Expanding your webshop to new countries starts with a shipping question: which carrier gets parcels to customers there the way they already like to receive them. Translations, payment methods and marketing matter, but the delivery options at checkout are where a new market first notices whether you are a local shop or a foreign one. This playbook covers when to use a local carrier and when a pan-European or global one, what the carriers in different markets offer, how to add a carrier without rebuilding your setup, and how Zippendo handles rules, brands and languages for webshops based anywhere, from Europe and the United Kingdom to Canada.
Key takeaways
Test a new market on a carrier you already have, then add a local carrier once its delivery options make a difference to customers there.
What local carriers have built is the best guide to what a market uses: parcel lockers in Poland and the Nordics, cash on delivery in Central and Eastern Europe, evening home delivery in the Netherlands.
A new carrier, or a second agreement with the same carrier, is one new connection and one new rule in Zippendo, not a new setup.
Brands keep each shop's orders, documents and customs numbers apart inside one account.
What does a webshop need before it enters a new country?
Before you enter a new country you need four things settled: a carrier agreement that covers the destination, a delivery option customers there recognise, a return route back to you, and, if the country sits outside your customs union, complete customs data on every product. Everything else, from the checkout price to the carrier you eventually prefer, can change once orders come in.
The cheapest way to test a market is usually the carrier you already have. Road networks such as GLS, DPD Polska and DHL eCommerce Europe all have cross-border products, so a first order to a new country may not need a new contract. What it needs is a shipping rule for that country, a price your customers accept and a clear answer to who pays import charges when the parcel crosses a customs border. Our guide to international shipping for Shopify and WooCommerce covers the customs side in detail.
Should you use a local carrier or a pan-European one?
Use a pan-European or global carrier while you test a market, and add a local carrier once the market matters enough that its delivery types, service point network or returns make a difference. The two are not either-or: a common setup is a pan-European network for most countries and a local carrier for the one or two markets where it pays off.
When a pan-European carrier is the better start
One agreement, one label format and one invoice cover many countries. GLS EuroBusinessParcel from GLS Germany or GLS Poland reaches the rest of the EU by road, and GLS ParcelShop Delivery from GLS Germany delivers to GLS ParcelShops in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain as well as Germany. DHL eCommerce Europe delivers DHL Parcel Connect to homes across the EU, Norway, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and UPS Standard runs between European countries and on to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
When a local carrier earns its place
A local carrier gives customers the delivery types and service points they use every day, and often the return route they already know. The practical catch is that many local carriers book only from an address in their own country: PostNL ships from the Netherlands and Belgium, GLS Poland from Poland, and every Matkahuolto shipment starts in Finland. Using them usually means stock in that country, in your own warehouse or with a fulfilment partner.
Some local carriers take parcels from further away. Bring carries parcels from Denmark, Sweden or Norway to pickup points, lockers and homes across the Nordics, which makes it a common route into Norway. InPost accepts sender addresses in Poland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary and the United Kingdom, subject to what your InPost contract covers.
Express for markets outside Europe
For the United States, Australia or Japan, an express carrier is the simplest first step. DHL Express delivers to more than 220 countries, FedEx and UPS ship worldwide, and GLS Express outside Europe goes from GLS Germany and GLS Austria to countries including the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and Singapore.
What delivery options do customers expect in each market?
The clearest guide to what customers in a market expect is what the carriers there have built: where carriers run dense locker networks, customers collect from lockers, and where carriers collect cash on delivery in several currencies, customers pay at the door. These are the delivery types Zippendo's carriers offer in the markets webshops most often expand into.
Parcel lockers in Poland and the Nordics
In Poland, InPost delivers to InPost Paczkomat parcel lockers with InPost Locker, for parcels up to 25 kg, and to lockers or partner shops with InPost Locker or Service Point. InPost Cooled Locker sends groceries and other chilled goods to fridge compartments in Polish lockers. DPD Polska runs the DPD Pickup network of parcel shops and lockers, and GLS Poland delivers to GLS parcel lockers. In the Nordics, Instabox delivers to its lockers in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, Budbee to lockers and homes in those four countries plus the Netherlands and Belgium, and Posti to parcel lockers and service points in Finland, Åland and the Baltics.
Cash on delivery in Central and Eastern Europe
Carriers in Central and Eastern Europe collect cash on delivery in the local currency. GLS Czech Republic collects in Czech crowns, GLS Hungary in forints, GLS Romania in lei, and GLS Croatia and GLS Slovakia in euros, and each also collects in the destination's own currency in neighbouring countries when your GLS contract includes cash on delivery abroad. DPD Hungary collects in Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia, each in the destination's currency, and DPD Polska offers cash on delivery on DPD Classic, DPD Pickup and DPD Classic International. In Zippendo you set the amount on the shipment.
Home delivery and evening slots in the Netherlands and Belgium
Dutch and Belgian carriers build around the doorstep and the letterbox. PostNL offers evening delivery (17:30-22:00) on Dutch domestic parcels, Today delivery when you hand the parcel over before 11:00, and mailbox parcels that fit through the letterbox. DHL Parcel Benelux delivers to homes, letterboxes and DHL ServicePoints, with evening or Saturday delivery in the countries where DHL offers it. GLS Netherlands adds GLS ExpressParcel for delivery before a set time the next working day, or on Saturday.
Mailbox and home delivery in Norway and Finland
In Norway, Helthjem delivers to the receiver's door or mailbox and runs overnight Helthjem Express where available, and Bring delivers small parcels to the mailbox with Pakke i postkassen. In Finland, Posti Home Parcel and Matkahuolto Kotijakelu deliver to the door at a time agreed with the receiver.
Tracked delivery and collection points in the United Kingdom
Royal Mail covers Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man with Tracked 24, Tracked 48 and Special Delivery Guaranteed, and its Local Collect versions deliver to a Post Office or another collection point the customer picks.
Service point and locker products show at checkout. Live shipping rates in Shopify and the Zippendo plugin for WooCommerce list the nearest points, and the order arrives with the one your customer chose.
How do you add a second carrier without rebuilding your setup?
In Zippendo, a new carrier is one new connection and one new shipping rule: your existing carriers, rules, printers and order channels keep running as they are. You connect your own agreement with the carrier, so you keep your own prices and the carrier invoices you directly.
You can also connect the same carrier more than once, for example GLS Germany for your German warehouse and GLS Poland for a fulfilment partner in Poland, or two connections with one carrier for two accounts. Give each connection a name your team recognises. Each one counts toward the carriers your plan includes, and you can check the limits on the pricing page.
A sensible order of work for a new market:
- Connect the carrier with the credentials it gives you, such as a GLS Contact ID or an InPost Organization ID from the InPost Merchant Portal.
- Send a few shipments in the carrier's test mode, where it offers one, and check the labels.
- Create a shipping rule for the new country only, so no existing order changes carrier.
- Add a return rule for the same country and link it to the outbound rule.
- Follow the first orders through to delivery in each shipment's tracking timeline.
How should shipping rules differ per country?
Give each market its own rule, or a small set of rules, so the carrier product, the checkout price, the return route and the documents can differ per country without touching any other market. Rules are where a new country's delivery promise becomes concrete.
- Countries: each rule lists the countries it ships to, with quick-add buttons for the EU, the Nordics, Europe, North America or the whole world, and a marker on any country the product cannot deliver to.
- Prices: conditions on weight, order value, value range or quantity, or a flat rate, each with its own price and currency.
- Hard limits: a minimum and maximum weight or order value, for example to keep heavy parcels off a locker product.
- Checkout names: on Shopify, a rule's name and description can be written in each of your customers' languages.
- Returns: a return rule per market, created with every shipment or on demand.
- Documents and printing: a commercial or proforma invoice and a packing slip where the market needs them, and a label printer per rule, for example in a second warehouse.
How do you run several brands or shops in different markets?
Use Zippendo brands: each brand is a separate shop or label inside one organization, with its own orders, shipments and documents, while carriers, rules and your team are shared or assigned to one brand. A brand fits when the shops belong to the same company, for example a German store and a Polish store, or two labels sold in the same markets.
- Orders stay apart: set the brand on each order channel, and the orders it brings in, and the shipments and documents made from them, belong to that brand.
- Documents carry the brand: each brand can have its own company name, address, logo and colours on its packing slips and invoices.
- Customs numbers per company: a brand that is a registered company of its own can declare its own VAT number and its own EORI, IOSS and VOEC numbers.
- Carriers per brand: a carrier agreement that belongs to one shop can be limited to that brand, and a team member can be restricted to one brand.
Brands are included on the Pro plan, with up to five brands, and on Enterprise, with no limit. Businesses that must be billed separately use separate organizations instead.
Does it matter where your business is based?
No. Zippendo works for webshops wherever their carriers book from: across the EU, in the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, and in Canada, and express carriers ship from there to destinations worldwide. A shop in Leeds can run Royal Mail through Click & Drop alongside DHL Express, a shop in Zurich can run DPD Switzerland, and a shop in Toronto can run GLS Canada for parcels within Canada next to an express carrier for orders abroad.
Your team does not have to work in English either. The Zippendo app is available in English, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, German, Dutch, French and Polish, each person picks their own language, and the help docs come in the same nine languages. Weights work in kilograms, grams, pounds or ounces. If your orders come from an ERP or warehouse system rather than Shopify or WooCommerce, the REST API, webhooks and free client libraries for TypeScript, Python, PHP, Go, Ruby, Java and C# connect it.
Expanding to new countries FAQ
Open your next market with the carriers you choose
Pick the carriers for your next country, connect your own agreements and give the market its own rules, without touching the countries that already work. See all carrier integrations to find the carriers for your new market, or compare plans on the pricing page.
Sincerely yours,
Jonas Bang
Jonas Bang · Co-founder, CPO