Default to Billing or Shipping Address in WooCommerce?

In the Shipping Destination section of the back end in a WooCommerce web site, there are three options in WooCommerce / Settings / Shipping / Shipping Options. The options are:

  • Default to customer shipping address
  • Default to customer billing address
  • Force shipping to the customer billing address

Assuming you want to allow a customer ask for delivery to an address other than the billing address, how do you decide between the first two options? Do you set the default to the customer shipping address or their billing address?

The answer is this: If you set it to the shipping address, then on the checkout page the box next to the text that reads ‘Deliver to a different address?’ will be checked and the fields will be open and visible. If you set it to the billing address then the box will not be checked and the customer would have to check the box to get the fields for the delivery address to open and become visible.

If the majority of customers want delivery to their billing address, choose the ‘Default to customer billing address’ option.