How to set uniform freight to improve the conversion rate of WooCommerce stores

Freight is still one of the main factors that determine customers’ online shopping behavior. Although freight is inevitable in e-commerce, shoppers often want to minimize their spending in this area.

freight not only affects the conversion rate, but also may affect customer retention and purchase quantity.

, as a WooCommerce shopkeeper, can benefit your business by providing optimized freight. A simple technique you can use is to provide uniform freight.

has proved that this mode of transportation is the second choice after free delivery.

e-commerce statistics show that consumers don’t like surprises at checkout. 28% of online shoppers give up their shopping carts because of unexpected freight. The fact that

provides uniform freight means that your customers have a clear concept of freight in advance. Fortunately for

, WooCommerce allows you to set uniform freight rates. In this article, we will show you how to set it up in your own store.

We will consider all default WooCommerce uniform freight options. Then we’ll take a look at some additional options and plugins that you can use to add them to your store.

but before we do that, let’s take a closer look at what a flat rate is.

1. what is uniform freight and how it operates in WooCommerce
2. how to set flat rate shipping in WooCommerce
3. create a custom uniform rate shipping option
4. the best WooCommerce plug-in for flat rate shipping
5. common problems
6. summary

what is the uniform freight and how it operates in WooCommerce

refers to the fixed charge for the transportation of goods or parcels. A uniform fee. Flat rates can be based on weight, volume or buyer’s location.

for example, you can decide to charge $5 for shipping to all buyers who shop in Chicago. Alternatively, you can set a flat fee of $10 for each order less than 5 kilograms and no more than 0.5 cubic meters. Unlike standard freight,

buyers no longer have to pay for each unit of weight they buy or the unit distance they ship the order. If properly implemented, this mode of transport tends to be more cost-effective, especially for heavier goods. Most of the

shipping companies already offer shipping services at the same rate. For example, USPS Priority Mail flat rates include Flat Rate Envelope, Legal Flat Rate Envelope, and Small Flat Rate Box. These packages have their specific size and weight restrictions.

in WooCommerce, you can offer the same benefits to your customers.

uniform rate transport is one of the three modes of transportation provided by default. You can attach a flat rate to a specific shipping area and charge that amount by order or type of transportation.

‘s ability to ship categories adds a lot of flexibility. Similarly, you can set advanced fee rules, such as minimum or maximum charges and percentage-based fees.

We will show you how to take advantage of all of these features in the body of this article.

Let’s take a look at the default uniform freight option provided by WooCommerce. How to set uniform Freight in

to start shipping at a flat rate in WooCommerce, you need to choose the mode of transportation from the three options that are available out of the box.

before you choose the mode of transportation, WooCommerce first requires you to set up a transport area. This makes sense because transportation is location-based. Before

delves into the uniform freight settings, we recommend that you back up your website and update your themes and plug-ins. We also recommend that you use a staging site for initial setup to ensure that the customer experience is not affected.

you can find more details on this in our general guide to setting WooCommerce freight options.

lets us jump into WordPress’s dashboard and see how uniform freight works.

step 1: add or edit a shipping area

shipping area refers to the geographical location or region. With the WooCommerce shipping area, you can apply specific shipping options that will be available to customers who shop from these areas.

to create a new shipping area or edit an existing shipping area, go to WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping, and then click Add shipping zone.

initially, WooCommerce automatically creates two zones after reactivating the plug-in: “US” and “non-US”.

now, you will find that there is only one location that is not covered by your other regional entries as the default list. The rules in this area will apply each time you ship to a location that is not included in your existing shipping area.

if, for some reason, the shipping tag does not appear on the WooCommerce settings page, you need to re-enable shipping for your store first.

you can do this by navigating back to WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; General. In the General options section, you will find the Shipping location (s) field.

here, choose the option that meets your shipping needs, any option except Disable shipping & shipping calculations.

Return to the shipping settings page: WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping. And then Add shipping zone. This will redirect you to the shipping area editor.

here, fill in the available fields to meet your shipping specifications.

Zone name is just a short descriptive title for your new shipping area.

all locations you want to add to the shipping area should be filled in the “Zone regions” column.

you can add a city, state, country or continent by searching or selecting from the drop-down list.

or, use a single zip code or numeric range, such as 90210… 99000 to add new locations. Step 2 of

: add a new flat rate shipping method

now that you have created a shipping area, you need to apply a new shipping method for buyers in the area. You can do this on the same area editing page.

, click Add shipping method. This will trigger a pop-up menu that allows you to choose a shipping method you like. By default,

WooCommerce has three modes of transportation: free shipping, flat rate and local pick-up. You can add your favorite mode of transportation in each transport area.

in this case, select Flat rate, and then click Add shipping method. For

to add more shipping methods in the future, go to WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping & gt; Shipping zones.

hovers over the shipping area where you want to add or edit the shipping method, and then click Edit.

then you will be transferred to the shipping area editor.

finally, you need to adjust your flat rate settings to ensure that you provide customers with all the flexibility they like. Step 3 of

: edit flat rate shipping settings

to edit uniform freight settings, please hover over the method under the Shipping methods you want to edit, and then click Edit.

on the next page, you can set the title of the method, tax status, and freight.

Method title is the name of the delivery method that is visible to the buyer at checkout. This is especially useful if you will offer multiple flat-rate methods of transportation in the same shipping area.

for example, you can use names such as “priority shipment” or “expedited shipment”.

in order to effectively implement multiple uniform rate transportation methods in the same transport area, you need to set up the type of transportation. We will discuss this issue further in later chapters. The

Tax status field allows you to decide whether shipping expenses are taxable. In the last field of

, Cost is where you enter the uniform freight (excluding tax).

Advanced uniform Freight cost

WooCommerce allows you to set advanced cost rules based on five variable placeholders:

• [qty]-the number of items in the shopping cart.
• [fee]-additional charge after basic freight is charged. This variable depends on the other three placeholders.
  • Percent-an additional cost, equal to a percentage of the total cost of the order.
  • Min_fee-the minimum amount that can be charged as an additional fee. Especially useful when using percentages.
  • Max_fee-the maximum amount that can be charged as an additional fee.

uses these placeholders, and here are three common examples of advanced costing situations:

• Standard flat rate shipping: enter a simple number, such as 10, and charge a fixed rate (freight will be $10) for all orders from the region. )
• Additional fee per item quantity: enter 10 + (2 * [qty]). The freight is $10, plus $2 per shopping cart item.
• Additional fee equal to percentage of cart total: enter 10 + [percentage of cost = “2” max_fee= “100”]. The basic cost of the freight is $10 plus 2% of the total shopping cart (the maximum additional cost is $100. )

once you are satisfied with the final fee rules, click Save changes.

Using the shipping category extended flat rate shipping option

to correctly implement uniform rate transportation requires charging the correct fee for the transportation of products according to certain standards. These standards can be weight, packing size and volume.

to help WooCommerce classify products correctly and charge the right fees at checkout, you need to put them into predefined groups.

these groups are called transport classes and contain similar products in the standard aspects mentioned earlier. With

, you can charge different freight rates for different types of products. The category of transportation can also help you charge a flat rate for some products and provide free transportation for others. To create a new shipping category for

, go to WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping & gt; Shipping Classes, and then click Add shipping class.

now, you can fill in the name of the shipping category, slug, and the description of that category. Slug is a simple unique identifier. If you want the system to generate slugs automatically, leave this field blank.

you can add multiple shipping categories by clicking the Add shipping class button. After that, click Save shipping classes to save your progress. After adding shipping categories to

, you can now attach specific uniform freight to them. To do this for

, go back to WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping & gt; Shipping Zones and click Edit when hovering over any existing shipping area.

is on the next page, scroll down to the Shipping methods section, and click Edit under the flat rate method you want to edit.

in the flat rate settings page, you will see a new Shipping class costs section has been added.

here, you can add unique shipping costs for each transport category. The No shipping class cost field allows you to add a fixed freight cost to all products that do not have additional freight categories. If you leave it blank, the fee shown in the flat rate setting section above will apply.

If you want to provide free transportation for a transportation category, please enter 0 in the cost column.

Another important factor in the shipping category costing type

flat rate transportation is to determine how you want to calculate the shipping cost at checkout. After

adds a freight category to your store, WooCommerce lets you choose between two calculation types.

• Flat rate per class: this option allows you to charge separately for each shipping category in the buyer’s shopping cart.
• Flat rate per order: in addition, you can also decide to charge a flat rate for the entire order according to the most expensive type of transportation in the shopping cart. This option is usually more economical for customers and can increase the number of purchases per order. After

has made his choice, click Save changes.

these are all the default uniform freight options you can explore in WooCommerce. We will show you other options, such as you can use other plug-ins to add box shipping at a flat rate in the future. Step 4 of

: assign shipping categories to products

in order for your shipping categories to work properly, you need to assign them to each product. If you have added products to your store, you can easily edit them.

otherwise, specify these shipping options directly when adding new products. To do this,

can find your product settings by going to Products & gt; All Products or Products & gt; Add New.

on the product settings page, scroll down to the Product data section. We only focus on the Shipping tag.

on this screen, you can choose any shipping category for the product. In this way, all of its uniform cost rules will be automatically applied to the product.

you can also add a shipping category for multiple products when editing products in bulk.

currently, this is the only two ways to specify freight categories for products. It is hoped that in the future we will be able to add products to a shipping category when editing a shipping category. Step 5 of

: test your flat rate shipping settings

after setting the flat rate freight options and freight categories, you need to test them in order to see the final results at the front end. This is especially important if you are using a staging site.

tests your uniform freight settings including confirming that the freight shown at checkout meets your specifications. To do this for

, click Visit Store on the admin panel of the WordPress dashboard and navigate to your front end.

is at the front end, add your favorite products to the shopping cart and enter the shopping cart. In the shopping cart, click Calculate shipping.

depending on your choice on the WordPress dashboard (WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping & gt; Shipping Options), this link may not be available.

enter any location in any shipping area of your store, and then click Update.

will now show all shipping methods and rates for this shipping area.

if you are satisfied with the rate shown, click “PROCEED TO CHECKOUT” and your flat rate shipping is finally set.

otherwise, you will have to go back to your WordPress dashboard and find out what went wrong.

creates a custom flat rate freight option in WooCommerce

in addition to the default WooCommerce uniform freight option we highlighted above, you can also use third-party plug-ins to add other additional features.

these plug-ins can help you provide one of the most popular tips is uniform freight box shipping. This approach involves classifying similar shopping cart items as packages or boxes with their own size and shipping requirements. The

Flat Rate Box Shipping plug-in has a “box packer” that helps you do all the relevant calculations accurately. Another very powerful plug-in for

is Advanced Flat Rate Shipping for WooCommerce, which is worth a try. It greatly expands the number of rules and conditions that you can attach to each flat rate shipping method.

for example, you can target freight for products, users, and even shopping carts (based on the number of shopping carts, the total weight of shopping carts, and the subtotal of shopping carts before and after discounts). When

discusses the best WooCommerce uniform freight plug-ins, we will introduce you to some of these additional features.

if you think you are really capable and have technical resources, you can even write your own custom shipping methods. This requires knowledge of PHP code, WordPress hooks, and transport method application programming interface (API).

Best WooCommerce Unified Freight plug-in

now that we have determined how much utility the flat rate freight plug-in can provide, let’s take a look at some of the best solutions we can recommend at any time.

1. Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Method for WooCommerce

Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Method can easily become the most powerful plug-in to extend the flat rate shipping option. From configuring conditional rules to setting time-based freight, the plug-in helps you customize your freight as intelligently as possible.

using this tool, you can provide an almost unlimited array of uniform freight conditions.

to make these conditions easily available, they are divided into seven basic groups:

• Location-based: this feature allows you to apply specific transport rules to locations within the shipping area. In this way, you can offer unique rates to buyers in a location without having to create a new shipping area. This condition can be country-based, state-based, or postcode-based. It is ideal for setting special rates for some states or cities in a country.
• Product-based: there are also situations where you want to apply a different rate each time a shopper adds a product to a shopping cart. Product-based rules are not limited to simple products. You can also add product changes, categories, labels, and inventory management units (SKU).
• Attribute-based: this option allows you to apply shipping rules to certain product attributes (such as color, size, and type) in the buyer’s shopping cart.
• User-based: here, you can limit special rates to logged-in users and other rates to guests. If you have existing user roles, such as wholesalers, contributors, and customers, you can also apply tiered freight.
• Based on shopping carts: another option is to link freight rates to conditions such as the total amount, number and weight of shopping carts before and after discounts. In addition, new rates can be applied each time a coupon is activated or a shipping category is included in the shopping cart.
• Based on payment method: whether it is PayPal or Stripe, you can apply freight rules each time the buyer chooses a specific payment method.
• Based on pricing: this last option improves WooCommerce’s advanced cost rules. Here, you can add a single product to the rule and charge freight according to the product cost.

uses this plug-in, and there is almost no limit to the flexibility you can achieve. To get these powerful features, you need to pay $99 a year with support, updates and a 30-day refund guarantee.

2. Flat Rate Box Shipping

if you plan to ship an order in a fixed-size box, there is no problem using this plug-in. One of its most popular uses is to use flat rate boxes from shipping companies such as USPS and FedEx to perform shipping tasks. After

installs and activates the plug-in, a new box section is automatically added to the flat rate shipping settings page.

then you can create the box you like and attach the total shipping cost, percentage cost or cost per kilogram.

once the shopper navigates to the checkout, the plug-in automatically reviews the shipping destination. Based on this information, it can use the box size you previously defined for the area to calculate the freight.

to ensure this is effective, it is important to accurately set the size (height, width, and length) of each product. The plug-in’s box wrapper uses a volume-based indicator to group goods into packaging. Although

packaging is mainly based on volume, you still need to set a maximum weight. The Un-packable Item Cost field allows you to set a rate for items that are too big or too heavy to accommodate all your available boxes.

the plug-in costs $49 a year and includes an one-year update and support as well as a 30-day refund guarantee.

3. Table Rate Shipping by WooCommerce

Table Rate Shipping provides similar functionality to Advanced Flat Rate Shipping Method. The focus of this tool is also to extend the default flat rate shipping option for your store. However, there are not so many transport conditions available here.

this plugin brings a new table to your shipping settings on the WordPress dashboard. The table contains ten different variables, such as the cost of goods, minimum and maximum values, and an Abort box that completely disables rates. If

is set properly, each of these variables can help you have more control over your freight calculation. The two most important columns are the Shipping class and Conditions columns.

by adding shipping categories, you can assign freight terms to multiple products that you previously grouped.

in addition, the plug-in adds a new section called “Class Priorities” to the shipping class settings page (WooCommerce & gt; Settings & gt; Shipping & gt; Shipping Classes.).

if you set your shipping class costing type to “Per order”, WooCommerce usually gives priority to the shipping category with the most expensive rates. With this plug-in in

, the freight will only be determined according to the priority you set, regardless of the freight. The higher the number, the lower the priority. The freight rule conditions available to

include the price and weight of the item, the quantity of each individual item, and the number of items in a unique freight category.

even if you are a complete novice, you will find the interface very intuitive, and you can set complex shipping rules in a short period of time.

‘s subscription program costs $99 a year, plus an one-year support and update, as well as a 30-day refund guarantee. Next in the

4. WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro

list is another table rate shipping plug-in from a different vendor, PluginHive. The main functions of the tool are quite similar. They include uniform rates and exemplary transport rules based on a set of conditions.

this product has more than 6000 installations and 97% customer satisfaction, and does a good job of effectively expanding your shipping options. The freight terms offered by

are the same as those we see from other suppliers: weight, shipping area, shipping category, product category and shopping cart.

you can also set your freight rates to be strictly product-based. In this way, you can charge a unique rate for each product. If you sell heavy products that need to be shipped separately, you will find this useful.

to achieve this seamless connection, you need WooCommerce Per Product Free Add-on. Another area where

Table rate Shipping Professional Edition brings you more benefits is in the computing model. By default,

freight calculation for WooCommerce is limited to order or shipping category.

but with this solution, you can calculate freight by commodity, breakdown, and product category. Calculating by project means that the freight for each shopping cart item is calculated separately and then the sum is added up.

, on the other hand, line-by-line calculation refers to the calculation of all quantities of freight for a particular product before calculating the next product.

for example, a buyer has ten 0.5kg T-shirts in his shopping cart. A uniform freight will be charged for 5 kg of T-shirts on a line-by-line basis.

Instead, a flat fee will be charged for 0.5 kg of freight on a piece-by-piece basis, and then multiply that figure by 10.

the plug-in also includes an export / import function for setting cross-platform shipping rules.

the supplier offers three license types for 1, 5 and 25 websites at $69, $99 and $199, respectively. You can also get an one-year update and support and a 30-day refund guarantee.

5. Per Product Shipping

Per Product Shipping extends WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro’s transportation costing model. The plug-in mainly focuses on providing the calculation type of each line item and each product.

, however, the main problem here is that these calculations are not limited to simple products. They can also be applied to variable products.

this means that you can choose to charge freight for all the variants of a particular product, or you can simply insist on charging for all quantities of the product (regardless of the variant).

this tool is mainly a single-purpose solution, you should not expect a well-designed feature. It can perform its functions effectively, and you can also get import / export functions. Using this plugin for

will cost you $79 a year, with one year of update and support, and a 30-day refund guarantee.

6. WooCommerce Distance Rate Shipping

so far, we have shown you several multi-purpose plug-ins that allow you to set freight conditions based on several standards. This tool adopts one of these conditions and describes it in detail.

through WooCommerce Distance Rate Shipping, you can set a uniform freight rate according to the distance from which the order is delivered.

you can also charge freight according to the travel time required for delivery. Other conditions include the total value of the shopping cart, the total weight and the total number of shopping cart items. To ensure the accuracy of the calculations,

integrates seamlessly with Google Maps and Google distance Matrix API. These integrations allow you to display distances to your store visitors on the shopping cart and checkout pages, as well as freight.

WooCommerce Distance Rate Shipping charges $79 for an one-year subscription, including updates, support and a 30-day refund guarantee.

FAQ

What is uniform rate transportation?

uniform rate transportation is a mode of transportation, that is, if the goods or parcels meet certain parameters, they charge a fixed and uniform fee. Uniform freight can be based on weight, volume or buyer’s location. Through this mode of transportation, you can charge a standard fee for orders of the same size, region or weight category.

Does WooCommerce support flat rate transportation?

WooCommerce supports a flat rate mode of transportation. By default, WooCommerce allows you to set uniform freight rates based on factors such as weight, package volume, and size. When setting uniform freight rates, you can apply advanced cost rules, or you can use freight categories to group your products appropriately. You can also use the WooCommerce extension to extend these functions.

Can I offer free and uniform freight in the same WooCommerce store?

you can provide free shipping and uniform freight in the same WooCommerce store. All you need to do is assign each product to a different type of transportation. In the uniform freight setting, you can specify a different freight for each freight category. Enter “0” in the freight field to provide free transportation for a transport category.

How many uniform freight options can I offer in a store?

there is no limit to the number of uniform freight options you can offer in one store. Just like other WooCommerce shipping methods, you can add as many flat rate shipping options as you want. For example, you can use names such as “priority Shipping” or “expedited Shipping” to give your customers all the flexibility they want.

Under what conditions can I set a uniform freight rate in WooCommerce?

you can set uniform freight rates in WooCommerce according to various conditions. Some of these conditions include weight, volume, and product properties. To do this, all products that meet these conditions need to be grouped into the same freight category. For better results, you can use plug-ins to automatically detect certain product features, such as weight, volume, and price, when the product is added to the shopping cart.

Summary

if you want to achieve your business goals in the field of e-commerce, you need to use every technique in the book. One of the techniques is to provide uniform freight.

your customers know how much freight they have to pay in advance, and you won’t lose any profits.

you need to set the uniform freight for WooCommerce, that is, add a shipping area, add and edit the uniform freight method, and assign freight categories appropriately to the product. It’s simple!

however, a good flat-rate shipping strategy requires you to pay attention to all its active parts.

this often involves entering the correct product size, setting the appropriate freight for each transport category, and ensuring that the boxes are packed correctly.

this may take a little time to set up, but once completed, it can greatly increase your profits

WooCommerce shipping is a very wide range of categories. To learn more about other available shipping methods, please check out our article on WooCommerce shipping options.

, do you provide uniform freight? Use any other transportation strategy to increase the conversion rate? Please tell us below!