Offering local delivery from your online shop: what to sort first.

If you sell online from Norwich or anywhere in Norfolk, some of your best customers probably live a few miles away. They would happily order from you instead of a national chain, as long as getting the goods is just as easy. That is where local delivery and click and collect come in.

The idea sounds simple. In practice, it is one of the areas where online shops most often get tangled up. Here is what to think through before you switch it on.

Decide exactly where you deliver

"Local delivery" means nothing to a customer until they know whether it covers their street. Pick a clear rule and show it on the site.

• By postcode: list the postcode districts you cover, such as specific NR areas. This is easy to explain and easy for a shop system to check.
• By distance: a radius from your shop or unit. Fair, but harder for customers to judge for themselves.
• By zone: for example, central Norwich at one price and outlying villages at another.

Whichever you choose, the checkout should tell the customer straight away whether they qualify. Nobody wants to fill in their details only to be told at the end that delivery isn't available.

Be honest about days and cut-off times

Local delivery lives or dies on timing. If you only deliver on Tuesdays and Fridays, say so. If orders after 2pm go out the next day, show that clearly next to the delivery option.

Then plan for the awkward weeks. Bank holidays, Christmas and your own time off all shift delivery days. If your site can't handle that, you end up emailing customers to explain why their order is late.

Price delivery so it doesn't eat your margin

There are a few common approaches:

1. Flat fee: one price for everyone in your area. Simple to understand.
2. Free over a threshold: encourages bigger baskets, but check the threshold actually covers your costs.
3. Zone pricing: closer customers pay less, further ones pay more.

Work out what a delivery really costs you, including your time or a courier's fee, before you settle on a number.

Don't forget click and collect

If you have a shop, studio or unit people can get to, collection is often the cheapest option for everyone. It works best when the customer gets a clear message telling them when their order is ready, where to go and what to bring. A vague "we'll be in touch" leads to phone calls.

Tell customers where their order is

Once someone has paid, the main question is "when will it arrive?" Good local delivery answers that without them having to ask:

• an order confirmation that states the delivery day
• a message when the order is out for delivery or ready to collect
• tracking, if you use a courier that provides it

Every one of these saves you an email or a call.

Local delivery is a promise. The website's job is to make sure you can keep it.

What it looks like behind the scenes

We see this first-hand with Surplush, a Norwich buyers club selling packaging and cleaning supplies to businesses at wholesale prices. They deliver by e-cargo bike in Norwich, Cambridge and London, which means different couriers in each city and delivery days that change with bank holidays.

When we relaunched their shop in January 2025, we built courier bookings and tracking for e-cargo bike delivery in all three cities into the site itself. Because Surplush also sells on sustainability, every account has carbon tracking with reward levels customers can unlock, so the green delivery becomes a reason to keep ordering. We have kept building and looking after the shop ever since.

Most local shops won't need anything that involved. The lesson still applies, though: the delivery rules you promise at checkout have to match what actually happens in the van, on the bike or at the counter.

Shopify or a custom build?

If you are a Norwich business looking at Shopify, it has built-in settings for local delivery and local pickup, and for many small shops they are enough. Set up your area, fees and collection details, and test the checkout properly.

A custom build starts to make sense when your rules don't fit standard settings. Examples include several couriers, trade accounts with their own terms, delivery days that move often, or delivery data you want to show customers. Start with what you actually need, not what you might need in five years.

Questions to ask before you launch

• Can a customer see if they qualify before checkout?
• Are cut-off times and delivery days shown clearly?
• What happens to orders placed over a bank holiday?
• Who gets told about each order, and how?
• Does the customer hear from you at every step?

If you are setting up local delivery for a Norwich or Norfolk shop, or your current setup causes more emails than it saves, we are happy to talk it through.