Remove Shipping from WooCommerce Checkout (Step by Step)

WooCommerce drops the shipping step automatically when nothing in the cart needs shipping. For a fully digital store, mark every product Virtual so shipping disappears, or disable shipping under Settings > Shipping. To remove only the shipping address while keeping methods, set Shipping destination to force the billing address. For mixed physical and digital stores, use the woocommerce_cart_needs_shipping filter, and check your tax calculation still works without a shipping address.

If you sell digital products, services, bookings, or memberships, the shipping step is dead weight. It confuses buyers and adds fields no one needs to fill. WooCommerce can run with no shipping at all, and the right method depends on whether your store is fully digital or a mix of physical and digital products.

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When you should remove shipping (and when not to)

Whether you should remove shipping at all depends on your catalog:

• Digital-only store: remove shipping completely. No order needs it.
• Mixed store: do not remove shipping globally, or your physical orders break. Remove it conditionally for digital-only carts instead.
• Service or booking store: treat like digital-only and remove shipping.

Method 1: Mark products Virtual or Downloadable

WooCommerce decides whether to show shipping based on the cart. If no item needs shipping, the whole step disappears, including the shipping address fields.

1. Open each product and find the Product data panel.
2. Tick Virtual (add Downloadable for files like PDFs or software).
3. Update the product.

Virtual is what removes shipping; Downloadable only attaches a file. With every product virtual, the cart reports it needs no shipping and the shipping section vanishes automatically.

This works the same on the classic and block checkout: both read whether the cart needs shipping and hide the shipping step and address when it does not. So for a digital-only store, marking products virtual is often all you need, with no setting changes at all.

Method 2: Disable shipping globally (digital-only stores)

For a store that never ships, switch shipping off store-wide. Under WooCommerce > Settings, set the Shipping location(s) option to Disable shipping & shipping calculations. This removes the shipping calculator and section across the store, which is the cleanest option for a fully digital catalog.

Method 3: Force shipping to the billing address

If you want to keep shipping methods but drop the separate shipping address section, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping > Shipping options and set Shipping destination to Force shipping to the customer billing address. Billing then doubles as shipping, and the extra address block disappears.

Method 4: Remove shipping with code

For mixed stores, a code filter lets you drop shipping only when you want to. To treat the cart as not needing shipping:

add_filter( ‘woocommerce_cart_needs_shipping’, ‘__return_false’ );

To remove only the shipping address fields:

add_filter( ‘woocommerce_cart_needs_shipping_address’, ‘__return_false’ );

Returning false unconditionally removes shipping for the whole store, so for a mixed store, wrap the logic in a condition that checks the cart contents and only returns false when every item is virtual. You can also customize the no-shipping message with the woocommerce_no_shipping_available_html filter.

Method 5: Mixed stores, hide shipping conditionally with a plugin

When you sell both physical and digital products and prefer no code, a plugin handles the conditional logic the filters above would otherwise need. The Hide Shipping Method for WooCommerce plugin lets you set the rule from the admin, so a cart with only digital items drops its shipping methods while a cart that includes a physical product keeps them, with nothing to maintain in code. It is the same approach covered in the guide to disabling shipping for certain products, applied to a whole digital cart rather than a single item.

What each method actually removes

The methods do different things, so pick by what you want gone:

Method	Removes shipping methods	Removes shipping address	Best for
Mark products Virtual	Yes (when all items virtual)	Yes	Digital catalog
Disable shipping globally	Yes	Yes	Fully digital store
Force shipping to billing	No	Yes	Keep methods, drop address
woocommerce_cart_needs_shipping	Yes	Yes	Conditional / mixed stores
Conditional plugin	Yes	Yes	Mixed stores, no code

Check your tax calculation

Removing the shipping address can affect tax. Under WooCommerce > Settings > Tax, Calculate tax based on may be set to the shipping address. If you remove that address, switch this to Customer billing address or Shop base address, or tax may compute on a missing location.

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Best practices

Keep these in mind so checkout and tax stay correct:

• Use Virtual for the products themselves; let WooCommerce hide shipping for you.
• Disable shipping globally only on fully digital stores.
• For mixed stores, remove shipping conditionally, never globally.
• Re-check tax settings after removing the shipping address.
• Place a test order to confirm checkout looks and calculates as expected.

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Conclusion

Removing shipping from WooCommerce checkout is straightforward once you match the method to your store. Mark products Virtual or disable shipping for a digital-only store, force shipping to billing to drop just the address, and use a conditional filter or plugin for mixed stores. Confirm your tax base afterwards, and the checkout stays clean without breaking calculations. For a mixed store that needs the logic handled without code, the Hide Shipping Method for WooCommerce plugin removes shipping for digital-only carts while leaving physical orders untouched.

Frequently asked questions