How to Set Shipping Rates based on Product Categories Using the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin?

In this article, we will show you how to set shipping rates based on product categories using WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin.  We will discuss the real-life business case and will show you how to set the shipping rule.

Set up WooCommerce shipping rates based on product categories

You can easily set shipping rates based on product categories using WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Plugin. Let’s check out a unique business of one of our customers and see how this plugin can fulfill it.

I’m a little confused on how to set up my different shipping rates.

Scenario: The client is selling both turf (per m2) and turf products.

1. Turf shipping is calculated based on what city they come from which is already set up and works perfectly.
2. Turf Products shipping is either Flat Rate ($5.00) or Local Pickup (Free), which works perfectly also.

Problem: If the customer buys both Turfs and a Turf Product, I need to be able to charge the Turf shipping (based on the city) and the shipping for any Turf Products that are in the cart too.

Is this fairly easy to implement using your plugin?

The WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro is one of the best plugins to set shipping rate at a cart page for the complex business scenarios. You can set the table rate such a way that you can calculate shipping rates based on the product categories.

In the given business case, when both Turf and Turf products are in the cart, the shipping the rates of Turf and Turf products should be added together and shown.

Here, since the rules are based on Product category, you have to set the “Calculation mode” to “Calculate shipping cost per category“.

calculation

Now, head to the plugin settings and add “Product category” to the matrix column from the drop-down list.

Matrix

Head to the shipping rules and set the rules as shown below.

Rules

In the above example, you can see that there are two products which come under different product categories. The cost of the product can be given accordingly. Now, once both the products are added to the cart, the total cost will be displayed as shown below.

cart

You can see that the base cost of both the products has been added and displayed at the cart page.

Limit shipping for certain products at the Checkout

Let’s say a customer wants to notify his customers that they cannot order certain products under one shipment. That’s because, some of those products are being shipped from another country. Let’s see how the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin handles such a shipping scenario.

My store offers two different categories, one for international shipment and another for delivery to only one city. So my concern is that when for instance a customer picks one product from the first category and another from the second category will he get a message telling him that he can not combine those two like he should order them separately? Is there a way for me to add the message that will be displayed when the customer tries that?

Some products for international shipping will be shipped from a different country so I also want to know if the plugin will notify the customer he/she can not order these products under one shipment?

The WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro plugin can calculate shipping cost based on different product categories, as shown below.

screenshot-wordpress-165470-896930.cloudwaysapps.com-2020.07.20-18_06_41

When the domestic products are there in cart, the plugin will calculate the shipping cost as shown below.

screenshot-wordpress-165470-896930.cloudwaysapps.com-2020.07.20-17_59_56

Similarly, when the international products are there in the cart, the plugin will dispay the shipping cost, as shown below.

screenshot-wordpress-165470-896930.cloudwaysapps.com-2020.07.20-18_01_10

Whne products from both the categories are added together in the cart the plugin will not return any rates and default “No Shipping Method” available text will be displayed, as shown below.

screenshot-wordpress-165470-896930.cloudwaysapps.com-2020.07.20-18_00_24

The plugin can help you customize the default text when multiple category products available in the cart.

Similarly, you can provide a different category for International products which shipped from different countries.

Conclusion

And that’s how you set the shipping cost based on the product categories using the WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro Plugin. We hope this guide would have helped you configure your business case as well. Check out WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping Pro for more information and features and understand the benefits of using table rate shipping.

If you have any doubts or need help setting up Tabel rate shipping on your WooCommerce-based website then feel free to Contact PluginHive Customer Support. Our support team should be able to help you out.