If you sell physical products at your WooCommerce store, you may encounter many hassles with the shipping process.
If you can handle multiple factors with one tool, it might be quite a relief. WooCommerce table rate shipping is one such tool that will help you deal with multiple facets of shipping simultaneously.
If you search in the WooCommerce community, you can find quite a few plugins that will help you set up table rate shipping. These plugins help you define shipping rates based on location, price, the weight of the product, etc.
This article looks into some of the best table rate shipping plugins that you can find at the moment. You will also find some tips to set up a robust shipping strategy.
What is Table Rate Shipping?
Table rate shipping means calculating the shipping based on pre-defined conditions like weight and price. This means that as and when the price or the weight of the product goes up, the shipping charge will change accordingly.
As discussed earlier, many good WooCommerce table rate shipping plugins help with making the shipping rules and conditions for your business.
Here’s a list of the best table-rate shipping plugins.
Top Table Rate Shipping Plugins
Reachship
This is an all-in-one multi-carrier shipping plugin that caters to all your needs. It assures a seamless shipping experience with good developer support.
Businesses can use this multi-carrier shipping plugin to set up table rate shipping rules that match different customer requirements.
Features
- This plugin supports numerous shipping services, including USPS, FedEx, UPS, Australia Post, and DHL, allowing businesses to select the carrier that best meets their needs.
- The plugin calculates shipping prices in real time depending on the weight and location of the product, ensuring that clients receive accurate and up-to-date shipping rates.
- It automatically creates shipping labels and tracking numbers, removing the need for human data entry and lowering the chance of errors.
- Customers receive real-time tracking updates for their deliveries, which improves the customer experience and reduces the number of questions and complaints.
- Businesses may use the plugin to print shipping labels in bulk, saving time and increasing efficiency.
- The ReachShip plugin makes it simple to schedule pickups for your shipments. You may schedule your pickups for the most convenient day, time, and place.
- Businesses may use the plugin to create shipping rules based on product weight, destination, and other factors, assuring precise and effective shipment management.
This plugin is free for up to 50 labels per month and costs $8 for 100 labels per month. The cost goes up with the number of labels.
WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin
The shipping process can become quite complicated when you have customers from different locations and products of different kinds and sizes.
You may want to customize your shipping options according to each order, or whenever customers order a particular product. WooCommerce table rate shipping extension provides exactly that.
It helps you define highly customized shipping rates based on location, number of items in the cart, weight, or price of the product. With this extension, you can also use wildcards to match multiple regions.
Features:
- Customize shipping rates for different zones in your WooCommerce store using the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin.
- Set custom shipping rates with the WooCommerce table rate shipping plugin.
- WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping allows you to create shipping rules based on weight, price, number of items, and number of items per shipping class.
- Add extra costs per row, per weight unit, and per item cost.
A single site subscription to this plugin costs $119.
Table Rate Shipping for WooCommerce
This plugin offers great control for WooCommerce store owners to set up varied shipping rates during checkout. You will find an elaborate list of settings to help you configure the most suitable shipping options.
The advantage of this plugin is that you will be able to offer flexible pricing models and your customers will be able to choose the best one from available options.
You will find over 15 different rules that you can set up on individual products or collectively for an order.
Features:
- Create shipping rates based on order data, individual products, line items, shipping class, etc, and a lot more conditions.
- Multiple rules can be configured in each of your WooCommerce shipping zones.
- Easily change the priority of execution when there are multiple rules.
- Compatible with several popular WordPress plugins.
- Volumetric weights and user-based controls
A regular license of this plugin will cost you $25.
Table Rate Shipping for WooCommerce – Flexible Shipping PRO
The best choice you can pick if you are out in search of a good table rate shipping plugin. You can make practical even the most difficult shipping rules.
The plugin also offers premium one-on-one support. The ready-made configurations that help with drafting the rules,
Features
- 19 cost calculation parameters
- Conditional logic that can be applied to the shipping rules
- Premium support
- You can set different costs for different shipping classes
- Possibility to extend the range of parameters
- Manage shipping based on the day and time of the week
The pricing plan starts at 99 euros.
WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro Plugin
Optimize your WooCommerce shipping needs with the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin. It brings you advanced flexible rules in shipping based on location, items, price, weight, etc.
By subscribing to this plugin, you are assured one year of updates and support.
Features
- Create unlimited rules for setting shipping
- Bulk import/export rules in CSV format
- Set shipping rules based on destination, product quantity, different product categories, etc.
- WPML compatible
The single-site license will cost you $79.
Tree Table Rate Shipping
This plugin helps you configure a variety of shipping options starting from simple to complex ones according to your business needs.
It would help you configure multiple WooCommerce shipping methods simultaneously. You can easily customize a variety of shipping methods on your WooCommerce store, which otherwise would take hours of development efforts.
Another notable feature of this plugin is the seamless third-party integration that it provides.
Features
- Define shipping costs based on shipping classes
- Offer shipping rates based on international or domestic orders
- Set up rates as per shipping zones
- Box shipping based on flat rates
- Third-party plugin integration
This extremely flexible WooCommerce table rate shipping plugin will cost you $39+ taxes.
A few effective shipping strategies
Customers not being happy with your shipping charges might be one of the major reasons for cart abandonment on your site. With great solutions and tools around, it is not such an ardent task to set up a robust shipping strategy.
Here are a few effective strategies you can try out for a great shipping strategy. Some of these can be achieved by the plugins mentioned above.
Use Volumetric Weight Calculations
In the world of shipping, the weight of a package is not often the most important criterion to determine the cost. The space it occupies plays a major role in how items can be packed in a container or aircraft. So shipping carriers use volumetric weight to determine the shipping cost.
The volumetric weight of a package is determined by multiplying the length, height, and width of a package and then dividing it by a volumetric factor. This volumetric factor varies based on the unit that you use to calculate the weight.
Shipping carriers usually compare the actual weight of the packet with the volumetric weight and choose the higher weight to determine shipping costs.
All the major shipping carriers such as FedEx, UPS, USPS, DHL, etc use volumetric weight for their shipping calculations. This helps them calculate shipping rates more accurately for large lightweight products. Check out some WooCommerce plugins that would help you integrate popular shipping carriers.
Utilize the scope of free shipping
Free shipping can be a great strategy to push customers to complete a purchase on your store. However, it is not a financially viable option for you all the time.
A common strategy that many store owners try when they offer free shipping, is to set a minimum order value. This way, even when you are taking the shipping costs on your shoulders, the revenue of your store will increase.
This might be a great option to try out when you are aggressively marketing. You can also try offering free shipping seasonally, or only for specific user roles, etc. You may find some solutions for this scenario here.
Make things transparent with real-time rates
Shipping rates are often a pain to customers due to the variable options and services available. A great solution for a store owner would be to offer real-time shipping rates to customers.
In this case, the customer will see the same amount a shipping carrier charges you. This transparency would add to the customer experience in your store.
A great way here is to display the shipping rates of multiple shipping carriers that are popular among your customers. This would enable the customers to choose a service they prefer. Sometimes, customers would prefer a convenient option, even if it is not the cheapest available option.
Use flat rate intelligently
Sometimes offering a flat rate might be the best option for your products. However, you may have to do extensive calculations to determine a strategy that works for you.
For example, USPS has a range of flat-rate boxes and envelopes that you can use. This might prove to be really profitable if your products are generally of small dimensions and higher weight. Similarly, you can find a strategy that works best for you by researching all the popular shipping carriers.
Once you find a suitable carrier, you can negotiate with them for a favorable rate. Most carriers provide competitive rates based on the volume of shipments. Even if you are a small business with a projected increase in volume shortly, shipping carriers often offer you discounted rates. However, you may have to reach the projected volume in the stipulated time for this to continue.
Conclusion
Setting up the right shipping rules has a direct impact on how people perceive your business. It can be a task if you are set to figuring out the rules all by yourself.
This is why you need to depend on good WooCommerce table rate shipping plugins to ensure a smooth flow of your shipping requirements.
FAQs
- What is table rate shipping in WooCommerce?
Table rate shipping allows you to set shipping costs based on various conditions like product weight, price, quantity, and destination.
- Can I use table rate shipping with multiple carriers?
Yes, plugins like Reachship support multiple carriers including USPS, FedEx, UPS, DHL, and more.
- Which plugin is best for complex shipping rules?
Flexible Shipping PRO and WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro are great options for setting up advanced shipping rules.
- Are there any free options for table rate shipping?
Yes, Reachship offers a free plan for up to 50 labels per month, which is ideal for small businesses.
- Do these plugins support real-time shipping rates?
Yes, plugins like Reachship provide real-time rate calculations based on product weight and location.
