Can I ship a WooCommerce order to a non-billing address?
Yes. A WooCommerce order carries a billing address and a shipping address as separate sets of fields, and the label should go to the shipping address whenever one is present. If the shipping address is empty, your store is set to ship to the billing address, and that is the only address the order has.
Two addresses, two jobs
The REST API reflects the same split: an order exposes billing address data and shipping address data as separate objects, which is why an integration can tell the difference without guessing.
| Address on the order | What it is for | Use it for the label |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | Where the payment is registered, and the buyer's contact details | Only when there is no shipping address |
| Shipping | Where the goods go | Yes, whenever it is filled in |
Why shipping is sometimes empty
It is a store setting. WooCommerce's shipping settings let you ship to a customer's billing or shipping address by default, or only ship to the user's billing address. A store on that last option never collects a separate shipping address, so every order arrives with one address, and it is the billing one.
Change the address on an order
Go to WooCommerce > Orders and open the order.
Find the Billing and Shipping columns at the top of the order.
Select the edit control on Shipping.
Correct the fields, or use the option to load the customer's shipping address.
Select Update to save the order before you buy a label against it.
Change the address before the label, not after. Postage is bought against the address you gave the carrier, and a corrected order does not correct a label already printed.
What to check before you print
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| A shipping address exists | If not, the billing address is what you have |
| The two do not conflict | A gift order sends to a different person entirely |
| Street line two is there | Apartment and unit numbers are where deliveries fail |
| No new address in the note | Customer notes on an order sometimes carry a new address |
When the buyer asks you to change it after checkout
Edit the shipping address on the order, then buy the label. Do not paste the new address into the label alone: the order stays wrong, the packing slip prints the old address, and the next person to touch that order has no idea which one was used.
Key takeaways
- Billing and shipping are separate field sets on every WooCommerce order.
- The label follows the shipping address whenever one is present.
- WooCommerce's shipping settings can force shipping to the billing address.
- Correct the order first, then buy the label against it.
Which address we put on the label
I'd Ship That for WooCommerce is in early access. We read the shipping address off the order and use it for the label, and where a store never collected one, we fall back to the billing address so the order is still shippable. Address validation runs before you buy, and you can correct the recipient on the order detail screen, then rate shop USPS and UPS against the address the package is actually going to.
Related questions
The one the package is going to, which is the shipping address when the order has one. A packing slip that disagrees with the label is how a warehouse ends up with two versions of the truth for the same box.
You can, but put it on the order first. Editing the shipping address on the order keeps the label, the packing slip and your record in agreement, and leaves a trail if the buyer later says the package went to the wrong place.
Check the shipping settings. WooCommerce lets a store ship to the customer's billing or shipping address by default, or only to the billing address, and that last choice means the shipping fields are never filled in.
It matters as a fallback and as contact information. The buyer's email and phone usually live in the billing fields, which is what you use when an address needs confirming before the label is bought.