Multiple Destinations

A "Shipping" checkout step with a "+ Ship to Multiple Addresses" action button in the top right, and two destination groups below it: "Ship to: Mia Chen" with one item, and "Ship to: Alex Rivera" with two items, each group carrying its own Edit action button Splitting the order isn’t the hard part — keeping each destination’s own items easy to review and edit afterward is.

Background

This pattern depends on a working single-address checkout already being in place — see Quick-Flow Checkout for the full basic checkout flow — it only adds the branching needed when one order has to split across recipients, not the checkout flow itself. It introduces no trade-off of its own beyond what process funnels generally face: every extra address a customer assigns multiplies the number of things that can be wrong in the final review step, which is why a clear, destination-grouped summary matters more here than in a single-address checkout.

every extra address a customer assigns multiplies the number of things that can be wrong in the final review step, which is why a clear, destination-grouped summary matters more here than in a single-address checkout.

Problem

Customers buying gifts for several people in one order need to ship different items to different addresses, but a standard single-address checkout has no way to express that.

Customers buying gifts for several people in one order need to ship different items to different addresses, but a standard single-address checkout has no way to express that.

Solution

Offer the option explicitly during checkout

Via a “Ship to Multiple Addresses” action button at the point where the customer would otherwise enter one shipping address.

Reuse the existing address book

For returning customers, show a pick list of previously-used addresses next to each product in the order, rather than asking them to re-enter destinations from scratch; first-time customers (with an empty address book) go straight to an address-entry form instead.

Group the order summary by destination, not just by product

So customers can verify each address’s contents are correct before confirming — with an Edit action button on each address group, so a mistake doesn’t require restarting the whole order. Carry the same per-destination grouping into the printable confirmation page.

So customers can verify each address’s contents are correct before confirming — with an Edit action button on each address group, so a mistake doesn’t require restarting the whole order.

Patterns

Sources

The Design of Sites: Pattern Group G — Advanced E-Commerce is this page’s sole source, its G5 pattern — shipping different items in one order to different addresses via an explicit “Ship to Multiple Addresses” action and a destination-grouped order summary.