Do I have to include postage in my prices? The drip pricing rules for UK online shops, with the CMA's own delivery examples

A lot of small shops still price the old way: £12 on the product page, then £3.99 for postage appears at the checkout. Under the consumer protection part of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, which came into force on 6 April 2025, that pattern is a problem if the customer has no way to avoid the postage. The Competition and Markets Authority calls it drip pricing, and its guidance says plainly that showing "an initial headline price" and then adding mandatory charges as the customer goes through the purchase is prohibited.

This guide sets out what the law says, what the CMA says about delivery in particular, and what a typical small shop needs to change.

What the Act says

Section 230 lists the information an "invitation to purchase" must contain. A product page with a price and an add-to-basket button is an invitation to purchase, and so is an ad that shows a product and its price.

Two parts matter for postage:

• Section 230(4): the total price "includes any fees, taxes, charges or other payments that the consumer will necessarily incur" to buy the product.
• Section 230(2)(g): delivery charges the customer "may choose to incur" can sit outside the total price, but must still be stated.

So the question for each shop is simple. Can the customer get this item without paying your postage? If yes, postage is optional and can be shown separately. If no, it is mandatory and belongs in the total price.

Mandatory or optional: the CMA's test

CMA209 says delivery is mandatory where the customer "cannot purchase a product without paying an additional charge to cover the cost of delivery". It is optional where they can buy and receive it without paying, for example by collecting it free, or where the extra charge is for a premium choice such as next-day or a named day.

For most online-only shops, standard postage is mandatory. A collection option only counts if it is realistic. The CMA says a notional collection point that most customers could not reach does not make delivery optional.

Upgrades are different. If standard postage is free and next-day costs £5, the £5 is optional, and the CMA's perfume example shows a banner stating both is enough.

Flat-rate postage: put it in the total

If you charge the same fee on every order, it can be worked out in advance, so the customer must be shown a total including it. The CMA accepts that adding the full fee to every item's price can be misleading when it is only paid once per order, and gives three ways to comply (paragraph 5.17):

1. Show the total price, including postage, below or beside the item price.
2. Show the item price and the postage, plus a clear running total for the order that updates as items go in the basket.
3. Drop the separate fee and build the cost into your prices, in effect offering free delivery.

A running total has to be easy to see. The CMA's examples include a basket that floats on screen as the customer scrolls, an add-to-basket button that shows what adding the item will cost including fees, and a pop-up basket that appears each time an item is added.

Free delivery over a threshold

This is where many shops are caught out. Paragraph 5.14 says a free delivery threshold does not make postage impossible to calculate. You must include the full fee in the total until the basket reaches the threshold, and only then take it off. You can tell the customer the charge will go once they spend enough.

Worked through for a shop with £3.99 flat postage and free delivery over £40:

The CMA also warns that advertising "free delivery over £40" without saying what delivery costs below £40 may itself be a misleading omission. State the fee next to the threshold.

Postage that varies by address or weight

Where postage depends on things you cannot know in advance, such as the delivery address, paragraph 5.12 says you must state that delivery is payable and how it is worked out, clearly enough for the customer to calculate the total, and with as much prominence as the price. Once the customer has given you their address, every later screen must include the postage in the total.

The CMA's department store example lists five zones on the product page (mainland GB free, Northern Ireland £5, Isle of Man £10, Channel Islands £15, Highlands and Islands £10), then adds the right one to the running total once the customer is logged in. A small shop with UK, Highlands and international rates can copy that layout. If your carrier costs have just changed, our note on Royal Mail prices from 5 October 2026 has the new figures to base a zone table on.

Ads and marketplace listings

The rule covers ads too. The CMA's clothing example has a £20 dress with £4.50 minimum postage, so the search ad shows £24.50. For marketplaces where each listing carries its own postage, the example shows each item with its postage added to the headline.

What it costs to get wrong

The CMA can now fine a business directly for breaches of these rules: up to 10% of turnover or £300,000, whichever is greater, and it can order compensation for customers. A small shop is more likely to get a complaint or a warning first, but the rule applies whatever your size.

Checking your own shop

Open a product page on your phone and ask three things. Can I see what I will actually pay, postage included, without starting checkout? Does the basket total include postage from the first item? If there is a free delivery threshold, is the fee below it shown next to it?

If you decide to fold postage into your prices instead, rework your margins first: our product margin calculator takes postage, fees and VAT into account, and the Etsy and Shopify fee calculator shows what each platform takes on the higher price. The order confirmation email has its own list of required items, set out in our guide to what an order confirmation must include.

An AI assistant set up by Overlyft can go through your product pages, basket wording and delivery page against this list and draft the lines that need changing, such as a postage note for each product page or a clearer threshold message, for you to check before anything goes live. Whether to change your prices and how is your decision.

This is general information on UK consumer law for online sales, not legal advice.