Store setup: Shopify Plus. Single primary US market. Markets only shows US states as regionsno territories listed anywhere.
The problem:
US territories like Puerto Rico, Guam, and US Virgin Islands are appearing as selectable options in the checkout country/region dropdown even though they are not added to any shipping zone and not listed anywhere in Markets settings. Because no shipping rates exist for them, customers who select these locations hit a dead end with “no shipping methods available.”
What I’ve checked:
- Shipping zones US territories are not added to any zone
- Markets → Primary Market (US) only shows states/regions, no option to add or remove territories
- No secondary or international market exists where these territories are assigned
- There is no visible way in the admin to block or hide specific territories from appearing at checkout
What I want:
Either remove these territories from the checkout dropdown entirely so customers cannot select them, or understand why Shopify is showing them despite no shipping zone or market being configured for them.
Questions:
- Why does Shopify show US territories at checkout when they are not part of any shipping zone or market?
- Is there a way to remove or hide specific territories from the checkout without a custom app or code?
- If not, what is the recommended approach on Shopify Plus checkout extension, theme code, or something else?
Hey @Sam_Tim - thanks for reaching out.
This lines up with how Shopify models some U.S. territories in address/shipping data. Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands can be surfaced as U.S. address regions/subregions rather than separate countries, so they may appear in the checkout region selector even when you’re managing a single U.S. market.
The main thing I’d check first is whether those regions are covered in the relevant shipping profile, not just the primary market. If the products in the cart are assigned to a custom shipping profile, that profile would need rates that apply to those destinations as well. When checkout can collect the address but no matching rate exists, customers can hit the “no shipping methods available” state.
There isn’t currently a native setting to hide only specific U.S. territories from the checkout region dropdown, but you do have a few options!
- Add shipping rates for those territories if you do want to serve them.
- If you do not ship there, use a checkout/cart validation Function to block those location codes before the customer gets to the shipping-rate dead end.
If the admin is not exposing the territory/subregion controls you’d expect, I’d recommend reaching out through Plus Support as well so the shop’s shipping profile/zone setup can be checked directly in case there are any issues there.
Hope this helps - let me know if I can clarify anything on our end here!