and rates already configured for the online store. There is no separate POS delivery configuration to build or keep in sync, which is what made previous workarounds fragile.
Three constraints shape how you use it. Every physical item on the order must be delivered, so you cannot mix delivery with shipping or pickup in a single order, although gift cards and digital items can be added. Delivery must be within the same country as the location. And two staff permissions were renamed with a behavioural change attached, covered below.
Why it matters
The out-of-stock or too-bulky-to-carry conversation is one of the most reliable ways to lose an in-store sale. The usual recovery path, asking the customer to reorder online later, converts poorly because it depends on the customer doing work after they have left. Closing the sale at the counter with delivery attached changes that from a hope into a transaction.
The operational value is that the order is a real local delivery order from the start, not a note for someone to interpret later. Fulfilment, receipts and the customer-facing display all reflect it, which removes the reconciliation work that ad hoc workarounds generate. For retailers already working on connecting in-store and online operations, this closes one of the more visible remaining gaps.
Role-specific impact
- Marketers: in-store demand for out-of-stock or bulky items becomes a recoverable sale rather than a lost one, and delivery-attached orders are attributable to the store location.
- Developers: no build work, but check any integration reading POS orders. Orders now carry a delivery address and fee that in-store transactions previously never had, which can surprise an ERP or OMS mapping.
- Store admins: review staff roles before turning this on. Creating delivery orders needs the renamed Create shipping and delivery orders permission, and fulfilling them now needs Fulfill shipping, pickup, and delivery orders, which was not previously required for local delivery.
Use-case example
Real-world scenario
A furniture retailer with four showrooms had staff logging roughly 40 lost sales a week where a customer wanted an item that would not fit in their car. The recovery process was a note asking the customer to order online, and finance measured conversion on those notes at around 22 percent. Arranging delivery at the counter converts the same conversations at the point of intent. At an average order value near 900 dollars, recovering even half of that weekly volume is material, and it removed a manual follow-up task from store managers entirely.
Implementation checklist
- Confirm each location is on POS Pro with POS version 11.16 or later installed.
- Verify local delivery is configured in the admin for every location that will offer it, including zones and rates.
- Update staff roles for the two renamed permissions, adding the fulfilment permission to anyone who fulfils delivery orders.
- Brief staff that delivery orders cannot be mixed with shipping or pickup items, and that delivery stays within the country of the location.
- Test an end-to-end order in one store, from cart through receipt to fulfilment, before rolling out.
- Check that your ERP or OMS integration handles a POS order carrying a delivery address and fee.
FAQ
Q: Do we need to set up delivery zones separately for POS?
A: No. Local delivery in POS uses the same zones and rates already configured for your online store at that location.
Q: Can a customer take some items home and have the rest delivered on one order?
A: No. Every physical item on a local delivery order must be delivered. Gift cards and digital items can be included, but shipping and pickup items cannot.
Resources
Managing local delivery orders on Shopify POS
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