WooCommerce shipping rules to Improve Store Operations

When you sell physical products through your online store, shipping corresponds to an important aspect. Buyers like simplified and clean details during checkout in digital shopping. Probably this is the reason why organizations have been laying low and sticking to the flat rate shipping methods & related shipping rules. It could either be a fixed amount charged for every product shipped to the customers or a flat $0 to provide free shipping of products.

Even though the above sounds feasible, in reality, it comes with plenty of other problems. For one, having a fixed shipping rate for every product increases the final amount dramatically. Consider that a customer purchases 20 pieces of a night lamp. If the single piece is charged at $25 and the shipping fee levied is $4, for 20 pieces, the fee sums down to $80. Now, this amount is huge, it isn’t the best way of charging shipping rates.

This is where you need to have a custom-fit shipping method for your online store. Customized shipping methods allow managers to improve their store operations and charge as per the need. There are multiple shipping options available that help set rules for shipping rates.

The Solution

The flat rate shipping plugin for WooCommerce is one solution that facilitates the creation of WooCommerce shipping rules. The plugin is equipped with tons of features that can be used to create conditional rules. Starting with country-based shipping fees to product-specific rules, you can create one or more rules to quantity the shipping method.

Using specific rules to base the shipping fee enables the WooCommerce store managers to serve your customers in the best possible way. It takes into consideration the region, role, product, cart value before calculating the shipping fee for the customer. This way you never overcharge your customers, increasing sales, and improving end to end experience.

Features of the plugin

• Set shipping rules based on the location
  • Country
  • State
  • Shipping zone
• Set shipping rules based on the product
  • Cart contains product
  • Product tags
  • SKU
  • Categories
  • Quantity
• Set shipping rules based on user
  • User
  • Username
• Set shipping rules based on the cart.
  • Weight
  • Cart subtotal
  • Cart quantity
  • Shipping class
  • Coupon

In addition to the above, the plugin allows you to have advanced shipping rules with one or more conditions. The final charge to be levied is determined via a maxmin or min-max rule.

The next section will cover details on how to configure the plugin and ways to use it dynamically.

Prerequisites:

Prior to creating WooCommerce shipping rules using the plugin, you must have the plugin downloaded and installed within your online store.

To do so,

1. Move to the WooCommerce dashboard or login to the WordPress site and then move down to the plugin section.
2. Click on add new and then in the search bar, locate the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin. Alternatively, you can visit the official page of DotStore, search the plugin, and download it.
3. Once you have the plugin, click on install and activate.

After you have the plugin added to your store, we can now see how to configure the same.

How to configure the WooCommerce Shipping Plugin?

To start with the process, visit the site and click on the plugin under the dashboard. This will take you to the settings page or the configuration page of the plugin.

In the main plugin dashboard, if you will see, the first tab indicates Manage Shipping Methods. This is used to edit or remove an existing method from the store. Click on Add New Shipping Method. 

Adding a new shipping method:

The shipping method configuration encompasses multiple fields that need to be filled.

• Status: A toggle switch that indicates whether or not the current method is active in the store.
• Shipping Method Name: Enter the title for the shipping method or the product fees. This name would be displayed on the manage Shipping Method section so that you can differentiate between multiple WooCommerce shipping rules.
• Shipping Charges: Enter a predefined value in terms of the shipping fee. You can either have a fixed value or set fee per product.
• Tooltip Description: Write a short description of the shipping method. 
• Is the amount taxable: Click on the drop-down to select whether the entered shipping fee is taxable or not.
• Estimated Delivery Time: Enter the expected time of delivery for the products that fall under custom-fit shipping methods.
• Start Date/End Date: Enter a start date and the end date of the shipping method, if applicable.
• Days: Specify the days on which the method would apply.
• Time: When running a campaign or setting up a shipping method to run for a specific time, you can enter the same here. 
  
  

After you have the shipping method configured, now we see how to implement them to enhance your store operations.

Use Case One

Create a shipping method for products to be shipped to Bermuda. Survey results suggest that shipping to places in Bermuda requires additional fees. Hence, you need to increase the shipping fees so as to meet your overall expenses.

To create a country-based shipping rule, move down to the shipping method rules section, and click on the drop-down.

1. The drop-down will have multiple choices, each specifying the different shipping cases. Since we need to target the customers from Bermuda, click on the country.
2. From the drop-down, click on equal to.
3. Next click on the drop-down, select Bermuda.
   

Click on save changes to set the shipping rule.

Use Case Two

Create a shipping method for products that belong to the category “t-shirts”.

The trousers belong to the product section. So we need to create a rule that takes into consideration the product features.

To create a product-based shipping rule, move down to the shipping method rules section, and click on the drop-down.

1. From the drop-down, click on the product and then select product categories.
2. From the next drop-down, click on equal to.
3. Next, click on the tab and enter the Tshirts.
   

Click on save changes to set the shipping rule.

Use Case Three

Create a shipping method to have free shipping when the cart value exceeds $250.

Note that this method requires you to set free shipping. So before creating the rule, scroll up to the section where we configured the plugin. Under the shipping charge tab, enter $0.

Now, the method here relates to the cart.

To create a cart-based shipping rule, move down to the shipping method rules section, and click on the drop-down.

1. From the drop-down, click on the cart and then select cart value.
2. From the next drop-down, click on greater than equal to.
3. Next, click on the tab and enter $250.
   

Click on save changes to set the shipping rule.

Use Case Four

Create a shipping method to have free shipping when the cart value exceeds $250 and the customers are from Bermuda.

This example has two rules.

• To target the customers from Bermuda.
• To narrow down the subject to the cart value.

Note that this method requires you to set free shipping. So before creating the rule, scroll up to the section where we configured the plugin. Under the shipping charge tab, enter $0.

We will create two rules for the above use-case.

1. Move down to the shipping method rules section and click on the drop-down.
2. From the drop-down, click on location and then select the country.
3. From the next drop-down, click on equal to.
4. Next, click on the tab and select Bermuda.
5. Now again click on Add new rule.
6. Click on the drop-down and then select cart value.
7. From the next drop-down, click on equal to.
8. Next, click on the tab and enter $250.
   

Click on save changes to set the shipping rule.

These are a few examples. Following a similar method, you can add multiple rules and enhance your store operations.

Conclusive Summary

Shipping is an important operation for online shops where most of the customers are shopping sitting at a good distance from your business location. This definitely lets you sell to a larger area, but increases operation’s cost.

To make sure that you apply this cost to the sold items and keep things simple for the buyers, WooCommerce shipping rules and plugins to implement them can help. In this guide, we gave you multiple examples and told you the procedure for configuring all possible shipping rules for your WooCommerce shop. To improve your store’s operations, do not delay in applying relevant rules.