Shipping is an important aspect of selling physical goods. Online shoppers expect to pay as little money as possible, but get their products in a timely manner and in perfect condition.
How? How? Next, follow these five steps to implement that strategy in your store.
1. Make sure you backup and upgrade your store
Backup your store before you make any major changes. This will help you to avoid losing important data or order information in the event of unanticipated problems.
To avoid problems for customers, you might want to test different shipping options.
These backups include automatic daily backups that take once-daily snapshots and real-time backups that are updated every time you make any website changes or a customer places an order. Your store dashboard can be used to manually backup your website and allow you to restore it.
After you have created a backup, you can update WordPress, WooCommerce and your theme as well as all plugins in order to make sure that they are compatible with any extensions you add in the following steps.
2. Configure WooCommerce settings
You can offer free shipping or local pick-up or flat-rate shipping if you use WooCommerce. No additional plugins or extensions are required.
Navigate to WooCommerce Settings – Shipping from your dashboard. This will show you your options for shipping zones. A shipping zone is an area where you can ship to. It is defined by zip codes, countries, regions, states and countries.To set up different rates depending on the customers’ location, create shipping zones
Click Add Shipping Method to assign shipping methods for zones. Select Flat Rate, Local Pickup or Free Shipping and choose the pricing and options you would like for each.
Shipping classes are groups of products that are similar. You can also calculate shipping rates. You might charge flat rates for individual craft supplies and free shipping for larger orders that contain a wide range of supplies. You might have to charge shipping for packaged food, but you can offer local pickup for meals kits. Select the Shipping Classtab to create any classes you like. Edit each product to assign it a class. You can then set the shipping rates for each class in your shipping zones settings.
3. Install and activate shipping extensions
A shipping extension is required to allow you to use table prices , live rate or any combination of shipping methods. You can also add functionality such as label printing, tracking numbers and warehouse sync using extensions.
Start by downloading or purchasing an extension from the WooCommerce Marketplace. You are not sure which one?.
Navigate to Plugins – Add New in WordPress Dashboard and click Upload Plugin. Click Activate to activate the extension ZIP file from your computer.
4. You can adjust shipping settings to suit your needs
Each extension has its own settings so the instructions you receive will differ depending on which one you select. You can find the Documentation button in the right column to locate the extension’s specific instructions. This will guide you through the configuration of any extension.
The WooCommerce shipping documentation includes instructions broken down by category (e.g. Shipping Labels, Managing packages, Tracking Information), etc. — include detailed screenshots and numbered steps so that you can easily find what you need.
Our support team can help you if you need it. The WooCommerce forums provide a great opportunity to meet experts and shop owners, who can help you with the setup process.
5. Check your shipping setup
Test your new shipping configuration thoroughly before you make it available to customers. Here is a checklist to help you prepare for your launch.
- You can test a product in each shipping class and from every shipping zone you have set up. Are the rates correctly calculated on your Cart and Checkout pages
- You can test combinations of products and cart sizes. Do you get discounts or free shipping?
- Check out the checkout process. Is your shipping information correctly synced if your site integrates with ShipStation?
- Are tracking numbers available on account pages and attached to customer emails if you have tracking information?
- Are your live rates comparable to the rates you are charging customers?
- Is it easy for customers to locate your shipping and return policies on your website?
- Site visitors can see if you offer discounts and free shipping based upon order size.
If all goes well, you can ship immediately!
