Searching for some tips to learn how to set up WooCommerce shipping at your store?
Shipping plays a huge role in how customers view your brand. From the speed at which they receive a product to the price they have to pay for shipping, it all comes together to provide a high-quality shipping experience for customers.
Luckily, WooCommerce offers several built-in shipping methods and extendable features to provide more accurate shipping rates and give your customers plenty of options to choose from. You can also set up shipping as a discounting strategy, like offering free shipping for orders over a certain amount.
Keep reading to learn all about WooCommerce shipping and the options you have for bettering your entire shipment operation.
What Exactly is WooCommerce Shipping Costs?
Delivering an item from your store or warehouse to a customer’s door involves incurring direct expenditures, such as shipping. These expenses consistently include, but are not restricted to, the following:
The cost of boxes, wrapping, tape, and stickers
The price of hiring a worker to pick, pack, and ship an item.
The expense of sending a courier to pick up and deliver a package
Import/export costs when shipping overseas
Why is Calculating Shipping Costs an Important Process?
WooCommerce store owners need to consider both their budget and customer needs when figuring out shipping expenses. Charge too little, and your margins will be eroded, and your business will not last. If you charge too much, you run the risk of losing clients to your rivals.
Many of your competitors may be providing free delivery or shipping discounts. While it may seem alluring to do the same, it’s quite likely that they’ve gone through a thorough process of calculating shipping costs to be able to offer such discounts. Ideally, you should follow suit.
Consumers expect retailers to deliver an instant shipping quote at the checkout when they know their shipping prices.
Shipping rate strategies and methods in WooCommerce ?
WooCommerce comes with a myriad of features for building an online store. Yet, the built-in features are usually considered rather simple compared to the options you can incorporate with extensions or plugins.
By default, the primary shipping rate and method from WooCommerce enables a shipping calculator on the cart page. After that, you select a shipping location and link a shipping method to that location.
A fresh WooCommerce installation has the following shipping rate options:
Flat rate – you can charge one rate for all shipments going out of your store, making for a simple, predictable price for both customers and your company. However, this could mean you or the customer ends up paying too much for shipping.
Free shipping – The free shipping option is exactly what it says: the customer doesn’t have to pay anything to receive the product. In WooCommerce this is typically triggered through coupons or when a customer spends a minimum amount.
Local pickup – The customer comes to pick up the product without any need for a shipment service like USPS or UPS. Local pick-ups are usually free for the customer but require your store to have a physical location for storing and handing over those products.
And that’s all you have to choose from in WooCommerce. Having said that, one of the primary benefits of WooCommerce is its extendability. Therefore, plugins and extensions provide various other shipping methods, including the following:
Table rate shipping – This is where you start to see shipment pricing based on conditions, especially for conditions like length, volume, product, or even date range. For example, you could charge one price for shipments under 5 lbs, another for shipments between 5 lbs and 10 lbs, and another for shipments over 10 lbs. Or, you could use any other combination of conditions for your rules (called a “table of shipping rates”).
Real-time carrier rates – Link to carrier systems like USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL to receive the most accurate rates possible. This ensures 100% accurate values, but it can be frustrating because shoppers need to wait until checkout to see the shipping price.
Local delivery – Give customers an option for you to bring the product directly to them. This is a decent shipment method for physical retail stores with a truck or van.
How to set a shipping zone
First off, let’s look at the default WooCommerce shipping features.
WooCommerce handles shipping by asking you to configure a shipping zone, set a method of shipping for that zone, and state how much each shipping method costs the customer.
There are also additional settings to configure, like whether or not you’d like to include special shipping classes or conditions for receiving free shipping.
It all begins with the shipping zones, though.
In the WordPress dashboard, go to WooCommerce > Settings.
A shipping zone is a geographic region you set for your store. This allows you to link specific shipping methods and costs for each region. For instance, you may consider having a cheaper shipping rate to all United States customers but raise the price for Canadian customers.
Choose a Zone Name for your own reference. Select a Zone Region as well. You can search for possible regions or use the dropdown feature to scroll through the list of locations.
As an example, we’ve chosen Canada and the United States.
More specific shipping zones are available as well, like with the individual states through the USA.
Once you define the shipping zone, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Add Shipping Method button.
Each zone needs a shipping method for specifying how you’ll charge customers in those geographical regions. For instance, you may decide to implement flat rate shipping for most customers but also local pickups for the surrounding community.
The three default shipping methods include:
Flat Rate
Free Shipping
Local Pickup
If you have any questions about the meanings of these methods, please refer to the descriptions covered earlier in the article.
Select a shipping method out of the three. In general, a flat rate is a good place to start with maybe a free shipping option for those who reach a certain price point.
Click the Add Shipping Method button to save and continue.
What are the Possible Benefits of Offering Shipping Management?
WooCommerce Shipping solutions provide a number of advantages to both customers and businesses. Deliveries are critical in today’s market, there is no doubt about that.
Modern shipping management skills let you exceed client expectations while also managing your own business requirements at every level of the order and delivery process. Let’s head on to the efficacies of the shipping business
Higher Customer Trust and Loyalty
For a successful business, building client trust is essential. Your WooCommerce shipping policy guarantees that you and your customers are on the same page regarding shipping policies.
Transparency and Straightforwardness when setting expectations help clients decide whether or not to buy from you, and when the unexpected happens and your business operations alter, your shipping policy helps you preserve that hard-earned confidence.
More and more Returning Customers
Shipping has a huge impact on the shopping experience and purchasing behavior of customers, as you know as a consumer.
Indeed, more than half of customers have decided not to complete an order because the delivery options did not satisfy their requirements. If your shipping strategy is on top, this clearly means more and more returning customers.
Lower Probability of Cart Abandonment issues
According to Sendcloud’s research, 65% of customers abandon checkout because the delivery prices are too high.
Consider this, if you buy something from the internet, you know that you may have to pay a modest fee for shipping. However, if the price is not apparent or is excessive, you may reconsider making the purchase.
As a result, hefty shipping costs result in many shopping carts being abandoned. So, plan a well-streamlined strategy today and avoid such issues effectively
Ensure the Effectiveness of Operations
Investing in shipping management solutions is the best decision for business productivity. Trying to meet customer shipping needs without the proper infrastructure can put a major strain on the organization, affecting everything from operational efficiency to cost-effectiveness.
