Shopify how-to
How to ship to only certain states
Some stores aren’t restricted so much as licensed. A permit covering three states, a perishable product that can’t survive a long transit, a wholesale line sold only where you have a distributor — in each case the list of places you can ship to is far shorter than the list you can’t. Writing that as a blocklist means naming forty-odd states and updating it whenever your footprint changes. Pointing the rule the other way is one short list that stays true.
Blocklist or allow-list — which fits
The test is simply which list is shorter and which changes less often. A supplement banned in six states is a blocklist: the exceptions are few and named. A licence that covers three states is an allow-list: the permitted set is few and named, and the rest of the map is irrelevant to you.
Length matters for accuracy, not just typing. A forty-seven-state blocklist has forty-seven chances to be wrong, and every new market you enter means remembering to remove an entry. A three-state allow-list has three.
What Shopify gives you natively
Shipping profiles can limit where rates are offered, which looks like the same thing and isn’t. Profiles work per product at the rate level and allow one profile per product, so a store with mixed catalogues — some items everywhere, some items three states — runs out of room quickly. Buyers also meet the limit as a missing rate rather than an explanation, which generates the support email you were trying to avoid.
Markets can switch off whole countries, but not individual states or ZIP codes, and not per product.
Setting it up in ShipEmbargo
Pick the products the licence covers — a single item, a collection, or a tag. List the places you can ship to, and set the rule to allow only those. Write the message a buyer outside them should see; that wording often has to explain a legal limit rather than apologise for a technical one.
ZIP and postal codes work the same way, which matters for delivery radius rules — a perishable you ship only within a few hours’ drive is an allow-list of postal codes, not of states.
Common questions
Can I have allow-only rules and blocking rules in the same store?
Yes — the direction is set per rule, so different products can work different ways.
Does an allow-only rule cover ZIP codes as well as states?
Yes. A rule can name states, countries, and ZIP or postal codes, in either direction.
This guide is general information for merchants, not legal advice. Regulations change — verify current law for your products and destinations.