WooCommerce local pickup for print shops: set-up and common problems

WooCommerce’s Local pickup lets customers collect their order from you instead of having it shipped. Turn it on under WooCommerce › Settings › Shipping › Local pickup: tick Enable local pickup, add at least one pickup location and save. It appears only on WooCommerce’s block-based Checkout, where the customer chooses Pickup instead of Ship and then a location. WooCommerce’s own settings cannot offer pickup for some products only or let the customer choose a pickup time; both need an extension or custom code. A designed order is collected like any other, with its design and print files kept on the order.

What follows was checked on WooCommerce 11.2.1 with its block-based Checkout, on PrintBlob’s demo store.

How to set up local pickup

1. Open the Local pickup settings. Go to WooCommerce › Settings › Shipping and choose Local pickup, beside Shipping zones, Shipping settings and Classes.
2. Turn it on. Tick Enable local pickup. Title is the name customers see for it at checkout; WooCommerce fills in Pickup.
3. Add a price if you charge for it. Pickup is free by default. To charge, tick Add a price for customers who choose local pickup, enter the Cost and choose whether it is Taxable or Not taxable.
4. Add a pickup location. Select Add pickup location and enter the Location name, which is required, the Address, City, Postcode / ZIP and Country / State, and Pickup details such as your opening hours. Select Done.
5. Save. Select Save changes. Nothing takes effect before you do.
6. Check the checkout. Add a product to the cart and open the checkout: under Delivery the customer chooses Ship or Pickup, and Pickup lists your locations with their price and pickup details, and asks for a billing address instead of a shipping address.

Pickup is free unless you add a price. The address of each location is shown to the customer at checkout, and WooCommerce’s documentation says it is also used to work out the order’s tax when the customer chooses that location.

Local pickup not showing at checkout?

Check these, in order:

1. The checkout page uses the Checkout block. The Local pickup settings page says it plainly: local pickup is only available from the block checkout. A checkout page built with the older shortcode does not show it.
2. Enable local pickup is ticked, and saved. The setting takes effect only after Save changes.
3. There is at least one pickup location. WooCommerce’s documentation says pickup shows at checkout only once a location is added.
4. You are not looking for it in a shipping zone. On a shop with the Checkout block, adding a shipping method to a zone offers Free shipping and Flat rate, and points to the Local pickup settings page for pickup. Pickup is offered to every customer, wherever they are.

Local pickup only for certain products?

WooCommerce’s Local pickup settings have no option for this: they hold the switch, the title, the price, its taxes and the locations, and pickup is then offered for every order. To offer pickup only for some products, for example printed banners that are too large to post, you need an extension that sets shipping methods per product, or custom code. Say on those products’ pages that they are collection only, so customers know before they reach checkout.

A pickup date or time?

Neither the settings nor the checkout ask for one: the customer chooses Pickup and a location, nothing more. Choosing a day or a time slot needs an extension. Without one:

• write your opening hours in each location’s Pickup details, which the customer sees under the location at checkout;
• tell the customer when their order is ready. Marking the order Completed sends WooCommerce’s Completed order email, and a note to the customer on the order screen sends the Customer note email with your words, such as “Your shirts are ready to collect from 2 pm.”

How a designed order goes from cart to counter

1. The customer designs and orders. With PrintBlob, they design on the product page, add it to the cart, and choose Pickup at checkout. Pickup changes only how the order is delivered: the design is the same.
2. You receive the order with its design. PrintBlob keeps every order’s design with it: the design itself, its preview on the product and the customer’s images. PrintBlob Pro also makes a print-ready file of each printed side at 300 DPI when the customer adds the design to the cart, and its print queue gives you each order’s files in one ZIP.
3. You print, pack and label it with the order number and the customer’s name, and put it where collections wait.
4. You tell the customer it is ready, by completing the order or with a note to the customer.
5. The customer collects it. Check the order number and name against the label before you hand it over.

For a team or event order collected by one person, put every name and size on the label or a printed packing list, so the person collecting it can check it at the counter.

Local pickup works best when nearby customers find you: Local SEO for a print shop covers the Business Profile, reviews and pages that bring them.

Questions shop owners ask

See Free and Pro compared for what PrintBlob Pro adds, and A checklist for running a WooCommerce print-on-demand shop for the rest of the order flow.