Shipping method
One checkout delivery choice, with its price and expected arrival, such as standard, express, or store pickup.
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What it is
A shipping method is one delivery choice the shopper can select at checkout, such as standard delivery for $5 arriving Tuesday through Thursday or express for $18 arriving tomorrow. The method is the customer-facing promise; its rate is the price, and a carrier service may sit behind it.
Offer methods when shoppers have a meaningful tradeoff between speed, price, pickup, or delivery handling. Keep names plain, pair every option with a price and estimated arrival, and sort choices predictably. The cheapest option is a sensible default, but free pickup should not be selected for someone who has not chosen a location.
Gotcha: a quote depends on the destination, parcel weight and dimensions, inventory location, and current cart. Recalculate when any of those change. An estimated arrival is not a carrier scan or a guarantee, so keep the wording honest and do not turn a stale quote into a promised date.
Ask AI for it
Build the shipping-method step in checkout. After the address is validated, request eligible methods from the server using the cart, destination, fulfillment location, parcel weight, and dimensions. Return stable method IDs, names, prices, and earliest and latest arrival dates. Render the results as one labeled HTML radio group, sort by price then arrival, format money with `Intl.NumberFormat`, and format the date window with `Intl.DateTimeFormat`. Default to the cheapest shippable method, never auto-select pickup without a chosen store, and invalidate the selection when the address or cart changes. Show explicit loading, no-methods, quote-expired, and retry states, then revalidate the selected method and price on the server before payment.