In short and in plain language
Many stores bring their goods to customers themselves. You can offer this in your online shop too. Then customers know: the goods come from nearby.
First, decide where you deliver. The easiest way is a list of postal codes. The shop then checks the address.
Deliver on fixed days. Then you drive one route with many stops. This saves time and money. The cost of the driver belongs in your plan.
Customers must see early where you deliver. The law says so. So show the area before the cart.
In Advent, many customers want a delivery. Plan your routes early. Say clearly until when you deliver before Christmas.
A delicatessen in downtown Hildesheim, a beverage store in the surrounding towns, a florist with regular customers in the neighboring villages: many retailers have delivered goods themselves for years, on request, after a phone call, with their own van. In the online shop, this delivery often does not appear at all, or only as half a sentence in the shipping terms. Yet it is an offer that sets a local store apart from anonymous parcel shipping: the goods come from nearby, at an agreed time, from the store where customers otherwise shop in person. For 23 percent of online shoppers, regionality is very important when choosing a shop (Bitkom). This article shows how to define a delivery area by postal code or radius, plan delivery windows and routes, price delivery by zone, combine delivery with in-store pickup and state delivery restrictions the way the law requires. Advent, the peak season, gets a section of its own.
Key takeaways
- For 23 percent of online shoppers, regionality is very important when choosing a shop, and for another 38 percent it is fairly important (Bitkom). Your own local delivery makes this criterion visible in the shop.
- A delivery area is built from a list of postal codes or from a radius. Postal codes can be checked at checkout without an outside service; a straight-line radius underestimates the actual driving distance.
- Fixed delivery days per zone bundle stops into routes. Every hour on the road belongs in the calculation: the minimum wage is 13.90 euros gross per hour and rises to 14.60 euros in 2027 (MiLoV5).
- Delivery fee, minimum order value and the threshold for free delivery are set per zone; the delivery fees are stated in the shop in advance (Section 6 PAngV). Customers outside the area are offered in-store pickup at checkout.
- A shop must state clearly and legibly at the latest when the ordering process begins whether delivery restrictions apply (Section 312j (1) BGB). A notice on the delivery area therefore belongs in the header, and the postal code check ideally comes before the cart.
- November and December bring retailers 18.5 percent of their annual sales (HDE). If you deliver during Advent, set capacity per delivery day, order cutoffs and the last delivery day before Christmas Eve by mid-November.
Why local delivery matters for retailers right now
In fall 2025, the German digital association Bitkom asked online shoppers aged 16 and over which criteria matter when they choose an online shop. For 23 percent, regionality is very important (Bitkom), and for another 38 percent it is fairly important (Bitkom). That puts regionality behind payment options, price or product range, but ahead of sustainability. The picture is even clearer for delivery: 53 percent name shipping and delivery as a very important criterion (Bitkom). Retailers who deliver locally meet both expectations with the same offer.
European statistics also show that delivery is a sore point in online retail. Among the problems people had when buying online, a delivery that arrived more slowly than expected was the one mentioned most often: 20 percent of online shoppers in the EU reported it for 2025 (Eurostat), covering people aged 16 to 74. Your own delivery service with fixed time slots addresses exactly this. The customer chooses when the goods will arrive while placing the order instead of waiting for a tracking number.
For retailers, the path to get there is often shorter than it seems. 86 percent of retailers now sell both in stores and online (Bitkom); the survey covered wholesale, retail and motor vehicle trade companies with at least ten employees. Online retail has grown strongly over ten years: real sales in mail-order and online retail in 2024 were 140.1 percent higher than in 2014, while sales in brick-and-mortar retail grew by 8.5 percent (Destatis). So many stores already have a shop, inventory and customers nearby. What is often missing is a delivery offer that fits the store. For heavy, bulky, fragile or fresh goods, a parcel is expensive or risky, and for customers in the neighborhood it is simply inconvenient.
What this article covers
Defining the delivery area: postal code or radius
The first question is where you deliver. An online shop has two basic ways to define this. With a postal code list, you store every postal code you serve, and checkout compares the delivery address with that list. With a radius, the shop calculates the distance between your store and the delivery address and compares it with a limit. Both approaches work, but they behave differently in everyday operation.
| Method | How it works | Strength | Weakness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Postal code list | The shop checks the postal code of the delivery address against a stored list | Easy to maintain and easy for customers to follow; each zone becomes its own list | Postal code areas do not follow town limits; an area is served entirely or not at all |
| Straight-line radius | The shop converts the address into coordinates and measures the direct distance to the store | An even ring, suitable for areas without natural boundaries | Needs a source of geodata; the straight line underestimates the driving distance |
| List of towns and districts | The customer picks a town or district from a fixed selection | Fits small areas with only a few villages | More upkeep; spellings and district names lead to follow-up questions |
For most stores, the postal code is the better place to start. Customers know their postal code, the shop can check it without an outside service, and the delivery area can be published as a list on a shipping page. A radius sounds more precise, but it measures a straight line. If a river, a rail line or an expressway without a nearby crossing lies between store and customer, the driving distance is noticeably longer than the radius suggests. To convert addresses into coordinates, a radius also needs a geodata source that has to be maintained and integrated in line with data protection law.
A good basis for your area is the delivery addresses you already serve today. If you have been delivering on request, you will find them in invoices, delivery notes or your point-of-sale system. Sort the addresses by postal code and note how long the drive there actually takes. From this, you can form zones, for example a tight core that can be reached the next day and an outer ring with fixed delivery days. How to build a checkout without unnecessary hurdles is described on our page on conversion optimization.
- Sort the delivery addresses of recent months by postal code and mark clusters.
- Note the real driving time from the store for each postal code, not the straight-line distance.
- Check postal code areas that cover several towns: if a distant district lies inside, it gets delivered too, or the area stays out.
- Define zones and assign delivery days, order cutoff and delivery fee to each zone.
- Publish the postal codes of all zones on a dedicated shipping page in the shop.
Planning delivery windows and routes
Your own delivery service pays off through routes, not single trips. The more stops on one trip, the lower the cost per order. For small retailers, a model with fixed delivery days per zone is therefore a good fit: in the core you deliver the next day, for example, and in the outer ring on two fixed weekdays. When ordering, the customer sees when their zone is scheduled, and you drive bundled routes instead of individual runs.
Fixed delivery days per zone
Each zone has its weekdays. This bundles stops and is easy for customers to understand. Well suited to beverages, pantry goods and anything that is not needed the same day.
Time slots on delivery day
The customer picks morning or afternoon. This reduces trips where nobody opens the door, but it requires a route order that matches the slot.
Preferred slot with capacity
Each slot accepts only a set number of orders. When it is full, the shop shows the next free one. That keeps the promise realistic even in busy weeks.
Two settings belong to every delivery window: the order cutoff and the capacity. The cutoff defines by when an order must come in for a slot so you can pick and pack it. Capacity limits the number of orders per slot. Without this limit, the shop promises time slots in busy weeks that the route cannot handle, and the advantage of local delivery turns into a disappointment.
Before you set fees, an honest calculation per route is worth the effort. The costs consist of working time, vehicle and fuel. Working time has a fixed floor: the statutory minimum wage has been 13.90 euros gross per hour since January 2026 and rises to 14.60 euros on January 1, 2027 (MiLoV5). Payroll costs, packing time and the drive back come on top. If you set delivery fees for the whole of next year, calculate with the higher rate from January 2027 onward.
A simple rule of thumb helps with a first estimate: the cost of a route, meaning hours times hourly rate plus kilometers driven times cost per kilometer, divided by the number of stops, gives the cost per delivery. If this figure is clearly above the planned delivery fee, there are three levers: more stops per route through fixed delivery days, a minimum order value or a smaller zone.
Pricing delivery by zone
Prices follow from the route calculation. A tiered structure by zone is the obvious choice: in the core a low delivery fee, or none above a certain order value, and in the outer ring a higher fee plus a minimum order value. What matters is that the structure stays simple. Customers should know their fee before they fill their cart, not only at checkout.
| Lever | Effect | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery fee per zone | Covers part of the route costs and rises with distance | As a basic building block; the fee for the outer zone reflects the longer drive |
| Minimum order value | Prevents trips for very small orders | When small orders cannot carry the route, for example in the outer ring |
| Free delivery above an order value | Lifts the cart above a threshold | When the margin on larger orders covers the trip |
| Surcharge for a preferred slot | Steers orders to full routes; preferred slots cost extra | When capacity is tight, for example during Advent |
Legally, the same rule applies as for parcel shipping. Anyone offering goods to consumers in distance selling must state whether freight, delivery or shipping costs are added and how high they are, insofar as they can reasonably be calculated in advance (Section 6 PAngV). For fees by zone, this means a shipping page with a table of all zones and a reference to it next to the prices. How price information on a website works overall is described in our article on publishing prices on your website.
Technically, such a tiered structure can be set up with built-in tools in a shop based on Shopware Community Edition. The Rule Builder offers the condition for the postal code of the delivery address, which accepts multiple values (Shopware documentation). Each shipping method gets an availability rule that defines when it is offered and a price matrix that follows properties such as the cart value or custom rules (Shopware documentation). Zone 1, Zone 2 and parcel shipping thus become three shipping methods, and the customer only sees the ones that match their address. A delivery time can be displayed for each shipping method during selection.
Combining delivery and pickup
No delivery area fits every order. Customers who live outside it should still be able to continue at checkout. The obvious solution for a store is pickup: the goods are reserved or paid for online and collected in the store. A Bitkom survey on holiday shopping among people aged 16 and over shows how naturally customers switch between the two channels: 20 percent buy their gifts roughly half online and half in local stores (Bitkom).
What matters is what checkout does when a postal code lies outside the area. A bare error message ends the purchase. A better approach is a switch that shows what is possible instead:
- a clear message that this address is not served, with a link to the list of delivery areas
- in-store pickup with opening hours and the earliest pickup day
- parcel shipping for everything that ships well, as a separate shipping method with its own price
- delivery to another address within the area, for example to the workplace
How reservation, pickup time slots and notifications work together is shown in our article on click and collect. The same principle applies to your own delivery: at every step, the customer should know what happens next.
Stating delivery restrictions correctly
A limited delivery area is a delivery restriction. On websites for electronic commerce with consumers, the retailer must state clearly and legibly at the latest when the ordering process begins whether delivery restrictions apply and which means of payment are accepted (Section 312j (1) BGB). A customer who only learns after entering her address that her town is not served receives this information after the ordering process has begun. In practice, this means a notice such as “Delivery to selected postal code areas around Hildesheim” in the header and with the products, and a postal code check before the cart wherever possible.
The mandatory pre-contract information also includes the terms of delivery and performance, the date by which you deliver and, where available, environmentally friendly delivery options (Article 246a Section 1 (1) sentence 1 no. 10 EGBGB). If you deliver by cargo bike or electric vehicle, stating this is not just a matter of image. Freight, delivery or shipping costs are also part of the mandatory information (Article 246a Section 1 (1) sentence 1 no. 7 EGBGB).
Regional offers are also permitted under EU law. The Geo-blocking Regulation makes clear that traders may make certain offers only for a specific area within a member state, and it does not oblige them to deliver goods across borders (Regulation (EU) 2018/302, recitals 27 and 28). It does, however, prohibit different conditions based on nationality or place of residence: if a customer from another member state wants delivery to an address within your delivery area or pickup in the store, the same conditions apply to them (Article 4 (1) (a) Regulation (EU) 2018/302). The shop therefore checks the delivery address, not the country of the billing address.
Food comes with additional rules, and bakeries, butchers, farm shops or beverage retailers are typical candidates for local delivery. For prepacked food, the mandatory information, except for the best-before or use-by date, must be available before the purchase is concluded, and all mandatory particulars must be available at the time of delivery (Article 14 (1) FIC Regulation). For goods that can spoil quickly, there is no right of withdrawal unless otherwise agreed (Section 312g (2) no. 2 BGB), and the shop must inform customers about this (Article 246a Section 1 (3) no. 1 EGBGB). How to state allergens online correctly is covered in our article on the online restaurant menu.
Not legal advice
Advent: the peak season for your own delivery
For many retailers, December is the month in which delivery is most in demand and has the least slack. Retailers generate 18.5 percent of their annual sales in the last two months of the year (HDE). At the same time, 73 percent of Germans order Christmas gifts online (Bitkom); the survey covered people aged 16 and over in fall 2025. If you deliver locally during Advent, you compete less for attention than for time slots: routes are full, and every gap in planning shows immediately.
- Right away, by the first week of November at the latest: set capacity per delivery day and plan additional routes for the Advent weeks, including drivers and vehicle.
- By mid-November: set the last delivery day before Christmas Eve and the order cutoff per zone, and state both in the shop, on the shipping page and in the Google Business Profile.
- From the first Sunday of Advent: show full delivery windows as booked at checkout and redirect to free slots or in-store pickup.
- In the last week before Christmas: offer gift cards and pickup when delivery is no longer possible.
- In January: evaluate routes, missed deliveries and feedback, and adjust the delivery area for the next year.
How to announce Advent promotions in your Google profile is shown in our article Google Business Profile posts: presenting Advent promotions correctly. The full timeline for your website in the fall is in the article on the Christmas trade.
Making the delivery area visible
A delivery area that only appears at checkout does not attract customers. Three places make it visible: the shop’s shipping page, the Google Business Profile and dedicated pages for towns with many deliveries. In the Google Business Profile, stores that receive customers and also deliver to them count as hybrid businesses. They can add a service area next to the store address, defined by cities, postal codes or other areas; the profile does not support a radius. A maximum of 20 service areas is allowed, and the boundaries should not be more than about two hours of driving from the business location (Google Business Profile Help).
The simplest approach is to use the same towns and postal codes in the profile as in the shop. Then profile, shipping page and checkout all say the same thing. How to maintain the profile is shown on our page on the Google Business Profile. For towns with many deliveries, a dedicated page explaining when deliveries go there can be worthwhile; what matters is covered in the article on location pages in the surrounding area. And if you run ads for the delivery area, target them at the same area, as described in the article Google Ads by radius.
Local delivery does not sell transport, it sells a time slot: whoever places an order should know when the doorbell will ring.
How we set up delivery in your shop
For retailers in Hildesheim and the region, we build online shops based on Shopware Community Edition. We assemble your own delivery service from the building blocks of this article: the delivery area as a postal code list per zone, separate shipping methods with availability rules and price matrix, delivery times during selection, in-store pickup as an alternative and a shipping page listing all zones. We implement the choice of a delivery window with a capacity limit as an extension, depending on your requirements. More on the structure and process of a shop project is on our page online shop from Hildesheim.
The order of steps matters to us: first clarify area, routes and costs, then build the shop. A delivery area you cannot serve reliably with your own vehicle does not improve with a good checkout. If you would like to see what a checkout with a postal code check could look like for your store, write to us via the contact form. More approaches for stores can be found under web design for retail.
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