Calculate Shipping Rates for Different Types of Products in the Cart

Calculate Shipping Rates for Different types of Product in the Cart

This article will cover how store owners can calculate the shipping rates for products of different shipping classes together. Also, in this article, we will see how the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin helps Eddie solve his confusion while shipping different products.

WooCommerce provides the option for store owners to sell a variety of products online across the globe. With such an easy approach to domestic as well as international markets, store owners can easily target a lot of buyers. Hence to get an edge over other competitors, shipping is the only area that can make a difference.


Business case

However, selling a variety of products and shipping them together can be a bit tedious sometimes. Especially when the buyers generally buy multiple products in a single order. One of the store owners came up with a similar issue where selling and shipping combined products to the buyers have become confusing.

According to Eddie,

In my case, I want shipping to be $10 for product A, $20 for product B, and so on. But I want separate shipping costs for the combined products such as products A and B = $25 shipping cost and products A and C = $35 shipping, and so on.

By using the WooCommerce Shipping Classes, Eddie can distribute his products among various groups. To be specific, these shipping classes contain products that are shipped similarly. However, he will need a plugin to calculate shipping for products among different shipping classes together.


WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro

WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin works on the concept of table rate shipping. Store owners can easily configure their shipping charges/rates with this plugin. The plugin calculates shipping rates based on the following factors,

  • Product Weight
  • Product Quantity
  • Cart Value
  • Shipping Classes
  • Destination Address (Shipping Zones, Country, Stae, City, ZIP codes, etc)
  • Product Categories

Before calculating the shipping rates, let us first take a look at Eddie’s shipping scenario.


Eddie’s Confusion…

Eddie owns an online fashion store based in Ontario, Canada. Since he sells a lot of clothes, Eddie has come up with an interesting way of boosting sales. When a buyer adds a product to the cart, his website shows all the matching accessories and footwear on the cart page.

Since Eddie has dedicated shipping rates for all product types, if the buyer adds different products to the cart, it will add the shipping cost for all product types(clothing, accessories, footwear, etc). However, Eddie doesn’t want to add up the shipping cost.

Instead, he wants a dedicated shipping cost for his shipping classes as well as for the combination of products from different shipping classes. This way if there are multiple products of different types in the cart, there will always be a dedicated shipping cost to it. Let’s see how WoCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro handles this shipping scenario.


Calculating shipping rates for Combined Products

Now since we are clear with the shipping scenario, let us create a perfect shipping solution for Eddie. To do that you need to follow the steps below.

Create Shipping Classes

Before jumping straight into configuring the plugin, the first step is to analyze the products and divide it into different shipping classes. Since Eddie has his products divided, he needs to create the following shipping classes.

  • Clothing
  • Accessories
  • Footwear

The image below will show you the shipping classes along with the product count.

Eddie's shipping classes

Configure Plugin Settings

Now since we are done with the shipping classes, let’s start with configuring the plugin. After installing and activating the plugin successfully, go to the Settings tab. You will find all the important plugin settings under that tab. The first thing to do is to enable the ‘Enable/Disable‘ option. This option will allow the shipping rates from the plugin to display on the cart page.

Enable shipping method

After enabling the shipping method on the cart page, we need to enable the ‘Calculate AND logic‘. This is one of the important features of the plugin. Using this option, store owners can club the products of multiple shipping classes together and create shipping rules for them in one go. Hence, when the combined products from different shipping classes come on the cart page, the shipping rates will be calculated for the combined products from all the shipping classes.

AND logic

Now we need to select the Matrix Columns for the shipping rules. The image below will show you the columns that we will be needing in this scenario.

Display Matrix column

Let us now start with the shipping rules.


Create Shipping Rules

Based on Eddie’s shipping scenario, he has separate shipping rates for his shipping classes. The following table shows the shipping rates in the case of Eddie.

Eddie's rules

Once the shipping rules are created it will look something like the image below.

Eddie's rules as a table

Since we are all done with the shipping rules, let us go to the cart page and check whether the rates are coming correctly or not.

Check the cart page

We will be checking for the following scenarios,

  • Products of Shipping Class Clothes
    Shipping rates for Eddie
  • Products of Shipping Class Accessories
    Shipping rates2
  • Products of Shipping Class Footwear
    Shipping rates3
  • Combined Products of Shipping Class Clothes and Accessories
    Shipping rates 4
  • Combined Products of Shipping Class Footwear and Accessories
    Shipping rates 5
  • Combined Products of Shipping Class Clothes and Footwear
    Shipping rates 6
  • Combined products from All the Shipping Classes together
    Shipping rates 7Shipping Rates for products from All shipping classes

For your convenience, here is an attached video showing the step by step tutorials to configure shipping rates for combined products from different shipping classes.


Summary

So this article is all about how the store owners can categorize the products based on the shipping, into different shipping classes. Moreover, this article covers the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin for calculating the shipping cost based on a very interesting shipping scenario.

While dividing the products int multiple shipping classes, there are chances that those products might come together in the cart. In such cases, store owners may face serious confusion regarding which shipping rules to follow. WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro allows store owners to create shipping rules for dedicated shipping classes.

However, it goes one step beyond by clubbing multiple shipping classes together in a single shipping rule. This way if products from more than one shipping class appear in the cart, there is always a shipping rule for that scenario.


If you have any queries regarding the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin and its features, I request you to please visit the plugin’s official product page here. There you will find all the information regarding the plugin, its features as well as pricing.

If you have any queries regarding the article and the plugin’s configuration, feel free to share your views in the comment section below. And if you need more help then kindly contact our customer support. Our support team should be able to help you set up shipping on your WooCommerce store.