How do I Set Table Rates Shipping in WooCommerce?

By Nimesh Patel 12 min Read

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    Shipping operations through the WooCommerce stores can be customized, but the WordPress-backed eCommerce platform does not have sufficient flexibility as ultra-modern stores need these days. For that, it is essential that you utilize an advanced flat rate shipping plugin, or you may say – a table rate shipping plugin.

    In this article, we will tell you what table rate shipping means and how to set table rates for shipping in your WooCommerce store.

    What is Table Flat Rate Shipping?

    Table flat rate shipping means that shipping rate tables are being created to apply different rates as per variation in location, product/cart weight, price, item count, delivery date, user role, product category, and so on. This type of flat-rate shipping lets online business owners create multiple rate tables for the shipping scenarios their shops may see.

    Didn’t understand it yet? Don’t worry. Here are a few examples to clarify what table rate shipping signifies:

    Case 1

    Let us say your eCommerce store wants to ship clothes to California in the United States, where woolen clothes will be shipped at $2 per piece while normal clothes will be shipped at the shipping rate of $1. Using the table rate shipping, this can be easily achieved.

    Case 2

    A bakery shop in New York has decided to provide free shipping facilities for buyers spending $200 or more. For purchases above $50, the shipping fee is $10.

    The buyers making purchases of $100+ must pay a shipping fee of $5. Can you do it in a normal WooCommerce store? Obviously not. But the same is possible when your shop already has a table rate shipping plugin deployed.

    Now, you must have 2 questions in your mind:

    1. Which WooCommerce table rate shipping Plugin is the best for this job?
    2. How do I set table rates for shipping in the WooCommerce shop?

    In this post, we will answer both of your questions.

    Which WooCommerce table rate shipping Plugin to Use?

    Our first and foremost plugin suggestion for enabling table rate shipping in your eCommerce store will be the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce.

    Here are the reasons for choosing this WooCommerce extension:

    • It lets you apply multiple conditions and create multiple tables for your shop or for multiple shipping zones.
    • Highly flexible shipping options and costs can be offered to customers through it.
    • Its deployment can carry out well-strategized and more planned shipping operations.
    • You can create custom shipping zones to save time.
    • Creating combinational and range-wise rules for multiple parameters through the advanced flat rate shipping plugin for WooCommerce is possible.

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    The major reason for picking up this WooCommerce extension for table rate shipping deployment in your online store was the number of parameters/scenarios that can be covered. Here is a quick list:

    • Location-based parameters: You may create table rate shipping methods for countries, states, zip codes, and custom zones. The same can be done for multiple countries, states, and zip codes.
    • Product-based Parameters: Variable product name, product name, product category, tags on items, and SKUs can also be made on the basis of applying a shipping rate to your cart.
    • Attribute-based parameters: This plugin lets you apply shipping costs to the cart items according to the color or size of those items.
    • User-based parameters: Sometimes, online shopkeepers want to apply shipping rates for a specific user or user group. Using the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin, you can do it without much effort.
    • Cart-related parameters: The plugin also allows the creation of shipping rules as per cart subtotal before discount, cart subtotal after discount, quantity, weight in kilogram, coupon, and shipping class.
    • Checkout-specific parameters: You can also create shipping rules according to the payment methods being selected by the buyers while purchasing from your shop.

    Note – A custom zone means a collection of multiple geographic locations. You can create it using this WooCommerce table rate shipping Plugin itself. Using custom zones, you can group the most-used cluster of locations under one name to simplify your task.

    Now, the good thing here is that you can use any of these parameters or multiple parameters from different categories in one shipping rule while you create it through the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce.

    So, conditional pr table shipping methods are easy to create through it.

    How Do I Set Table Rates for Shipping in WooCommerce?

    First things first – use this link to install the free plugin or this premium WooCommerce table rate shipping Plugin after downloading. You can use this live demo link to try the advanced flat rate shipping plugin before actually installing it on your WooCommerce store.

    Now, we hope you are ready to learn how to set Table Rate Shipping for your shipping operations in WooCommerce.

    Case 1: Product Quantity based Shipping Rule for a Particular Location

    Let’s say you have an online store in India that sells to different states of the same country. The store has electrical appliances. Now, because your WooCommerce store has its base set up in the state of Tamil Nadu, you want to charge a fixed shipping rate of £5 for the state when the buyer orders 5+ items from your shop.

    To do so, you first need to go to Advanced Flat Rate Plugin for WooCommerce PRO and click on Add New Shipping Method.

    In the opened page, you need to mention your shipping method’s name and other basic details. While staying on the same page, scroll down to the section named ‘Shipping Method Rules’.

    In the opened page, you need to mention your shipping method’s name and other basic details. While staying on the same page, scroll down to the section named ‘Shipping Method Rules’.

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    Figure 3: Adding the needed Shipping Method Rules for location

    In this section, choose the parameter as ‘state’, and from the dropdown, select ‘India -> Tamil Nadu’. This option must be available to you as soon as you type in a few characters from your state’s name, i.e. Tamil Nadu.

    Thereafter, you need to add another rule to the same section. This time, it will be for the cart quantity.

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    Figure 4: Adding the needed Shipping Method Rules for quantity

    Choose the operator as ‘greater than or equal to (>=)’ & the quantity value in the right-most field as 5. In the end, save settings and check your eCommerce store. The settings must be working now.

    Case 2: As Per Product Category, based Free Shipping

    A WooCommerce store sells multiple types of products through the store, for example, clothes, gift items, paintings, groceries, electrical appliances, fashion accessories, and so on.

    Now, due to their expense and high margin profit, the store wants to provide a free shipping facility for fashion accessories. Assume that the WooCommerce store has our suggested plugin configured already.

    The steps required to achieve this state are:

    • Create a new shipping method.
    • In the ‘Shipping method Configuration’ section of this method, add the shipping charge as ‘0’ (zero).
    • In the shipping method rules section, add a rule with the following details:

    A cart containing the category’s products will be the parameter in this case, and ‘accessories’ in the name of the category for which, we want to apply free shipping.

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    Figure 5: Shipping Method Rule for the product category

    Once you will save these settings, the WooCommerce cart will show the shipping cost for the fashion accessories as ‘zero’.

    Case 3: According to Product Name and Product Quantity shipping

    For a clothing store that wants to apply the shipping rate of £10 on its hoodie items, in case a customer purchases more than 6 items, this is the set of method rules that will work:

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    Figure 6: According to Product Name and Product Quantity

    Here, we have added one rule to define that the shipping rates are to be applied for the hoodie product. Another rule is added to this shipping method to specify the item count.

    Remember that you have to add the shipping fee to the shipping method configuration form of this shipping method.

    Case 4: For all Australian Buyers who spent more than £500

    As the sub-title of this case mentions, the WooCommerce shop owner wants to apply a particular shipping rate (let’s say £5) for Australian buyers whenever they shop for something worth more than £500.

    Well, doing so is easy with the Advanced Rate Shipping Plugin for WooCommerce, which also acts as a Table Rate Shipping Plugin for online store owners.

    Just specify the country’s name and cart subtotal for the method in 2 different rules and set a shipping rate in the fee configuration section of the same method which is above this section. And, it’ll be done.

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    Figure 7 – For all Australian Buyers who spent more than £500

    Add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page to test if it’s working. There, check if the cart shipping cost is shown as expected.

    If so, your settings are done correctly and are applied to the shop successfully. That was easy, right?

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    Case 5″ As per the weight of products in the cart at the time of checkout

    Consider that your shop ships the bulk orders through the airway. Now, as you know, shipment cost in this case also increases as per the weight of the products in the cart.

    So, you will have to charge your customers accordingly. Table rate shipping makes it possible for you.

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    Figure 8: As per the weight of products in the cart at the time of checkout

    As shown above, you can create a shipping method rule for the weight (in kilograms), and it’ll work fine.

    Advanced Shipping Pricing Rules

    Till here, you saw the use of conditional rules – one or multiple. Using these rules, you can easily create multiple methods and apply shipping-related conditions to your eCommerce stores. So, table rate shipping rules can be created but will require more effort, or you can say more shipping method rules.

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    Figure 9: Enable the option ‘Advanced Shipping Pricing Rules’

    To avoid the same, you can use advanced price rules. This option can be found just below the shipping method rules section. Click on the toggle and it will turn green, which means it is enabled.

    Using these rules, you can create a range for one or multiple parameters and apply a flat shipping rate to the created range. For example:

    For 6 to 12 items purchased from a category named ‘t-shirts’, the shipping rate will be £20; for 12 to 18 items of the same category, the shipping rate has to be £10.

    Advanced shipping rules can be of multiple types, as shown in the image:

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    Figure 10: Multiple types of Advanced Shipping Rules

    To create the range, you don’t need to define both the upper and the lower limits. You can also create the range by defining either the max or minimum values of the parameter.

    Proceeding ahead, we will give you a few examples to add table rate shipping using the advanced rules –

    Case 6″ Create Table Rate Shipping for Cart Subtotal Range

    Here is the use case:

    • For the cart subtotal of 100 to 200, the shipping rate has to be 15.
    • For the cart subtotal of 201 to 500, the shipping rate has to be 5.
    • For the cart subtotal of 501 or more, the shipping rate has to be 0, i.e., free shipping.

    In this case, you will have to create the table rate shipping conditions in the way mentioned below:

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    Figure 11:  Create Table Rate shipping for Cart Subtotal Range

    Save the settings once you have added all the conditions in the range table. Your configuration will then be applied to the cart.

    Case 7: Applying Shipping price for a Cost Range of one or more Categories

    For the item count of 12 to 24 in a cart, where the purchased items belong to the categories named ‘Hoodies’ and ‘T-shirts’, the fee is to be fixed $10.

    In this case, just add a row in the table rate shipping method with details as below –

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    Figure 12: Applying Shipping price for a Cost Range of one or more Categories

    Case 8: Defining Multiple Shipping Rates for Different Products for different weights

    When you need to define a table rate shipping rule set for the product weights, the advanced flat rate shipping rates for the WooCommerce plugin even let you do that.

    Here’s an example image showing how to specify the values for the same –

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    Figure 13: Defining Multiple Ranges of Shipping Rates for Different Products

    Case 9: Creating Table Shipping Rate as Per Payment Method and Cart Subtotal

    In a WooCommerce store, the seller wants to charge $10 for the cash-on-delivery orders when the cart subtotal is between 500 and 1000 Euros.

    In this case, you will first need to add a shipping method rule for the parameter ‘payment method’ and then specify the table rate rules for the cart subtotal as required.

    See how to do so:

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    Figure 14: Creating Table Shipping Rate as Per Payment Method and Cart Subtotal

    Case 10: Setting time range for Table Flat Rate Shipping Plugin

    You may be willing to set up a timeline-based rule for your table rate shipping conditions.

    For example, you may want to create a table similar to case 6 of this post, but the same should NOT apply to the very month. Happens, isn’t it?

    So, in that case, after adding the conditions in the table as instructed, go back to the ‘Shipping Method Configuration’ section and look for these fields:

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    Figure 15: Setting time range for Table Flat Rate Shipping Plugin

    Found?

    So, now you know that you can mention the start date, end date, days of the week for which your shipping rule methods should work, and time. Specify the details here, and save the changes.

    Conclusion

    Table rate shipping rules become critical for eCommerce stores with multiple items, products, delivery locations, and/or cart conditions.

    And when you have the right table rate shipping for the WooCommerce plugin, things remain smooth. Hence, look no further and install the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce Plugin on your online store.

    You can choose the free or PRO version depending on your store’s needs. If your shop needs its pro version and you are confused about whether to invest money in it, then take our word for it – the plugin is excellent and is being used by thousands of WooCommerce sellers.

    It is totally worth it, so go for it!

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    Boost your WooCommerce store’s revenue with flexible shipping options. Your business deserves the best!

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    Nimesh Patel

    Nimesh Patel is the Product Manager and Growth Hacker at Dotstore. For the past 10 years, Nimesh has been a prolific marketer and product builder in the WordPress and e-commerce industry.

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    Written by Nimesh Patel

    I am a Product Marketer and Growth hacker with expertise in Digital marketing, Search engine optimization (SEO), Email Marketing, Paid Campaigns on Facebook and Twitter, Content development strategies, and Competitive Research & Analysis. Nimesh is Product Manager at theDotstore.com