Saving shipping costs is one thing and delivering packages safely is another. Most sellers end up using the wrong service for a very long time until they realize it’s not good for them. But truth be told, it’s kind of hard to find the right balance between both aspects. Which is why going with a reputed and suggested shipping service seems the safer path, and what better than FedEx Express? In this guide, we’ll help you choose the right FedEx Express service for your business which would also help you save some money. You can also use this guide to integrate FedEx Express services into your WooCommerce website. So let’s begin.
What is FedEx Express Service?
FedEx Express is the most popular FedEx service after FedEx Ground and is an important part of the FedEx Network. This service is solely responsible for delivering packages within the U.S. and outside, adding a staggering 36.2 billion in annual revenue. Here are a few interesting facts about this service.
- Covers each and every street address in the United States
- Deliver all kinds of packages to more than 220 countries and territories with access to over 650 airports worldwide
- Offers to ship on both priority and economy rates
A little history about FedEx Express: FedEx Express has its main headquaters in Memphis, Tennesse, and several others spread accross various countries. The first evolution of FedEx’s identity came in 1994 when Federal Express officially adopted “FedEx” as its primary brand, taking a cue from its customers, who frequently referred to the company by the shortened name. The second evolution came in 2000 when the company was renamed FedEx Express to reflect its position in the overall FedEx Corp. portfolio of services. This also signified the expanding breadth of the service offerings specific to FedEx Express, as well as further positioning FedEx as an express carrier.
What are the services supported by FedEx Express?
The normal (less than 150 Lbs) FedEx Express shipping services handle over 6 million packages daily. While their Freight services deliver more than 30 million pounds of Freight shipments every single day. Those are huge numbers. The delivery and management of the packages are carried out by a variety of FedEx Express shipping services. The division of these services depends upon the nature of the package and route (domestic or international). So if a parcel needs to be delivered within the United States then any domestic service can be used to execute the delivery. The same goes for international shipments and Freight shipments, where you have certain specific services to carry out the process. Since it can be quite confusing to figure out which ones fall under FedEx Express and which ones don’t, we have listed out the complete list of services below.
For Normal (Non-Freight) Shipments:
| Domestic services | International services |
| FedEx SameDay | FedEx International Next Flight |
| FedEx First Overnight | FedEx International First |
| FedEx Priority Overnight | FedEx International Priority |
| FedEx Standard Overnight | FedEx International Economy |
| FedEx 2Day AM | FedEx International MailService |
| FedEx 2Day | FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution |
| FedEx Express Saver | FedEx International Economy DirectDistribution |
For Freight Shipments:
| Domestic services | International services |
| FedEx SameDay Freight | FedEx International Next Flight |
| FedEx First Overnight Freight | FedEx International Priority Freight |
| FedEx 1Day Freight | FedEx International Economy Freight |
| FedEx 2Day Freight | FedEx International Premium |
| FedEx 3Day Freight | FedEx International Airport-to-Airport |
| FedEx Charters | FedEx Charters |
| FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution Freight | |
| FedEx International Economy DirectDistribution Freight | |
| FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution Air Solutions |
What are the benefits of using FedEx Express services?
Each FedEx Express service is designed to deliver packages in its own way. One service takes a longer time to deliver a package while another delivers it in just one day. So it’s better to understand which service suits you the best and which does not. Let’s go through each one of them.
Non-Freight FedEx Express services
| Non-Freight Services | Features |
| FedEx SameDay |
|
| FedEx First Overnight |
|
| FedEx Priority Overnight |
|
| FedEx Standard Overnight |
|
| FedEx 2Day AM |
|
| FedEx 2Day |
|
| FedEx Express Saver |
|
| FedEx International Next Flight |
|
| FedEx International First |
|
| FedEx International Priority |
|
| FedEx International Economy |
|
| FedEx International MailService |
|
| FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution |
|
| FedEx International Economy DirectDistribution |
|
Freight FedEx Express services
| Freight Services | Features |
| FedEx SameDay Freight |
|
| FedEx First Overnight Freight |
|
| FedEx 1Day Freight |
|
| FedEx 2Day Freight |
|
| FedEx 3Day Freight |
|
| FedEx Charters |
|
| FedEx International Next Flight |
|
| FedEx International Priority Freight |
|
| FedEx International Economy Freight |
|
| FedEx International Premium |
|
| FedEx International Airport-to-Airport |
|
| FedEx Charters (for Freight) |
|
| FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution Freight |
|
| FedEx International Economy DirectDistribution Freight |
|
| FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution Air Solutions |
|
Which is the cheapest FedEx Express service?
Since we have the list of services with us, finding out the cheapest service will be easy thereon. All you need is a standard package to compare the shipping rates from all the services. Before we begin, it would be great if we consider the two cases again where we divided the services based on freight and non-freight packages. But in this case, we will further compare the rates based on domestic and international services. In the case of non-freight shipping, we are going to take a sample package of 3 Lbs. For the domestic shipment, we are going to ship from New York to Atlanta. And for the international shipment, we are going to ship from New York to Edinburgh, U.K.
Cheapest non-freight domestic FedEx Express service
Cheapest non-freight international FedEx Express service
In the case of freight, we have considered the total weight of the package(s) as 160 Lbs. For the domestic shipment, we are going to ship from New York to Atlanta. And for the international shipment, we are going to ship from New York to Edinburgh, U.K. This should give you an idea of the estimated shipping rates.
Cheapest freight domestic FedEx Express service
Cheapest freight international FedEx Express service
Does WooCommerce support FedEx Express Services?
No. WooCommerce doesn’t have the necessary features to either set up or show FedEx Express services. With the help of the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin, you can add this feature. So you will be able to configure your FedEx account, have live shipping rates (corresponding FedEx Express services) appear on the storefront, generate and print shipping labels for your shipments, and display real-time order tracking to your customers. Here are a few things you should know about the plugin:
WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin with Print Label
The WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin with Print Label is the #1 FedEx shipping plugin for WooCommerce store owners. It is an automated shipping solution that provides,
- Live FedEx Shipping Rates for domestic as well as international shipments
- Support for FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx SmartPost, and FedEx SameDay shipping services
- One-Click FedEx Label Generation and Download for Bulk Orders
- Live FedEx Shipment Tracking from within the WooCommerce store
- Support for Commercial Invoices and FedEx Pickups
Read more about the amazing features of the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin.
What are the things you need to get started?
Since you will be using the FedEx services online, you need to get an online account. There are two types of FedEx accounts—Developer account and Production account. The developer account allows you to test the packages in a testing scenario. FedEx won’t generate any order and you can print as many labels as you wish. If you need to get your hands on the FedEx developer credentials, then check out the guide. A production account, on the other, is something we call a live account. Basically using this type of account, you can order a shipment delivery from FedEx and print shipping labels. Please note that you will be charged by FedEx for the shipments and labels. In order to get the FedEx Production Credentials for your FedEx Account, you need to create an account (if not done) and get yourself a set of credentials. Here’s how you get the credentials for your FedEx account.
How to configure FedEx Express services on your WooCommerce store?
Once you have installed the FedEx shipping plugin on your WooCommerce, you need to further enter the FedEx credentials. Have a look at the following image.
How to show FedEx Express services on the Cart/Checkout page?
As soon as you finish configuring the plugin with your account, you need to go to the Rates & Services tab and scroll down to the list of services. Here you can select the services you want and disable services you don’t want to be displayed on the Cart/Checkout page.
Now let’s go to the Cart page and try placing a domestic order. We are using the FedEx Priority Overnight service in order to ship this sample item.
How to generate packages for FedEx Express services from your WooCommerce back-end?
The process is quite simple. Once your customer places an order, WooCommerce will notify you with a New-order email. When you go to your order page, you should be able to see the new order. When you go in this order, you should be able to see the following screen.
As you can see in the image above, the order contains the shipping service name right under the product name “Stuffed Toy“. As mentioned before the FedEx Express shipping service we are using is the FedEx Priority Overnight. The corresponding shipping rate can be seen next to it. You can scroll below and click on Generate Package which will generate the package and show the further option to create the shipment. Have a look at the following image.
Here, you can enable the Saturday Delivery option which will enable the Saturday delivery for this service. You can even add enable the Cash On Delivery option and add additional packages to the order if required. These features are really useful when creating orders and can save a lot of your time.
How to print shipping labels for your FedEx Express packages?
Once you have reviewed your order and generated the packages successfully, you can now click on Create Shipment. Doing this will place an order in your FedEx account requesting to deliver this order. FedEx, in return, will validate the request and if everything is good, they will give you the corresponding shipping label(s). You can now print the shipping label by clicking on the Print Label option as shown in the image below. Also note that you have the option to Void the shipment, which can be used when you want to cancel an order.
Now if your customers need to send the package back to you for some reason (like product repairs and damages) then you can print the Return labels as well. For that, you can click on the Generate Return Label and FedEx will send you the return shipping label right there. Here’s the sample label generated.
How to print the labels for international and freight shipments?
The procedure of generating and printing the shipping labels for international order is the same as for domestic shipments. The only difference is that you need to have valid Commercial Invoice along with your shipping label. And you also need to enable the services in the Services list as we did before.
When you go into the plugin settings, you see the Commercial invoice option under the Label Generation tab. Enable this option and add in the images for your company logo and delivery signature. So here’s what the Cart page would look like when you have an international customer.
Coming to the important here, once you create the shipment for an international order, you can print both the shipping label and commercial invoice. As you can see in the image below, you need to click on both the options—Print label and Additional Label.
Once you do that, the plugin will download the labels. Here are the sample images for you to check.
International shipping label
Commercial invoice
What about FedEx Express Freight shipping?
In order to ship and print freight shipments, you need a special account to do that. Thereafter, once you have the account details, you can enter them in the plugin settings and then enable the FedEx Express Freight services which you would like to be displayed on the Cart/Checkout page. Here’s an article on FedEx Freight Shipping with WooCommerce. It covers all the necessary information regarding this topic and we recommend you check it out.
There are a few FedEx Express services that allow shipping spirit, alcohol, and wines. If your business deals with these items then you should check out the article on How to Legally Ship Alcohol Products via FedEx.
Other benefits of using WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin?
The plugin is packed with a lot more features and services which store owners can make use to enhance their business sales. Here are a few more features this plugin offers.
- Bulk shipment creation and label generation
- Choose parcel packing method—Weight-based, individual parcel packing, and packing based on both weight and dimensions
- Add handling charges
- Add insurance
- Ship dangerous and hazardous goods; items containing dry ice
- Ship alcohol products
- Support for FedEx SmartPost and FedEx One Rate
Conclusion
This article covers FedEx Express services and their functionality. It also covers how you can make the best use of FedEx Freight for your WooCommerce store using the WooCommerce FedEx Shiping plugin with Print Label. The plugin is the best tool to accomplish all your shipping needs with ease. It covers all the FedEx shipping services availability, live shipping rate calculation, label generation within the WooCommerce store, live shipment tracking, and much more! If you have any queries regarding this article or the integration of the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin, feel free to share your views in the comment section below. We will be more than happy to help you understand how this plugin can work together in fulfilling your shipping requirements. And if you have any queries regarding the plugin or WooCommerce shipping then feel free to contact our customer support. They should be able to help you out.
