Choose Right FedEx Shipping Method for WooCommerce Store

choose right fedex shipping method for woocommerce store

WooCommerce is a wonderful eCommerce platform that allows shop owners to add shipping plugins that simplify the shipping process. They can add some of the best shipping services like FedEx which is known for their world-class delivery services. They deliver shipments to a large range of regions across the world. This allows store owners to expand their business to a much greater audience and eventually make a lot of money. While everything seems to sound good, in reality, there are some WooCommerce store owners who face difficulties while choosing the appropriate FedEx shipping method for their orders.

Conveniently, the solution to this issue depends on the store owner’s shipping situation and a shipping plugin that can help them configure their WooCommerce store accordingly, and achieve the predicted results. A plugin that allows them to modify, configure and set up their WooCommerce shipping capabilities according to their requirement will result in a profitable business scenario.

Now if you take a closer look at the shipping scenarios, the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin makes a better choice and can fit into almost all business situations. And in this article, we have made an effort to show you how to choose the right shipping methods based on your need and how this plugin will help you do that. Let’s begin now.


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Understanding FedEx Shipping Method

Currently, FedEx offers a comprehensive range of services to more than 220 countries and territories. These services vary on the basis of the location and region. For example, services like the FedEx Standard Overnight works in domestic countries but does not work in the United Kingdom regions. Let us try to understand this in a better way.

Below is an image that shows the different FedEx services in some parts of the world. If you take a closer look, you would notice that there are only three services available in Madagascar while there are five services in South Africa. This means that you can choose a certain service that is valid for some other region but not valid for your region.


FedEx Services across the world

Another important thing to note is that some countries like Bolivia do not have postal codes. This is one of the reasons why some FedEx Services might not work in particular countries. Similarly, there are other important parameters that determine the shipping services in a particular region.

The kind of service will also depend upon the physical dimension of the package. There are certain rules that define whether a package would be selected as Freight or would be delivered as a normal order. For instance, if your shipment qualifies as LTL (less-than-truckload), then you would need to select the Freight options available for that particular service.


Role of WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin

The WooCommerce FedEx Shipping Plugin offers a huge list of shipping methods when compared to other FedEx Shipping plugins. This means that you can ship to almost all the countries and regions in your country. Following is the list of all the shipping services offered by this plugin:

Domestic Services:

  • First Overnight
  • Priority Overnight
  • Standard Overnight
  • FedEx 2 day am
  • FedEx 2 day
  • FedEx Express Saver
  • Ground Home Delivery
  • FedEx Ground
  • FedEx First Freight
  • FedEx Freight Economy
  • FedEx Freight Priority
  • Smart Post (if enabled on account)

United Kingdom-specific shipping services:

  • FedEx Distance Deferred
  • FedEx Next Day Early Morning
  • FedEx Next Day Mid Morning
  • FedEx Next Day Afternoon
  • FedEx Next Day End of Day
  • FedEx Next Day Freight

International shipping services:

  • International Economy
  • International First
  • International Priority
  • Europe First International Priority
  • FedEx 1 day freight
  • FedEx 2 day freight
  • FedEx 3 day freight
  • International Economy Freight
  • International Priority Freight
  • FedEx Freight
  • FedEx National Freight
  • International Ground

However, it is important to understand that these services depend on FedEx rules and regulations. You would not be able to see all the services even if you have chosen to offer all the services in the plugin. This is the reason why you should always check the FedEx rate calculator as it gives you enough details on the services available for a particular shipping location. You will also get approximate quotes on the various shipping rates available.


Choose any FedEx Services

In the WooCommerce FedEx plugin, you can choose and define your custom boxes which lets you ship the products that do not go with the official FedEx boxes. Again, the FedEx services may change for the custom boxes as the weight and dimensions of the custom packaging might cost more or less.


Configure FedEx Shipping Methods based on your need

FedEx Ground is one of the most famous and efficient shipping services offered by FedEx. They use FedEx Ground for commercial (business address) deliveries and FedEx Ground Home Delivery for Deliveries to residential addresses. Please note that the FedEx API picks up the value GROUND_HOME_DELIVERY for the residential Ground deliveries and thus the plugin works accordingly. Regardless of the service name, this plugin allows you to change or define your own custom shipping names to avoid confusion.

fedex_home_delivery_rates_at_checkout

In the image given above, you can see that we have defined the GROUND_HOME_DELIVERY with FedEx Home Delivery. However, this feature does not affect the shipping rates on the Cart/Checkout page.


You can check out the following video that shows you how to offer FedEx Home delivery for residential addresses.


Hiding shipping method on the Cart/Checkout page

If you combine the WooCommerce FedEx Shipping plugin with the Hide Shipping Methods Based on Shipping Class and Zone, then you would be able to show only the shipping services that you would want to offer. This is a small but nifty plugin that might help you implement a particular business scenario. For example, if the FedEx Priority Overnight rate is higher in Georgia, but is comparatively cheaper in the New York region then you can define the shipping zones in the Hide Shipping Methods plugin accordingly. This way when a customer from Georgia selects a particular product, he or she would not be able to see that service. However, a customer from New York would be able to choose this service and buy the product.

The plugin also allows you to change the shipping service for an order that has been placed. So, even if the order chosen by the customer is not favorable for you, you can change it at a later stage.

For more information, please read: How to Hide WooCommerce Shipping Methods?


FedEx packages

As you can see in the image above you have the option to choose a service. However, the FedEx rule would apply here as well and thus, you cannot choose an invalid service to create the shipment.


Final thoughts…

In order to completely understand how this plugin handles the various FedEx shipping services, you would have to test it yourself. You can try the FedEx Demo and check out all the features that affect the shipping services.

We hope this article would have helped you in some way. Do let us know in the comment section below if you have any further issues.