Step 1: Set Up WooCommerce Shipping Zones & Methods
First, you need to set up specific shipping zones and methods in your WooCommerce site. You can do that under the WooCommerce > Shipping .
Each shipping zone will accept a different shipping method.
First, click the Shipping Zones tab.
Click Add New Shipping Zone and fill out the following fields:
Title: Name your shipping zone to clearly identify it.
Ship To: Enter the address(es) that will be used for shipping to this zone. For example, your business address, shipping out from a warehouse, or one or more return addresses. This will depend on your own business shipping needs. Only enter shipping addresses as they will appear in the shipping methods.
Zone Group: Leave this field blank if your specific zone isn’t part of any zone group. Otherwise, select the zone group that this zone belongs to. You can create a different zone group for each specific shipping need, such as a multiple-location business.
Minimum Shipping Address: Leave this field blank and select Don’t use these settings for this shipping zone if you’re not going to enforce any minimum address requirement. Otherwise, enter the minimum address(es) that will be used. You may want to consider this if you’re using zone groups to target shipments based on minimum address requirements.
Step 2: Set Up WooCommerce Shipping Rates
Now it’s time to set up your shipping rates.
In this step we’ll go into the shipping settings in WooCommerce both on the products and on the shipping methods.
{1}. From the WooCommerce Products page under the ‘Shipping’ tab, click the ‘Shipping Rates’ tab.
{2}. Select the shipping method that you’d like to add. You can add unlimited shipper and carrier options.
{3}. Give it a name and then enter the shipping cost and total price for that specific product. From the settings in WooCommerce you can also enter tax information.
{4}. After you’re done, save the settings and your shipping rates are now available in your WooCommerce store.
Add a Flat Shipping Fee per Order
When you set up a shipping charge for WooCommerce, the field where you enter the minimum amount, maximum amount and cost-per-item amounts is referred to as a flat shipping fee.
The flat shipping fee is added to each item’s total at checkout and it’s charged to each customer individually—that is, each customer will only be charged once for that amount.
In other words, flat shipping fees for an order do not stack.
The flat shipping fee will remain in force until the order is closed. If you modify the amount of a flat shipping fee in the WooCommerce settings, it will only modify the rule for that flat shipping fee and will not modify the amount of your existing flat shipping fees. That being said, if you delete a flat shipping fee that’s already in place, it WILL remove the amount from each existing package in your order.
- Add a Per Product Shipping Fee:
- When you add a shipping cost for each item in the checkout, that cost is instead associated with each item individually. That means that each item will be charged separately …
Add a Flat Shipping Fee per Item
WooCommerce has an Advanced Product Options which allows you to add the shipping fee to each individual item. This could be used on products where the shipping and handling charge is more than the cost of the product.
There are different ways to accomplish this in WooCommerce. You can add the shipping fee automatically to all products, or only to a specific product slug. If you have a dynamic shipping class, this would not work, as the shipping class will change based on the number of products sold.
While there are many ways to add shipping fee to products, I will show you the method that works with any product type or has the flexibility to use any shipping method. You will need a little bit of PHP knowledge, so keep that in mind. With a bit of explanation and visual representation, this is a fairly quick and easy task.
Add a Shipping Fee as a Percentage of the Order Total
Take a look at the site’s shopping cart, and you’re probably already wondering where the whole shipping process is. It gets even more complex when you work with it WooCommerce—it’s usually it’s a headache to set up shipping correctly. But it’s not as difficult as you may think and we’re going to show you how to do it in four easy steps.
Step 3: Use Shipping Classes for Product-Specific Charges
Use the Add New Shipping Class form to add a Shipping Class that pertains to the category associated with a particular product.
Next, you need to enter the shipping destination for the product in the Shipping Destinations box under the Shipping class. You can enter all the destinations for the class in the dropdown list, or you can tick the field to prevent another product from having the same entry in the list.
Finally, you can apply individual rate charges to the Shipping Classes if you wish, and then you require to validate your post.
Step 4: Set Up an Order Fulfillment Operation
After you’re sure you’ve given WooCommerce all the information it needs to know, it’s time to go ahead and set up your order fulfillment operation.
WooCommerce ships to more than 170 countries worldwide. If you’re an e-commerce store that is located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and India, you can choose USPS as your order fulfillment provider. The USPS offers flat rate shipping for certain types of products, and you’ll find all the carrier options on its website.
If you’re located in Australia, Canada, Germany, India, or the United Kingdom, the USPS requires you to ship to its international postal gateway, which is based in the United States. This gateway adds a few additional fees to your shipping rates, but they’re inexpensive compared to commercial delivery companies.
WooCommerce ships to more than 170 countries worldwide. If you’re an e-commerce store that is located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Argentina, Australia, and India, you can choose USPS as your order fulfillment provider.
The USPS offers flat rate shipping for certain types of products, and you’ll find all the carrier options on its website.
The Bottom Line
Since WooCommerce was originally developed for WordPress, shipping is pretty much plug-and-play. When you create a new WooCommerce product, you can input the shipping method, and WooCommerce will handle the rest. But it’s extremely common for WooCommerce store owners to leave the WooCommerce shipping setup up to the system, and content creators to do it by hand.
Is it too much to ask to just learn how to set up WooCommerce shipping in four steps?
That’s what I’m here to help change.
In this tutorial, you’re going to learn everything there is to know about shipping WooCommerce products.
First, you’re going to learn the five most common shipping methods, and then you’ll learn how to set them up in WooCommerce.
Next, you’ll learn about how the different shipping method plugins work, and how the shipping setting in WooCommerce works, and how to set them up.
Lastly, you’ll learn how to set up a custom shipping method in WooCommerce.