Shipping Countries and Fees
Set the countries you can deliver to and what you charge for shipping. Today the model is simple on purpose: one flat fee per order, applied wherever you ship.
How it works today
Each seller picks a list of countries they can ship to and sets one flat shipping fee in USD. That fee is added to every order from buyers in any of your supported countries. We kept this simple at launch so most Vwaza creators can get going without having to model complex zones.
Choosing your countries
Open the Store section in Vwaza Studio, and pick the countries you can ship to from the country selector. Most sellers start with Malawi only, then add neighbouring countries (Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa) once they have figured out the courier handover. You can add or remove countries at any time and the change takes effect immediately.
Practical advice
- Only enable a country if you have actually arranged how a parcel gets there. Cancellations hurt your reputation more than missing a sale does.
- For international shipping outside the region, talk to a courier (DHL, FedEx, EMS via Malawi Post) and confirm rates before enabling.
- If a country becomes too expensive or unreliable, remove it and your store will stop accepting orders to that country.
Flat shipping fee
Set one flat fee in USD as part of your seller profile. That fee is added per order, not per item, regardless of how many items the buyer puts in their cart from your store. The fee is converted into the buyer's currency at checkout using the same exchange rate that applies to the items.
Worked example
- You set a flat shipping fee of $5.
- A buyer in Malawi puts two t-shirts in their cart at $10 each.
- At checkout they see: items $20 + shipping $5 = $25, converted to MWK at today's rate.
- Your commission is calculated on the items only ($20), not on the shipping fee.
Does shipping count toward your earnings?
What buyers from other countries see
Buyers from countries you do not ship to can still browse your store and view your products. When they try to check out, they will see a friendly message saying this seller does not currently ship to their country. They will not be charged. This means you can safely showcase your catalogue to a global audience without committing to ship globally.
Coming later
Per-zone rates and per-item shipping