The Definitive Guide to WooCommerce Shipping
Table of Contents
Introduction
Shipping Rate Calculation
WooCommerce Shipping Methods Overview
Shipping Settings in WooCommerce
Shipping Options
Flat Rate
Free Shipping
International Flat Rate
Local Delivery
Local Pickup
Shipping Classes in WooCommerce
Creating Shipping Classes in WooCommerce
Assigning Shipping Classes to Products in WooCommmerce
Example: Setting Flat Rate shipping method for a Simple product which belongs to Gift Class
Example: Setting Flat Rate shipping method for a variable product which belongs to T-Shirt Class
Common Shipping Scenarios
Offer Free Shipping
Charge a Flat Rate
Weight based shipping Rate
Region / Zone based rates (Postcode/State/Country )
International Shipping
Cart based ( Based on Order Quantity / Order Total)
Shipping Rates for Product Category or Class
Per Product Shipping Rate
Local Pickup
Charge Real Time Carrier Rates
Table Rate shipping
Combo Offer /Bundle Rate
Shipping Process Automation
Label/Invoice/Packing List printing
Shipment/Order Tracking
Export Orders for Third-Party Fulfilment
Creating Custom WooCommerce Shipping Method
Introduction
You are all set with your online store on WordPress/WooCommerce platform, you’ve set up the product catalog and configured the payment modes. Now is the time for you to configure how to handle the shipment of orders.
WooCommerce offers different shipping options and tax settings. An online store owner can calculate shipping costs by using various shipping methods and shipping classes in WooCommerce.
As you may have seen, WooCommerce comes complete with several basic core shipping methods for offering flat rates, local pickup, and free shipping. If you require more flexibility for your shipping, you may choose from many free or premium shipping plugins available in WordPress repository or from commercial developers.
With the right extensions, you can charge a more accurate shipping fee and also automate your the shipping process completely. For example, by configuring a commercial shipment tracking plugin , your customers can track their orders and get status updates about the delivery of their purchased items.
In this guide, we will explain how to configure the out-of-the-box shipping features available in WooCommerce. We will also give you an overview of how you can extend the shipping functionalities to make your shipping more robust and efficient.
Shipping Rate Calculation
Numerous studies have shown that hidden shipping and handling fees are the number one factor driving shopping cart abandonment.
It may not be practical to completely avoid the shipping charges. However if shipping costs and other details are made completely transparent as early as possible in the customer journey, this will certainly prevent a lot of unpleasant surprises and abandoned carts.
One of the major features for the WooCommerce Shipping module is the calculation of shipping rates. In the WooCommerce parlance, this module is called a ‘woocommerce shipping method’.
WooCommerce Shipping Methods Overview
User-defined Shipping Rates
There are shipping methods that help you control the shipping rates offered. These are typically the most flexible WooCommerce shipping methods available.
WooCommerce comes with the following standard shipping methods:
Flat Rate: You can fix a rate for an order which can contain any number of products. For more information, See Flat Rate section.
Free Shipping: Order gets delivered at the customer’s doorstep absolutely free. Online store owner does not claim any shipping cost. For more information, See Free Shipping section.
International Flat Rate: You can fix a rate for an international order. For more information, See International Flat Rate section.
Local Delivery: Order is delivered to the destination which is within the city or country of your store. For more information, See Local Delivery section.
Local Pickup: The customers come to pick up an order from the store. For more information, See Local Pickup section.
Apart from these standard shipping methods available in WooCommerce, there are many free and commercial shipping method extensions that help you to handle simple and complex shipping calculations. You can get this from either WordPress plugin repository or from commercial plugin developers. These plugins help you define shipping rates based on weight, shipping destination, order quantity and many other parameters.
Real-time / Live Shipping Quotes (API Based Rates)
There are shipping methods which get rates from a third party API, such as USPS, UPS,Canada Post and FedEx. Most support box packing and can be customised to show multiple rates, or cheapest only.
Custom Shipping Methods
If you have a unique need you may want to consider a custom shipping method plugin. Developers can create their own shipping method by extending WooCommerce Shipping Method API. For a step by step instructions on this refer to How To Create Your Own Shipping Method.
Shipping Settings in WooCommerce
In this section, you will show how to setup the basic shipping configuration for your ECommerce store.
Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Shipping as shown below:
Shipping Tab
The Shipping tab offers Shipping Options along with shipping methods namely Flat Rate, Free Shipping, International Flat Rate, Local Delivery and Local Pickup which can be offered to customers. You can also find an individual page for each shipping option or method.
Shipping Options
In this section, WooCommerce store owners can set general configurations which deal with the calculations, shipping methods, and appearance on cart/checkout page. The settings are as shown below:
Shipping Options
Shipping Calculations: According to the requirement, you can enable or disable the checkbox, which will affect the calculation of shipping costs. The available options are as given below:
Enable shipping: This option allows you to enable shipping for your products. If you enable this option, then shipping cost gets added to product cost.
Enable the shipping calculator on the cart page: If you enable this option, you get Calculate Shipping option in ‘Cart Totals’ section. It allows customers to calculate the shipping cost which will be applicable to the order. Shipping cost is calculated on the basis of country and zip code. The customer can select the country from a drop-down list and enter the zip code within the mentioned state. It is shown as below:
Cart Total
Hide shipping costs until an address is entered: After enabling this checkbox, the shipping cost will not be displayed till a customer enters an address.
Shipping Destination: This option allows you to choose the address for order delivery. WooCommerce provides you the options as given below:
Default to shipping address: Chooses the customer’s shipping address by default. With this option, Checkout page looks like:
Shipping Address as Default
Default to billing address: Chooses the customer’s billing address by default, but allows the customer to choose a different address. With this option, Checkout page looks like:
Billing Address as Default
Only ship to the customer’s billing address: Chooses the customer’s billing address only and does not allow any other address. With this option, Checkout page looks like:
The only Customer’s Billing Address
Restrict shipping to Location(s): Allows you to specify the countries for delivering the order. The available options are as given below:
Ship to all Countries you sell to: Allow shipping an order to countries which are specified under General Tab.
Ship to all Countries: Allow shipping an order to all countries.
Ship to specific Countries only: Allow shipping an order to countries which are selected in Specific Countries fields. The setting is as shown below:
Specific Countries
Shipping methods: Allows you to select the shipping methods which are going to available to the customers. You can also prioritize the Shipping Methods that will be displayed at cart/checkout page.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
Flat Rate
In this section, WooCommerce store owners can set flat rate option which deals with the calculations and availability of the shipping method. The settings are as shown below:
Flat Rate
Flat Rate
Enable/Disable: Select Enable/Disable checkbox to enable Flat Rate shipping method.
Method Title: Method Title is visible in Cart/Checkout page under Shipping options. Specify Method Title as required (defined by you).
Availability: This field allows you to select countries for this shipping method . The available options are as given below:
All allowed Countries: This option provides availability of this shipping method to the customers in all countries. It is set as a default option.
Specific Countries: This option allows you to add the list of countries. Flat Rate Shipping Method gets available only in the listed countries.
Tax Status: This field allows you to apply taxes to the shipping method. The options available as given below:
Taxable: You can add Sales Tax, Value Added Tax, etc. to the shipping cost.
None: The shipping cost does not include any tax.
Cost: You can specify the fixed amount of shipping in this field or use placeholders in combination. The placeholders are as given below:
[qty] indicates the total number of items.
[cost] indicates the cost of an item.
[fee percent=” 10″ min_fee=”20″] indicates percentage of total cost.
Shipping Class Cost
If you have configured class(es) in the store, then this section appears. You can add an additional amount to fixed amount (Cost field) for required class(es). For detailed information, See Shipping Class in WooCommerce
No Shipping Class Cost: If the product in the cart does not belong to any defined class, then this field is used to add an additional cost other than flat rate.
Note: You can use the placeholders to add an additional cost.
Calculation Type. This field decides the additional cost other than flat rate. The options available are as given below:
Per Class: Charge shipping for each shipping class individually.
Per Order: Charge shipping for the most expensive shipping class.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
Free Shipping
This shipping method allows you to not charge any additional cost if you want to offer the free shipping facility to your customers. The settings for Free Shipping are as given below:
Free Shipping
Enable/Disable: Select Enable/Disable checkbox to enable Free Shipping method.
Method Title: Method Title is visible in Cart/Checkout page under Shipping options. Specify Method Title as required (defined by you).
Method Availability: This field allows you to select countries for this shipping method . The available options are as given below:
All allowed Countries: This option provides availability of this shipping method to the customer in all countries. It is set as a default option.
Specific Countries: This option allows you to add the list of countries. Free Shipping Method gets available only in the listed countries.
Free Shipping Requires…: This field allows you to apply a condition for free shipping. If the store owner sets the required option then the order must satisfy the condition to get the free shipping service. The available options as given below:
N/A: After selecting this option, Free Shipping Requires… field is not applicable.
A valid free shipping coupon: Customers need to provide the coupon for availing the free shipping service. Generally, WooCommerce store owners give away such coupons to market store as part of marketing strategy.
A minimum order amount: For availing the free shipping service, the order needs to meet the condition of Minimum Order Amount which is specified by the store owner.
A minimum order amount OR a coupon: A customer requires either Minimum Order Amount or Coupon to avail the free shipping service.
A minimum order amount AND a coupon: A customer requires Minimum Order Amount and Coupon to avail the free shipping service.
Minimum Order Amount: Enter the required minimum amount for an order in this field if you have selected any option from Free Shipping Requires… field.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
International Flat Rate
In this section, WooCommerce store owners can set flat rate option which deals with the calculations and availability of shipping method for the international customer. The settings are as shown below:
International Flat Rate
International Flat Rate
Enable/Disable: Select Enable/Disable checkbox to enable International Flat Rate shipping method.
Method Title: Method Title is visible in Cart/Checkout page under Shipping options. Specify Method Title as required (defined by you).
Availability: This field allows you to select countries for this shipping method . The available options are as given below:
Selected countries: This option provides availability of this shipping method to the customer in the listed countries(Specific Countries field).
Excluding selected countries: This option allows you to exclude the listed countries(Specific Countries field). Other than these listed countries, this shipping method gets available to rest of all countries.
Tax Status: This field allows you to apply taxes to the shipping method. The options available as given below:
Taxable: You can add Sales Tax , Value Added Tax, etc. to the shipping cost.
None: The shipping cost does not include any tax.
Cost: You can specify the fixed amount of shipping in this field or use placeholders in combination. The placeholders are as given below:
[qty] indicates a number of items.
[cost] indicates the cost of an item.
[fee percent=” 10″ min_fee=”20″] indicates percentage of total cost.
Shipping Class Cost
If you have configured class(es) in the store, then this section appears. You can add an additional amount to fixed amount (Cost field) for required class(es).
No Shipping Class Cost: If the product in the cart does not belong to any defined class, then this field is used to add an additional cost other than flat rate.
Note: You can use the placeholders to add an additional cost.
Calculation Type. This field decides the additional cost other than flat rate. The options available are as given below:
Per Class: Charge shipping for each shipping class individually.
Per Order: Charge shipping for the most expensive shipping class.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
Local Delivery
Local Delivery means the order gets delivered to customers within the geographical boundaries of the store which can be in the same city or country. For such kind of shipping requirement, use this shipping method. The settings are as shown below:
Local Delivery
Enable: Select Enable checkbox to enable Local Delivery shipping method.
Title: Title is visible in Cart/Checkout page under Shipping options. Specify Title as required (defined by you).
Fee Type: With this option, you can manage the options for calculation of delivery charges.The available options are as given below:
Fixed amount: Allows charging the fixed amount per order.
Percentage of cart total: Allows charging the percentage of the total cart.
Fixed amount per product: Allows charging the fixed amount for each product in the cart.
Delivery Fee: Enter the exact amount(according to Fee Type option) that you want to charge to the customer for local delivery.
Allowed ZIP/Post Codes: Enter Zip or Post Codes for which you want to allow local delivery service.
Method Availability: This field allows you to select countries for this shipping method . The available options are as given below:
All allowed Countries: This option provides availability of this shipping method to the customer in all countries. It is set as a default option.
Specific Countries: This option allows you to add the list of countries. Local Delivery Shipping Method gets available only in the listed countries.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
Local Pickup
In this Shipping Method, customers need to come and collect the order directly from the store owners. The settings are as shown below:
Local Pickup
Enable: Select Enable checkbox to enable Local Pickup shipping method.
Title: Title is visible in Cart/Checkout page under Shipping options. Specify Title as required (defined by you).
Allowed ZIP/Post Codes: Enter Zip or Post Codes for which you want to allow Local Pickup service.
Method Availability: This field allows you to select countries for this shipping method . The available options are as given below:
All allowed Countries: This option provides availability of this shipping method to the customer in all countries. It is set as a default option.
Specific Countries: This option allows you to add the list of countries. Local Pickup Shipping Method gets available only in the listed countries.
Click the Save Changes button to save settings.
Shipping Classes in WooCommerce
A very useful option for setting up shipping charges for individual or groups of similar products in a WooCommerce based store is to use the Shipping Classes feature.
By using Shipping Classes you can create a class and then set a shipping cost for that class. Once this is done, you can then apply that class to a product or group of products to which that shipping cost applies to.
For example, if your store sells bulky products you may want to create shipping class called ‘bulky’ and associate bulky products with this shipping class with their own unique shipping cost.
If you need to change the shipping cost, you can change it via the shipping class, which will then see that change applied to all products in that class.
WooCommerce shipping methods such as Flat Rate Shipping and Table Rate Shipping allow you to use shipping classes to calculate their costs.
Here, we will walk you through the steps to create and use shipping classes and set shipping charges with the core WooCommerce plugin. Hope this helps you get better idea on how this feature works and helps you apply it to your eCommerce store.
Creating Shipping Classes in WooCommerce
Navigate to WP(Word Press) Dashboard > Products > Shipping Classes. The window appears as shown below:
Creating Class
Under New Shipping Class, specify the name of a class in Name field.
Enter the slug name.
Select the required parent class if needed.
Enter the description of the class.
Click Add New Shipping Class, the class gets added as shown below:
Added Class
Assigning Shipping Classes to Products in WooCommmerce
You can assign the class to the product during adding or editing it. To assign the class, navigate to WP > Dashboard > Products. It is shown as below:
Assign Class
Click publish/update to associate the class with the product.
Example: Setting Flat Rate shipping method for a Simple product which belongs to Gift Class
The Flat Rate Settings are as shown below:
Flat Rate Settings
Suppose, customer adds Gift7 product(assigned the Class Gift) to cart, then the cart will look like :
Cart
Here, Flat rate is $30.00 which is the addition of Cost ($20.00) and “Gift” Shipping Class Cost ($10.00).
In case, the customer adds Red Hat (which does not belong to any shipping class) to cart , then the cart will look like:
Cart
Here, Flat rate is $29.00 which is the addition of Cost ($20.00) and No Shipping Class Cost ($9.00).
Example: Setting Flat Rate shipping method for a variable product which belongs to T-Shirt Class
– Assign the Class T-shirt to Parent Product as shown below:
Assign Class to Parent Product
Select the Class T-shirt from the drop-down list and click Update.
– Now , assign the same class to variation product as shown below:
Assign Class To Variation Product
Under Variation tab, you get all the variations of the variable product. For Blue variation, you get the Shipping Class options as shown below:
Shipping Class Options
Here, select the required shipping class for your product and update it.
– The Flat Rate Settings are as shown below:
Flat Rate Setting
– Suppose, customer adds Blue T-Shirt product(assigned the T-Shirt class) to cart, then the cart will look like :
Cart
Here, Flat rate is $28.00 which is the addition of Cost ($20.00) and T-Shirt Shipping Class Cost ($8.00).
Common Shipping Scenarios
Am I charging my customers too much or too little for shipping? Should I offer free shipping? These are some of the typical questions most Ecommerce shop owners ask themselves while formulating their shipping strategy.
Getting your product into the hands of your customer in a way that delivers a truly exceptional customer experience, while keeping you profitable is very important to business success.
Here we will try to list most popular shipping scenarios and guide you how you can set this up in WooCommerce.
Offer Free Shipping
To remain competitive in today’s marketplace you may be forced to offer Free shipping. Free Shipping has a very positive effect on conversion rates, it is easy to explain to customers and also aligns with customer expectations.
It can be a good selling tactic to offer free shipping. But you should keep in mind that, free shipping may be free to your customers but not to you! Understanding this, some businesses offer free shipping, but they slightly increase the prices to cover the shipping cost.
But If you choose to offer free shipping in its true sense, it’s very important to understand its impact on your bottom line. You’ll still need to pay the carrier and you’ll have to make sure you’re making enough on each order to cover the associated shipping costs.
The most effective approach to free shipping is to only offer it for orders where you know you’re making enough on the sale to cover shipping and still make a profit. You could try offering free shipping with a minimum order amount or a minimum number of items that makes sense for your business and, maybe, excluding products that are too heavy or bulky for you to offer free shipping on. A common rationale for offering free shipping is that it will help boost sales, leading to more orders and more profits. Free shipping can also lead to larger orders, particularly when minimum thresholds are applicable. This should drive up your average order value and help you have more margin to apply the shipping cost against.
Free shipping based on order amount or country can be set up using standard WooCommerce shipping method, ‘Free Shipping’. Here is how to set up Free Shipping for your WooCommerce store.
But if you need to offer free shipping to specific products, based on a number of products in the cart etc.. you may need to use plugins that allow more complex shipping rules. A very commonly used plugin is Table Rate shipping plugin.
Examples of free shipping cases:
Free shipping on all items.
Free shipping on selected items for orders of $100 or more.
Free shipping on more than 10 items.
Free shipping within in the USA
Free Shipping on books. Flat rate on other products.
Charge a Flat Rate
Another option to consider, while deciding on your shipping strategy, is to offer a flat rate for every package. Flat rate shipping works best for businesses that sell products that are fairly small and not too heavy or products that are similar. This eCommerce shipping strategy is as popular as ‘free shipping’ as it keeps things simple for customers and it’s easier to set up on the website.
Flat rate method of charging for shipping requires you to figure out your average cost of shipping a package. This is anyway a best practice you should be doing to make sure that you don’t drastically undercharge or overcharge your customers. When you charge flat rate you’ll probably be slightly overcharging or undercharging your customers than the actual shipping cost. This means you’ll lose money on roughly half of your shipments and make many on the other half. But it all evens out at the end.
Flat Rate Example Scenarios:
Flat rate (say $5 ) on all products regardless of order value
Free Shipping for some products and a flat rate for others
Charge $3 to all locations in the United States
Flat rates for orders up to $100. Free Shipping above order of $100
Weight based shipping Rate
If you have products that varies significantly in weight it might be a better idea to go for weight based shipping. For example if you sell shoes, jackets and dresses, a one size fits all flat rate shipping option may not work as there is a large weight (and price difference) in shipping a pair of shoes compared to a light summer dress. Charging different shipping rates based on weight slabs is common in such scenarios. Beyond the defined range, you can define shipping rate per weight unit.
To figure out your shipping costs you need to actually calculate them by measuring their weight, dimensions, and other factors that affect how much it costs to ship them. Round these numbers up to the nearest whole number. Calculated shipping is the most exact method of making sure products are priced correctly.
A typical weight based shipping rate slabs may look like this example:
– Cart weight 8lbs or less costs $5
– Cart weight 9-15lbs costs $8
– Cart weight 16-30lbs costs $15
– Cart weight more than 30lbs costs $20
In some cases it is not that simple. You may want to add one more parameter along with weight, for eg regions. If you want shipping prices to be different based on weight and country or region then you may try Table Rate Shipping.
Region / Zone based rates (Country, State, Post Code)
If your shipping cost varies significantly based on the geographical area you ship to, then this could become really important for you. We have seen people opting for this in cases where they ship internationally or in cases where some of the states in the country charge different taxes over shipping costs.
Zone based shipping doesn’t come out of the box with WooCommerce. You may need to get it from WordPress plugin repository or buy from a plugin developer. Shipping cost calculation based on region (By Country / State / Post Code) can be easily configured in such a plugin. For eg, Different shipping rate calculation rules for States/Counties in USA or United Kingdom can be defined.
Examples scenarios:
Zone based free shipping
Zone based flat shipping rate
Zone & weight based shipping
International Shipping
This is just a subset of zone or region based shipping. WooCommerce comes with built-in shipping method for International Shipping. So you need not install a separate plugin if you have a simple international shipping requirement. But if you want to group countries and configure different shipping costs then it may not be possible in WooCommerce International Shipping. For eg: you want to set $10 for the US, $15 to Canada, 30$ to Europe and $40 to Rest of The World. You may want to use Table Rate shipping or any other suitable plugins in such a case. These specialised plugins come with mechanisms where you can define or select Rest of the world, Rest of the country, Any Country and Any States groups for easy configurations.
Some examples
– free shipping to the UK
– price $20 per item for European orders
– price $30 per item for the rest of the world countries
Cart based ( Order Quantity / Order Total)
A common requirement is to set shipping cost based on the order quantity or order total. For example, you are selling shoes weighing roughly 1 kg, and usually charge $3 each for shipping. You could offer a shipping discount of say 25% for orders of 3 or more shoes upto maximum 6. This means that if someone buys 4 shoes, the total shipping cost would be $9 instead of the original $12.
This is an example of setting shipping cost based on the cart or order quantity which is ideal if you sell multiple items with identical weights or prices. You could similarly set shipping cost as a percentage of the total amount in the cart.
It is also a common strategy to offer Free shipping if the cart subtotal is above certain amount. For example, yo can offer free shipping for any order value of $100 or above.
These kinds of complex shipping rules are not available in standard WooCommerce. You need to install separate WooCommerce add-ons for implementing such rules.
With Advanced Shipping extensions for WooCommerce such as Table Rate shipping plugin, you can setup shipping rates based on a variety of conditions based on the cart.
Shipping Rates for Product Category or Class
WooCommerce product shipping classes or product categories can be used as a way of setting shipping cost for a group of products.
For example, products in category ‘Books’ can have a different shipping rate than those in category ‘Furniture’.
Similarly, products associated with the shipping class ‘small’ may fit into an envelope and those associated with shipping class ‘large’ may require a parcel shipping. You may define different shipping calculation methods for these classes. You may use WooCommerce Flat Rate shipping method to associate a flat rate to the shipping class ‘small’ and use Table Rate shipping method to set a weight and region based rates for products with shipping class ‘ large’.
Per Product Shipping Rate
The one-size-fits-all solution may not be suitable for all types of products. If your store is selling one-off, heavy or large products that require additional shipping unlike the rest of your catalog, general pricing based on weight or order amount may not be practical.
For example, a shop owner who is selling antique items may need to take special care and do specialized packaging and want this reflected in the shipping price.
In such cases, you may need the option to set up a separate price for each item in your catalog. The WooCommerce system then adds the per-product shipping fees together to provide a total at checkout. Apart from including cost per product, you also have the facility of defining costs per variation of the product.
Local Pickup / In-store Pickup
If you have a physical store, you can let your customers order products online and choose to pick up at your store to avoid shipping costs. You can still charge customers a handling fee if you wish to.
Local pickup option is available out of the box in WooCommerce and allows you to set up a local pickup zone. This sets the geographical perimeter for which customers can pick up their order.For more detail on how to set this up in WooCommerce check Local Pickup section under WooCommerce settings.
However, for some businesses local pickup requirements could be bit complex than just setting the pickup zone and handling fee. Again, there are plugins, such as WooThemes Local Pickup Plus, that could meet most of the complex requirements.
Charge Real Time Carrier Rates
Charging what you get charged by your shipping courier is another great eCommerce shipping strategy if you prefer to offer the best possible shipping rate to your customer while still covering your shipping costs.
There are WooCommerce add-ons that let you get live rates in real-time directly from carriers such as UPS,USPS, FedEx or DHL. Once a customer gets to the checkout page and selects where she wants the order shipped to, the calculator pulls the available services and corresponding real-time shipping quotes from the shipping service provider by calling the right API.
Using a real-time calculator can help you win the trust of customers that shows you are not inflating your shipping charges. Customers may also choose the best shipping service that matches his budget and delivery speed requirements.
With the right plugin installed, the store owner, can also pay postage online and print shipping label without leaving the WooCommerce admin interface. This could save a lot of time and effort in shipping your package.
Real-time shipping rate
Table Rate shipping
At times, you will have complex shipping requirements which need a combination of calculation methods.
For example, you provide free shipping in your home state but charge flat rate for other states in the country. For international shipping, you charge weight based shipping rates. You have assigned a shipping class for certain items for which you want to charge a flat rate. There could be more requirements in real life scenario.
If you have complex and advanced shipping calculation requirements you may rely on Table Rate shipping method for WooCommerce. Table Rate shipping method gives you great flexibility for nearly every scenario.
WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping method is arguably the most powerful and flexible shipping method available for WooCommerce. This lets you define rules and set corresponding shipping rate for a combination of conditions. You can define shipping rates based on shipping destination, have multiple rates per zone, and add multiple rules based on product weight, cart subtotal, the number of items, shipping class, price and so much more.
If the user’s cart matches the rule, the shipping cost you defined for that rule is applied.
Bundle Rate / Combo Offer
Bundle Rate shipping rate is commonly used in shops where customers buy multiple products of similar type. For example, you have set a flat rate for shipping per product but wants the cart to automatically charge the same flat rate per multiples of 5 of the product. so for instance, if the customer orders 1 – 5 items, the cost will be $1.00 but if the order is 6 – 10 products, the shipping will be $2.00 and so on… so it will add an additional shipping fee for every 5 items ordered.
This kind of special bundle shipping rates can be configured using Bundle Rate shipping plugins.
Another similar requirement is to offer free shipping for one product when purchased along with another.
Shipping Process Automation
Whether you’re a big or small e-commerce shop, shipping is a chance to impress or disappoint your customers. Processing orders in a fast and efficient manner is very crucial for an E-commerce business.
As you grow there are a variety of shipping plugins and tools that can further help you streamline your shipping processes. This includes simple plugins which will help you to print invoices, labels, receipts and packing slips or track orders. You can use plugins which will integrate with many of the most popular courier companies so that you can print more than just shipping labels but the postage as well, which will be directly charged to your account.
Label/Invoice/Packing List printing
It is a generally good practice to include an invoice and packing list when you are shipping a package. It serves as a confirmation of what the package contains along with your contact information and the details of the purchase. It also establishes an extra line of communication between you and the customer and adds a human touch.
Furthermore, when you sell internationally, many countries require an invoice to be included. An invoice should contain all the required order details (such as name and address of your company, billing address of your customer, a list of all order items including taxes and totals).
If you don’t include one, there is a possibility that their customs may assess a value to the items in the package which in some cases is higher than what the customer has paid. This means the customer has to pay higher import fees and you’ll end up having a very frustrated customer.
WooCommerce Invoice
You may also want to print the address label with or without postage. If you have a business account with a shipping service provider you can integrate your store with this account and pay the postage and print the label without logging into their online system. This helps to avoid copying and pasting the order and address details.
A Sample Label
WooCommerce, by default, doesn’t allow you to print the invoice, packing list or shipping label from your orders page. There are plugins which allow you to do this from your WooCommerce admin area.
Shipment/Order Tracking
Once you start shipping your orders, you will also start receiving emails and calls from customers inquiring about the status of their order. If you can reduce the number of customer emails